Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha brewery and taproom launches crowdfunding campaign to buy necessary equipment for larger production.

BOULDER, COLO.—The microbiology behind brewing and flavoring kombucha, a fermented tea beverage, is both a science and an art, and Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha has apparently mastered both as the company’s demand exceeds its supply. Since its beginnings only a few years ago, Rowdy Mermaid has earned the praise of local and national media and is now seeking to upgrade its brewery to help production flow faster. The company has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $12,000 by September 6 to help expand its production capabilities.

Made from a mixture of bacteria and yeast, kombucha is a fermented tea with major health and digestion benefits. This has been used for more than 2,000 years in China. Since its introduction in the United States in the 1980s, interest in the product has steadily grown.

Rowdy Mermaid’s founder Jamba Dunn, who opened his taproom in April 2014 and began supplying his product to local retail locations, is now trying to keep up with demand. “Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha is refreshing and healthy and specialized for our local audience,” said Dunn. “Our taproom lets us connect with the community and collaborate with other local companies, restaurants, and nonprofits. We are however in need of some new equipment to get the kombucha in the bottles and to our customers more quickly.”

The labor-intensive process of bottling one flavor of Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha takes about 130 hours, but with the proposed new equipment the process would take closer to 15 to 20 hours. Considering the company offers seven kombucha flavors, an upgrade on the machines that do the bottling is completely necessary. The crowdfunding campaign will help to purchase label-free custom bottles, a capping machine with its corresponding electrical breaker, and a bottle washer so that the bottling process will be streamlined.

Rowdy Mermaid is offering several enticing rewards for its campaign, such as growlers of kombucha, limited edition T-shirts and handcrafted mugs, classes for kombucha brewing, various parties, tickets to the campaign finale event, and bags made out of the dried kombucha SCOBY.

 

About Rowdy Mermaid

 

In 2013, after meeting Danielle Martin of Brew Dr. Kombucha in Portland, Rowdy Mermaid founder Jamba Dunn fine-tuned their brewing, flavoring, and microbiology technique and opened the Rowdy Mermaid taproom in April 2014.The company sells kombucha at Boulder’s Saturday Farmers’ Market and at numerous retail locations, including Lucky’s Market, Cured, Alfalfa’s, and In Season LocalMarket.To contribute to the Rowdy Mermaid’s crowdfunding campaign, visit kck.st/1nq9fGM.


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