Starting Out: J’s Kombucha, St Paul, Minnesota

This is the eighth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. While J’s Kombucha was established over two years ago, the podcast interview shares interesting details about the early days of the business. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way, and their story has lessons for us all. Allergy solution Jason Wagner became interested in kombucha over a decade ago when he discovered it helped progressively alleviate his oldest son’s severe allergies. Having learned of the allergy-immune system connection, I had reason to believe strengthening his gut health would improve his immune system, and this in turn would hopefully lead to less severe allergic reactions. Since he was allergic to dairy and other common foods that naturally contain probiotics, I needed to find an alternative source that a picky four-year-old would also enjoy – the answer was kombucha! We started brewing kombucha that spring and by the end of the year my son’s allergic reactions had begun to fade from our daily routine. Tests would later reveal he had shed all but a handful of his allergies. While kombucha isn’t an antidote for those who suffer from severe allergies, I have little doubt that it played an integral role in improving his gut health when few options were available to him. As time passes, my appreciation for kombucha continues to grow along with the size of the batches, and the possibility of sharing J’s Kombucha with new friends. In 2019 he left his job in publishing and launched J’s Kombucha. Large-scale from the get-go Jason decided to go big from the get-go. Rather than the more common path many new brewers follow, from home to a small commercial kitchen, to progressively larger facilities and fermentation processes, he scaled both facilities and processes from the start. This meant investing in a dedicated 2,000 sq. ft. production facility. He also chose to use Stout Tanks Symbiosis brewing vessels that enables the production of kombucha below the 0.5% ABV threshold. In fact, his initial batches tested at 0.17%. Stout’s Kombucha-specific shape provides a balanced environment for both the Saccharomyces yeast and the Acetobacter bacteria strains. Ethanol is metabolized to acetic acid much faster, promoting faster and more complete fermentation. Balance of symbiosis is shifted toward bacteria, reducing overall alcohol production, and yielding better flavor profiles. Individual trays provide contact to oxygen, allowing the aerobic bacteria to metabolize ethanol to acetic acid, sugars to lactic acid, and glucose to gluconic acid.