How To Make Kombucha At Home

The promising probiotic in kombucha was one of the reasons I started exploring the gut-friendly fermented tea. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve come across a bottle that I actually liked and wasn’t too sour. After much research, I hopped on the kombucha brewing train in an attempt to replicate this simply fermented tea that I’ve been purchasing bottles of before in the past.

What Is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented, sweetened black or green tea drink that is produced by fermenting sweet tea using a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), also called a “mother” or “mushroom”

It is popularly drank for it’s probiotic from the living bacteria, our intestines (gut) love this stuff.

Even though there is sugar that is added along the process, the scoby bacteria and yeast eat most of that sugar in the tea as it brews. This process turns the tea into a fizzy, refreshing beverage.

During the process, juice, spices, fruit, and herbs/lavender are added to boost the taste of the beverage. In general, it’s relatively low in sugar and calories.

There are two phases of fermentation.

First fermentation includes the scoby(I’ll talk more about this below). Once this process is done, the kombucha is drinkable but not flavored.

Second fermentation is the flavoring phase. Fruit and spices are added during this part to add flavor to the fermented tea.

Things You Will Need

SCOBY – this is the live culture that makes it all happen. It looks like a weird brown live jelly thing. I ordered mine on Amazon from Fermentaholics for $11.99 (NOT an affiliate link). You will notice after each brewing cycle, it will multiply. You can throw the additional growth away (only keeping the original scoby) or give it away to a friend.

1-gallon glass jar – this will be used to do the phase one fermentation. I found one at Marshall’s for $12.99, I’m sure Walmart, Target, and Amazon all have them for a reasonable price.

6 black tea bags – black tea is ideal to use for kombucha. But you can use a combination of black and green too. Green teas alone are not recommended, they will not get the job done. Herbal teas are out the picture. I bought a box of organic Newman’s 100 count black tea bags for about $6 and this should supply me for month (also, not an affiliate link).

1 cup of cane sugar – cane sugar seems like the one to always get the job done. I’ve never tried brown sugar or another alternative as it was never recommended. To cut the price down on organic cane sugar, I bought it in bulk for about $1/pound.

Cheesecloth and rubber band – this will secure opening of the 1-gallon jar while the phase one fermentation is taking place. Cheesecloths can be found at any grocery or department store next to the kitchen/canning section.

1/4-gallon or 1/2-gallon glass bottles – this will be used to do the phase two fermentation. I’ve saved about 5 extra large synergy kombucha bottles that I’ve bought the last month before starting my own kombucha. Now I wash and reuse them between uses.

Extras

When I first started brewing kombucha, I was so nervous to get a step wrong that would mess up the entire process. I did it anyways. I went through the steps slowly. And it worked.

The first and second brewing times take the longest because you want to be sure you’re doing all the steps right. After that it takes a few minutes to flavor and prepare the next batch.

I have to throw it out there, kombucha does contain about 1% of alcohol. That is the by-product of the process. You will most likely not taste it or feel it.

If you have questions/comments message me though email or Instagram or comment below.

Start brewing your kombucha with me from home..

Instructions:

First Fermentation

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
2. Place 6 black tea bags in a small pot. Pour water over tea bags. Steep for 10 minutes before removing them. Do not squeeze the tea bags before removing, this will make the tea bitter.
3. Add 1 cup of cane sugar to the pot of hot tea and stir until it has fully dissolved.
4. Fill the 1-gallon glass jar half way with clean filtered water. Add the hot sweet tea to the glass jar. It should be about 3/4 full now. The temperature should be between 75-85 degrees F before moving to the next step. Check with a thermometer. If you do not have one, the glass jar should feel like it is at room temperature, not “warm”. If it is warm, you may need to wait 30 minutes or so to let it cool to room temperature before going to the next step.
5. Add your scoby and 2 cups of kombucha (from the first phase, not the flavored one, the flavored one can ruin the scoby) to the glass jar. If you just bought a scoby kombucha starter the scoby will be in a pouch with kombucha already in it. Add that entire pouch to the tea and gently stir it. The scoby may sink or float, that is normal.
6. Secure the cheesecloth over the opening of the glass jar with a rubber band. Put a dated post-it note on the side of the jar so will know when it was started.
7. Carefully place in a room temperature/warm area between temperatures of 75-85 degrees F. Temperatures below 75 degrees will cause mold issues, the scoby will look bluish/greenish. Anything too hot, will kill the scoby.
8. Depending on temperatures, most kombucha will reach it’s peak between 7-21 days. If you are starting out, let it brew till day 7 before beginning the second fermentation. As time goes on, you may like it less sweeter and that is achieved with a first fermentation.

Second Fermentation:

1. With clean hands or a ladle, remove the scoby from the brew jar and place in a clean bowl. Measure 2 cups from your brew jar and add it to the clean bowl with the scoby and set aside. You will use this for you next batch (start with step one again from the first fermentation).
2. Take your 1/4-gallon or 1/2-gallon glass bottles and add flavorings of your choice (ex. diced fresh strawberries, apple, pear, fig, thawed fruit, dried lavender, turmeric, ginger, rosemary, etc). Ration is 1/4 cup of flavoring to 2 cups of kombucha.
3. Using a funnel, carefully pour the kombucha into the bottles. Leave about 2 inches of headspace in each bottle.
4. Leave bottles at room temperature for one to three days. Carbon dioxide will build up during this part. Thus, making it important to pop the lid open and close back up just once a day.
5. When you are happy with the fizziness and flavor of your kombucha, cool the bottles in the refrigerator before enjoying. If you want to remove the pulp from the kombucha, run the kombucha through a mesh colander and rebottle back up.

Printable step-by-step guide below.