Tools and directories

The words, in the order you meet them

Updated October 2026

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The liquid The process The failures The rules References

Terms as you meet them rather than alphabetically.

The liquid

Brix. Soluble solids, mostly sugar. The fastest measurement you have and the predictor of how much further a product can ferment.

Titratable acidity. How much acid there is, as distinct from pH, which is how strong it is. TA tracks perceived sourness.

Brix to acid ratio. The best single predictor of whether a drink tastes balanced.

Volumes of CO2. How carbonated it is. Meaningless without a temperature.

Residual sugar. The fuel left for anything still alive in the bottle.

The process

Hot fill and hold. Filling hot so the product sanitizes the container and headspace.

Flash pasteurization. Heat fast, hold briefly, cool fast, fill cold.

Counter-pressure filling. Pressurizing the bottle first so carbonated liquid does not degas.

Warm retains. Bottles held deliberately warm for the full shelf life. The test that answers both thresholds.

The failures

Bottle bomb. A container failing under internal pressure. The most dangerous failure in this estate.

Refermentation. Fermentation continuing in the bottle, producing alcohol and gas. One cause, two failures.

Chill haze. Tea polyphenols and protein combining cold and redissolving warm.

Gushing. Violent foaming on opening, from nucleation sites rather than from too much gas.

The rules

Five logs. A 100,000-fold pathogen reduction, required of juice processors under 21 CFR Part 120.

The retail exemption. Selling juice only direct to consumers exempts you from the HACCP rule and NOT from the warning statement. One case to another business ends it.

0.5 percent ABV. At or above it, a fermented drink is an alcohol beverage, counted at any time during production, when bottled, or at any time after bottling.

ABLA. The health warning statement required on an alcohol beverage container.

The carbonated exclusion. 21 CFR 114.3 excludes carbonated beverages from the acidified foods rule.

References

21 CFR Part 120, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems for juice. Covered processors must achieve a 5-log reduction in the pertinent pathogen. ecfr.gov

US Food and Drug Administration. Exemptions from the Warning Label Requirement for Juice. A retail establishment selling juice directly to consumers and not distributing to other businesses is exempt from the HACCP rule, and untreated juice must still carry the warning statement. fda.gov

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Kombucha. Kombucha at 0.5 percent alcohol by volume or more, at any time during production, when bottled, or at any time after bottling as a result of continued fermentation, is an alcohol beverage subject to TTB regulation. ttb.gov

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. General TTB Requirements for Kombucha. Production on premises qualified under the Internal Revenue Code, compliance with labeling, formula and tax requirements, and the health warning statement required by the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act of 1988. ttb.gov

21 CFR Part 114, Acidified Foods. Note the scope: 114.3 excludes carbonated beverages from the whole of the part, alongside jams, jellies and preserves and anything stored, distributed and retailed under refrigeration. ecfr.gov

Written from the federal regulation and agency guidance named on each page, not from a laboratory. Whether a particular product meets a pathogen reduction requirement, and what its alcohol content actually is, are measurements about your product, and this is not those measurements.