Vessels & jars
Continuous brewing is less work than batch brewing and more hardware. Getting the vessel right the first time is most of the decision.
By Scooter M.·Published September 1, 2026
The short answer
Buy between 2 and 5 gallons, with a stainless spigot, and measure the height with the stand against your cabinet clearance before ordering. Kombucha Kamp is explicit that a one-gallon jar is not a good continuous-brew vessel; the residual liquid has to be enough to stay acidic after every draw.
You never empty the vessel. You draw off perhaps a quarter of it through the tap, top it back up with fresh sweetened tea, and let it carry on. The culture stays where it is, the liquid stays acidic, and there is kombucha available every day instead of every fortnight.
The mechanism that makes it safe is dilution arithmetic. In a batch brew the starter tea you pour in is what acidifies the fresh sweet tea. In a continuous brew, the liquid already in the vessel does that job — so the amount you leave behind has to be large enough, relative to what you add, to keep the pH down. Take a gallon out of a two-gallon vessel and top it up, and half the liquid is now fresh sweet tea. Take a quart out of the same vessel and you have barely moved it.
Kombucha Kamp recommends 2 to 5 gallons for continuous brew and states that a 1-gallon jar such as a sun tea jar is not a good choice. That is not conservatism. It is the same arithmetic: at one gallon, any useful draw is a large fraction of the vessel.
| Vessel | Capacity | Material | Spigot | Height w/ stand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kombucha Kamp stoneware | ~2.5 gal | US handmade stoneware | Stainless | Not stated |
| Kombucha Kamp glass | ~2.2 gal | Glass | Stainless | 18 in |
| Kombucha Kamp porcelain | ~2.2 gal | Lead-free porcelain | PP5, stainless option | 17 in |
| Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill | 2 gal | Glass | None | 13 3/8 in, no stand |
Height with the stand, not the vessel height. A continuous brewer sits on a stand so the tap clears a bottle, and that adds four or five inches. The glass brewer is 13 in as a vessel and 18 in on its stand. Standard kitchen wall cabinets sit around 18 in above the counter — so that vessel will not go under one, and you also need clearance above it to lift the cover and get a hand in.
Measure the gap first. All three makers publish the number, which makes this the most avoidable mistake in the whole category.
The largest published capacity, the one you can see into, and the tapless route for someone who would rather ladle than maintain a spigot.
Kombucha Kamp
Roughly 2.5 gallons of US-made handmade stoneware with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here whose dimensions are given as a range because each one is thrown by hand.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Kombucha Kamp
About 2.2 gallons of glass on an acacia stand with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here where you can see the pellicle, the yeast strands and the fill line at a glance.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Anchor Hocking
Two gallons of glass whose diameter and height are both published to the eighth of an inch — the rare vessel you can check against a shelf before you buy it.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
Nothing about continuous brewing requires a spigot. A two-gallon jar with a wide mouth works perfectly: you ladle or siphon out what you want and top the vessel back up. It is slightly more work per draw and considerably less work per clean, because there is no tap to disassemble.
The Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill 2-gallon is on this page for exactly that reason. It has no spigot and no way to add one, and it publishes every external dimension — 9 in top diameter, 9 3/8 in maximum, 13 3/8 in tall — which almost nothing else in this category does.
Heads up: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes a ranking, and we take no payment for placement. The full version.
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 Kombucha Kamp USA Handmade Stoneware Continuous Brewer Crock Roughly 2.5 gallons of US-made handmade stoneware with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here whose dimensions are given as a range because each one is thrown by hand. | The largest published capacity | 8.3out of 10 | |
| 2 | Score8.5 Kombucha Kamp Glass Continuous Brewer with Stand About 2.2 gallons of glass on an acacia stand with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here where you can see the pellicle, the yeast strands and the fill line at a glance. | Watching the culture work | 8.5out of 10 | |
| 3 | Score8.0 Kombucha Kamp Modern Porcelain Continuous Brewer with Stand Certified lead-free porcelain at about 2.2 gallons, opaque so the culture sits in the dark, with a PP5 spigot as standard and a stainless upgrade offered. | Keeping light off a long ferment | 8.0out of 10 | |
| 4 | Score9.1 Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill 2 Gallon Glass Jar with Glass Lid Two gallons of glass whose diameter and height are both published to the eighth of an inch — the rare vessel you can check against a shelf before you buy it. | Scaling up on published dimensions | 9.1out of 10 |
#1 · The largest published capacity
Roughly 2.5 gallons of US-made handmade stoneware with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here whose dimensions are given as a range because each one is thrown by hand.
Who it is for. A committed continuous brewer with counter space, who wants the biggest published capacity and a stainless tap in the box.
Source: Kombucha Kamp published crock specifications (capacity, height and shoulder-width ranges, stainless spigot), kombuchakamp.com/usa-handmade-stoneware-continuous-brewer-crock.html, retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You measure your shelf to the inch. A vessel whose height can be 12 in or 14 in is not the one to buy for a tight gap.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#2 · Watching the culture work
About 2.2 gallons of glass on an acacia stand with a stainless spigot, and the only vessel here where you can see the pellicle, the yeast strands and the fill line at a glance.
Who it is for. A continuous brewer who wants to see what is happening, and who has an open shelf or an island to put it on.
Source: Kombucha Kamp published vessel specifications (capacity, vessel and stand heights, spigot material), kombuchakamp.com/glass-continuous-brewer.html, retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. Your only free counter is under a cabinet. At 18 in with the stand you will not get the cover off, let alone the pellicle out.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#3 · Keeping light off a long ferment
Certified lead-free porcelain at about 2.2 gallons, opaque so the culture sits in the dark, with a PP5 spigot as standard and a stainless upgrade offered.
Who it is for. An established continuous brewer who has stopped needing to look, and wants the culture in the dark.
Source: Kombucha Kamp published vessel specifications (capacity, dimensions, porcelain and PP5 spigot materials, finishes), kombuchakamp.com/modern-porcelain-continuous-brewer-deluxe-package.html, retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You are new to kombucha. A beginner benefits enormously from seeing the pellicle form and from spotting mold early, and an opaque vessel takes that away.
#ad No live price feed yet, so no number is shown rather than a stale one. How this is funded.
#4 · Scaling up on published dimensions
Two gallons of glass whose diameter and height are both published to the eighth of an inch — the rare vessel you can check against a shelf before you buy it.
Who it is for. Someone scaling past a gallon who would rather measure a shelf than guess, and who does not mind pouring.
Source: Anchor Hocking 69372 published dimensions via foodservice distributor spec sheets (top, bottom and maximum diameter, height), retrieved 2026-09-01
Skip it if. You want a tap. This jar has no spigot and no safe way to add one; buy a vessel built with a valve instead.
#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.
Jars compared on published dimensions, spigot grade and mouth width — plus the materials that do not belong near kombucha at all.
Which brewing jars publish their valve grade, why 304 stainless is the number that matters, and when a spigot is the wrong idea.
Visibility against light protection, weight against thermal stability, and the lead question — with published specs for both materials.
Batch size to jar size to bottles filled, with the headroom and surface-area rules that decide whether a vessel works.
Why a one-gallon kit cannot run continuous brew, and the published capacities and heights of three vessels that can.