Kava Brewing Machine
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Zaphod
Kava Lover
We talking commercial kava brewing machine for a bar, or a keurig like kava brewing machine for my home?
Zaphod
Kava Lover
Hmmm, so I have tried making kava in a stove top espresso maker. Came out okay, but not really worth the effort. Making hot kava with my keurig, however, is not out of the question - I have a "fill your own" keurig cup because I like to roast my own coffee. I wonder how this would come out....have to weigh how pissed the wife will get if her coffee starts to taste like kava.
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
what I want is one like the orange-ade machine in my old drugstore back in the 60s. Refrigerated and constantly ran the drink through the machine, keeping it mixed and aerated. That would be so cool for grog. I believe it is called a jet spray cooler in the trade.
Can confirm. You're right. They're called jetsprays. If I'm not mistaken several kava bars use them to keep the grog stirred up before serving.
How would it work? I envision something that automatically kneads then filters the kava...just put in the powder, add water, turn on, and come back in 20 minutes. Kind of like a bread maker. Maybe an option for fresh kava, just turn the dial to the proper setting. The luxury model would include a dehydrator to make instant.
SelfBiasResistor
Persist for Resistance!
An automatic appliance that blends at high speeds and then strains would be very interesting and should produce a sufficiently potent drink.
kastom_lif
Kava Lover
Interesting idea. Curious to see what y'all come up with.
How much would I want per hour? Well, I'd like one liter of strong grog prepared in one batch. However long that takes doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't taken so long that the kava goes sour.
Heh. A liter of kava. I don't want a large Farva. And please, make it STRONG. You can always dilute kava to make it kalapu-strength, but there's no way to fix wai cala unless you dump in more root and keep kneading.
How much would I want per hour? Well, I'd like one liter of strong grog prepared in one batch. However long that takes doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't taken so long that the kava goes sour.
Heh. A liter of kava. I don't want a large Farva. And please, make it STRONG. You can always dilute kava to make it kalapu-strength, but there's no way to fix wai cala unless you dump in more root and keep kneading.
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No offense but I wouldn't buy one, my hands knead for free. Kava is expensive enough on it's own.Great insight. There is definitely a place in the future for a home brewing machine and a kava bar scale brewing machine. Will share what we have in the works when we get thereAlso price point is a big thing to consider. How much would you pay for a home brewing machine?
PapaMoi
Kava Enthusiast
I love that idea! As long as it is a factory clean mop bucket used! I drank some grog last week that tasted like soured mopwater. Blech! Surprised I didn't get sick...but I really needed (kneaded?) kava bad that day and had a Thermos of fijian waka in my fridge I had forgotten about for about two weeks. probably past the date of healthy consumption, but I figured what they heck why not? I summoned my inner strength and counted to ten and went in headfirst into the Thermos. Gulp, gulp, gulp...as fast as I could get it down while holding my nose. And after I had killed about half the Thermos I let out a growl and shook my head back and forth saying "bula! bula!" in a voice that made it sound like I was trying to convince myself it tasted good afterall. But it was the most vile, wretched, funky-monkey, soured, ripe and rank concoction I have ever put to my lips. I disregarding the "Mr. Yuck" sticker on the Thermos and went into it anyway. Caution was thrown to the wind and the rest is history.Apparently this is what some of the kava bars use:
View attachment 9119
an automatic version of this would be nice
God I sure do love me some kava!
I feel this way too. Maybe I would pick up one used on ebay if it wasn't too much.
Someone compared them to a bread machine, my experience with stuff like this is that it's usually more trouble than it's worth. The automated machines costs more, have parts that can break, remove the nuance of more manual methods, and any time saved in preparation is lost in cleaning. Maybe I suck at cleaning though.
For bread, bread machines mix, knead, and bake the bread. Mixing up dough isn't any harder than mixing anything else, so I won't count that. Kneading can kind of be a pain, but there's non-electric alternatives. You can use baking soda or a combo of baking powder and butter milk, then let it rise in the oven. You can let it slow rise overnight. You can make unleavened bread. In fact you have a world of leavening options different kinds of yeast available that you lose with the bread machine, with some of them being finnicky (wild yeast) and some of them being hard to mess up (baking soda, sold in grocery stores already mixed in as "instant flour" if you like). For kava this is like all the preparation methods we have- traditional, blender, micronized/instant, preparing a home instant, that we can tailor to our individual situations and type of kava we're using.
