Guides
Twenty minutes, seven bottles, and two decisions that decide how the batch turns out.
By Scooter M.·Published September 1, 2026
The short answer
Reserve about a tenth of the batch plus the pellicle for the next round. Bottle the rest in pressure-rated bottles, with an inch of headroom and a spoonful of fruit or juice per bottle if you want carbonation. Seal, leave one to five days, refrigerate.
Have everything out first, because once you begin pouring you do not want to be hunting for a funnel with a jug of kombucha in one hand. You need: your bottles, clean and dry; a jar for the reserved starter tea and the pellicle; a funnel, ideally with a mesh insert; and whatever fruit or juice you are adding.
Test the pH one last time if you are keeping records. Finished kombucha usually lands between 3.0 and 3.5, and a narrow-range strip gives you a real reading rather than an impression.
Do this before you bottle anything, not after. It is easy to fill one bottle too many and then find yourself short of starter tea, at which point the next batch begins with thin protection.
Take about a tenth of the batch — roughly 13 oz from a gallon — into a separate jar, along with the pellicle. That is your next batch's starter, and it is the same 10 percent rule culture suppliers publish. Why the liquid matters more than the disc.
| Strained | Unstrained | |
|---|---|---|
| In the glass | Clear, no strands | Yeast strands visible |
| Carbonation | Slightly slower — less yeast in the bottle | Slightly faster |
| Sediment in the bottle | Minimal | Settles at the bottom |
| Effort | A funnel with a mesh insert | None |
Straining removes some of the yeast, which is what does the work in the second ferment — so a heavily strained batch carbonates a little more slowly. Neither approach is wrong, and most people strain because they prefer the look of the finished drink.
Sixteen ounces is one serving, which is why it is the standard. The quart halves the number of bottles to fill; the liter is for storing what is already finished.
EZ Cap
The only bottle here with a published pressure rating — 100 PSI — in amber glass, which is the combination a second ferment actually asks for.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
EZ Cap
The same swing top and amber glass at quart size, which turns a gallon batch into six bottles instead of ten and roughly halves the bottling job.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Bormioli Rocco
Italian soda-lime glass with a published height and diameter and a hermetic clamp seal — the bottle that looks like a bottle, with the dimensions to check it fits a fridge door.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Leave the sealed bottles at room temperature, out of direct sun, for one to five days. Include one food-grade PET plastic bottle as a pressure tester — when it goes rock hard, the batch is carbonated and the whole lot goes in the fridge. Second fermentation covers the timing and the variables.
If you are not carbonating at all, skip this: refrigerate straight away and the bottles are simply storage.
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Ranked on the published rubric. Every row jumps to that product's full write-up below; the button goes straight to Amazon.
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Score8.3 EZ Cap Swing Top Bottles, Amber Glass, 16 oz (Case of 12) The only bottle here with a published pressure rating — 100 PSI — in amber glass, which is the combination a second ferment actually asks for. | Second ferment, one serving at a time | 8.3out of 10 | |
| 2 | Score7.8 EZ Cap Swing Top Bottles, Amber Glass, 32 oz (Case of 12) The same swing top and amber glass at quart size, which turns a gallon batch into six bottles instead of ten and roughly halves the bottling job. | Bottling a gallon in six moves | 7.8out of 10 | |
| 3 | Score8.0 Bormioli Rocco Swing Top Bottle, 33.75 oz (1 L) Italian soda-lime glass with a published height and diameter and a hermetic clamp seal — the bottle that looks like a bottle, with the dimensions to check it fits a fridge door. | A bottle you would put on a table | 8.0out of 10 | |
| 4 | Score8.8 Micro Essential Lab Hydrion 9200 Spectral pH Strips, 0.0-6.0 A 0.0 to 6.0 range in 0.5 steps, which puts four separate color matches inside the 2.5 to 3.5 window kombucha lives in — a 1-to-14 strip gives you one. | Reading kombucha’s actual pH band | 8.8out of 10 |
#1 · Second ferment, one serving at a time
The only bottle here with a published pressure rating — 100 PSI — in amber glass, which is the combination a second ferment actually asks for.
Who it is for. Anyone doing a second ferment who wants a bottle with a number behind it rather than a shape that looks strong.
Source: MoreBeer published EZ Cap product specification (capacity, pressure rating, case contents, crown cap compatibility), morebeer.com/products/ez-cap-swing-top-bottles-amber-glass-16-oz-case-12, fetched 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You want to see the color of the finished drink. Amber hides it; the clear version of the same bottle does not.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#2 · Bottling a gallon in six moves
The same swing top and amber glass at quart size, which turns a gallon batch into six bottles instead of ten and roughly halves the bottling job.
Who it is for. An established brewer bottling a gallon a week who is tired of filling ten bottles.
Source: MoreBeer published EZ Cap 32 oz amber listing, same product line as the specified 16 oz, morebeer.com/products/ez-cap-swing-top-bottles-amber-glass-32-oz-case-12, retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You are new to second ferment. Learn what your kitchen does to carbonation in 16 oz bottles, where the consequences are smaller.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#3 · A bottle you would put on a table
Italian soda-lime glass with a published height and diameter and a hermetic clamp seal — the bottle that looks like a bottle, with the dimensions to check it fits a fridge door.
Who it is for. Someone bottling a lightly carbonated kombucha for the table, or storing finished kombucha in the fridge rather than conditioning it on a counter.
Source: Bormioli Rocco published Swing bottle specification (capacity, 12.13 in height, 3.5 in diameter, soda-lime glass, hermetic seal, care instructions), retailer specification listings retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You are chasing hard carbonation. Without a stated pressure rating, a bottle you are deliberately building pressure inside is a bottle you are guessing about — use the rated EZ Cap instead.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#4 · Reading kombucha’s actual pH band
A 0.0 to 6.0 range in 0.5 steps, which puts four separate color matches inside the 2.5 to 3.5 window kombucha lives in — a 1-to-14 strip gives you one.
Who it is for. Every kombucha brewer. This is the cheapest instrument on the site and the one that answers the safety question.
Source: Micro Essential Lab published product specification (range, 0.5 graduations, 100 strips per vial, packaging), microessentiallab.com/product/hydrion-9200-spectral-0-0-6-0-plastic-ph-strip, fetched 2026-09-01. Strip length from retailer listings.
Skip it if. You need a number to one decimal place for a written record. Buy a calibrated pH meter; strips are for reading a band, not a value.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Every specification cited on this page came from one of these documents, retrieved on the date shown against the product it belongs to.
The recipe, the timeline, the failures and the safety questions — answered directly, in the order a home brewer meets them.
What the second ferment is, how much sugar to add, how long it takes, and how to know when to refrigerate without opening every bottle.
How many bottles a gallon fills at each size, and the real trade-off: fewer bottles to fill against faster loss of fizz once opened.
Which swing tops publish a pressure rating, which are storage bottles wearing the same shape, and how to tell them apart before you fill them.
The full one-gallon method with real ratios, temperatures and timings — what to buy, what to do each day, and what the two fermentations are for.