Behind The Bar: Kombucha On Draft At Manahawkin Microbrewery

MANAHAWKIN, NJ — East Bay Kombucha is brewing something new in Manahawkin. The fizzy, sweetened tea that's typically found bottled in stores can now be poured straight from the tap at the kombucha bar on Mill Creek Road.

Kombucha is brewed with tea leaves, bacteria and yeast, which fuels the drink with antioxidants before it’s flavored with fruit and herbs. Some of the recent flavors on tap include watermelon mint, pineapple ginger, strawberry hibiscus, lavender lemonade and mojito.

Heather Committee, of Manahawkin, still remembers crafting her very first batch of kombucha a few years ago. Once she learned how to make it, a one-gallon jar of kombucha became two and then three before her kitchen counter was full. Throughout the pandemic, she and her 16-year-old daughter Aubrey spent much of their time together brewing kombucha and brainstorming unique flavors.

“During COVID we really ramped it up,” she said. “As a lot of people did, we did a lot of cooking at home making bread and kombucha, and then gave it to our friends and neighbors.”

Less than a year ago, they were brewing kombucha at their kitchen table. Now their hobby has evolved into a coastal-themed microbrewery complete with bar seating and high top tables. Patrons can enjoy a flight to try a few different flavors, or get their favorite in a 16-ounce bottle.

Heather, her husband Mick and their children have called Manahawkin home for 16 years. Heather also has ties to the community from teaching yoga at studios around Manahawkin and Long Beach Island.

“We knew we wanted it to be in town,” she said. “We’re a family business so you’ll find myself, my husband or my daughter — or any combination of us — behind the bar.”

The Committees not only serve kombucha, but also educate people about what the drink is and how it's made. Kombucha contains all of the benefits in tea, including polyphenols and antioxidants, and since it’s fermented, it also has probiotic qualities that support digestive and immune health.

Beyond the bar and down the hall, the brewing area is on display behind a glass so people can see how the kombucha is crafted, including all the kettles, kegs and equipment involved.

“We encourage people to look in,” she said. “They can see exactly where their kombucha came from. We do it all in-house.”

To make a batch of kombucha, Heather first brews a base of tea and sweetens it with sugar. Then she adds SCOBY — a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast — and that mixture is poured into a silver or glass fermenting vessel.

During the fermentation process, the yeast in the SCOBY breaks down the sugar in the tea and releases friendly probiotic bacteria. This fermentation process can take three weeks or longer depending on its temperature and oxygen levels. But each day, Heather is checking the PH levels of the acidity and sugar levels in the batch until it reaches an ideal range, between 2.5 and 2.9.

After about three weeks, the batch is then poured into a keg to be flavored. Fruit purees and herbs are mixed in to create different flavors, and then it’s carbonated, tapped and served.

“Kombucha is as much an art as it is a science,” Heather said. “It’s truly handmade. Every batch is crafted by me, from picking the loose tea leaves and measuring them to making the tea and then squeezing lemons or juicing grapefruits or ginger, then adding it to each batch.”

For anyone trying it for the first time, regardless of the flavor they pick, Heather tells them to expect a tangy taste.

“When it’s real kombucha with all of the benefits of fermentation and probiotics and the acids that are healthy for you, you’re going to have a tang in the back of your throat,” she said. “In general, all kombucha is going to have that tanginess to it.”

East Bay Kombucha is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 587 Mill Creek Rd. across from Acme. They plan to be open year-round and occasionally stay open later at night. Any updates will be announced on their Facebook page.

“We’ve found there’s a large community of people who don’t necessarily want to go to bars but they miss the atmosphere of sitting at a bar and the camaraderie of being in a place where they can be social but they may not want to be around alcohol,” she said. “So we’re hoping to be an option much like a coffee shop would be, where people can gather and then we can be the third place — not home, not work but another place where people can be social and gather.”

Keep up to date with what's happening in your community by subscribing to your local Patch newsletter here.