Most of also have dedicated ovens available to bake the bread, so the machine isn't saving us from having to build a clay oven pit that we slowly fire up with wood or something difficult like that. Ovens also let you experiment with a ton of options while still having the "easy mode" (commercial baker's yeast + half wheat flour + half white flour + cook at 350). The equivalent to this for kava are blenders, which most of us already have or can pick up cheaply from a thrift store. Blenders do a good job, are faster than doing it by hand, can be fine tuned, and are usually relatively easy to clean. Adding water to a blender and pressing a button is not so difficult I am going to buy a dedicated kava machine.
I could imagine a kava machine being worth it to me, but it would need to make up for all this.
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
I could see if it could be programmed for multiple washes.... What we do by hand is 3 cups of thawed freezer makas kneaded in 8 cups of water for 5 minutes, then do the next wash with 4 cups water for 10, then 2.5 cups for 10, then 1.5 cups for 10 and if it will go for it, another cup for 10 minutes. That's a lot of kneading, but then again, that's over a gallon of grog! (that first one with 8 cups water will actually produce 9 - 10 cups grog because of the moisture in the freezer makas). If it could do all that and then mix the results all together, so you just throw in the makas and water and come back in an hour, I could see that, especially if you have multiple kava drinkers in the house and you do it a couple times a week. Could be very nice for Friday nights, especially.
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theGrogfather
Sipping on Waka juice. Laid back
Same, i AM a kava brewing machine
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I'd be willing to pay a good bit if this machine were able to make kava at the same strength or better than I do kneading by hand. It would also need a self-cleaning cycle or some way to easily rinse and store. $250-$500 for a home version would be within the realm I'd be comfortable paying for such a device.Great insight. There is definitely a place in the future for a home brewing machine and a kava bar scale brewing machine. Will share what we have in the works when we get there
We've had some 'kava machine' threads in the past, if anyone could make it a reality, it seems like Matt would be the guy.
I think a personal-sized machine, that could make a 1 or 2 person batch, would be around 1L or 1.5 Liter. If the machine could make a batch sufficiently strong, that could be two good batches when filled up all the way. Enough to fill 2 regular sized or one large size 'plastik', like at a nakamal.
For me, price and my willingness to buy one would definitely depend on if it could make kava as strong or stronger than me. I wouldn't pay more than $100 dollars for an 'automated Aluball shaker', though I could see something that simple being useful still. I would pay $200-$300 for a machine that made kava stronger than hands...and I'd probably pay 100-200 for one that was equally as strong as my hand prep.
When I imagine a kava machine these days, I think it would mix the kava and water like a blender or a washing machine, possibly in a couple cycles like a washing machine too. Then it would drain/suction the majority of the liquid through it's straining mesh. (Ideally this mesh could be swapped out for different micron choices.) To get maximum potency, it would then have to have some kind of compression/press mechanism for the makas, that hopefully could squeeze them with much more force than a human. The machine might need to reserve some water along the way, for doing things like re-dampening and re-squeezing the makas a few time before finishing. Like Kapm said, it would also be nice if it were easy to clean, so any part that the root particles touch would hopefully be smooth, with no grooves or seams for stuff to get stuck in and go funky.
Sounds like a lot to ask for from a small business, in a niche market, with a relatively minuscule consumer base, doesn't it? It would be nice though.
Alternative machine for fresh kava, the automated virgin mouth mastication machine, with amylase!
I think a personal-sized machine, that could make a 1 or 2 person batch, would be around 1L or 1.5 Liter. If the machine could make a batch sufficiently strong, that could be two good batches when filled up all the way. Enough to fill 2 regular sized or one large size 'plastik', like at a nakamal.
For me, price and my willingness to buy one would definitely depend on if it could make kava as strong or stronger than me. I wouldn't pay more than $100 dollars for an 'automated Aluball shaker', though I could see something that simple being useful still. I would pay $200-$300 for a machine that made kava stronger than hands...and I'd probably pay 100-200 for one that was equally as strong as my hand prep.
When I imagine a kava machine these days, I think it would mix the kava and water like a blender or a washing machine, possibly in a couple cycles like a washing machine too. Then it would drain/suction the majority of the liquid through it's straining mesh. (Ideally this mesh could be swapped out for different micron choices.) To get maximum potency, it would then have to have some kind of compression/press mechanism for the makas, that hopefully could squeeze them with much more force than a human. The machine might need to reserve some water along the way, for doing things like re-dampening and re-squeezing the makas a few time before finishing. Like Kapm said, it would also be nice if it were easy to clean, so any part that the root particles touch would hopefully be smooth, with no grooves or seams for stuff to get stuck in and go funky.
Sounds like a lot to ask for from a small business, in a niche market, with a relatively minuscule consumer base, doesn't it?
It would be nice though.Alternative machine for fresh kava, the automated virgin mouth mastication machine, with amylase!
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I think you got something here..
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