How To Brew Your Own Homemade Kombucha

May 19th, 2009 - filed under: The Food » Recipes

 

img_0296

 

Kombucha, that magical mysterious elixir, is actually quite easy to produce with a bit of kitchen chemistry. I wrote about Kombucha a few weeks back, after I’d finished my first batch. And as promised in that article, here’s your step-by-step guide to home brewing.

 

What You’ll Need:

img_0307

 

  • A living SCOBY + some starter tea
  • A large *glass* jar (no metal, no ceramic, no plastic, etc) with a wide opening (a standard 1-gallon jar, as shown at right, is best)
  • Sugar
  • Caffeinated tea
  • A very clean cloth + a rubber band
  • A steel pot and a big metal stir spoon

 

 

Prep Work

  • Most likely, the hardest part will be getting your hands on a SCOBY. You’ll just have to be creative and snoop around your city for a source. I suggest starting with Craigslist or googling ‘[your city] kombucha’. You can also try poking around your local co-op or health food store – and check the bulletin board.
  • Once you’ve secured a SCOBY (and it’s alive, floating in some starter tea), you’re on your way. Make sure your workspace is clean and at least semi-sterile. Gather and clean your tools (see above).
  • This is a long process, so set your schedule accordingly. Brewing is a good Sunday project; you can have it going while you’re gardening or cleaning or laying around naked with your sweetheart.

 

How To Brew

1)  In a large, stainless steel (non-teflon or other weird material) stock pot, boil 1 gallon of water. Keep it at a full boil for at least 10 minutes.

2)  Remove the pot from heat and add 1 1/4 cups sugar, stirring with a metal (non-plastic, non-wood) spoon. I use organic evaporated cane juice instead of white sugar. DO NOT substitute agave, honey, Splenda™, or any other sweetener. 

3)  Add the tea. Any kind, as long as it’s caffeinated. This will determine the final flavor, so if you use a cranberry green tea, you’ll get a cranberry-ish flavored kombucha. I usually use organic plain green or black tea bags. You can use bagged or loose tea, but if you use looseleaf make sure it’s in a fine-meshed infuser. You don’t want any tea leaves floating about! 

 

img_2289

 

4)  Steep the tea for about 4 hours, allowing the water to cool and the tea to get nice and strong. Go ahead and garden or clean or or lay around naked. When the tea is good and strong (many hours later), take out the tea bags/infuser.  

 

img_2291

 

5)  Double check that your widemouth glass jar is very clean, and then pour in the gallon of sweetened tea. A funnel can really help with this.

 

DON’T USE ANY METAL BEYOND THIS POINT

Metal reacts poorly with the kombucha culture. It’s not a good thing.

 

6)  Wash your hands thoroughly before handling the SCOBY.

7)  Open your SCOBY + starter  container, and pour the starter into the widemouth jar. There may be gooey strings or giblets – that’s just SCOBY stuff, and it’s fine.

8)  Fish out your SCOBY. Admire it’s alien oddity. Blow it a kiss. Give it a name (mine is Scoby-Doo). Notice that there’s a ‘smooth side’ that is lighter, and the other side is darker. The slimy dark stuff is yeast. You’ll also notice that familiar, uniquely komucha-esque odor!

9)  Now carefully slide your SCOBY into the widemouth jar, smooth-side up.  It may sink, which is okay, but it will probably float.  

 

img_0299

 

10)  Place the clean cloth over the top of the jar, pulling it taught and securing with a rubber band. Now you just need to tuck that sucker away for 2-3 weeks. It prefers a warm dark spot, like in a cupboard or closet. It does not like drafts or sunlight, so don’t brew your kombucha on a window sill!

11)  Adjust the brew time for your taste preference. The warmer it is, the faster it will brew. The more caffeinated it is, the faster it will brew. The longer you let it brew, the stronger and less sweet it will be. I like less sugar, so I ferment for at least 3 weeks. It’s not recommended that you brew a batch longer than a month.

 

— weeks later —

 

12)  First, you’ll need to remove the SCOBY. Every time you brew, the ‘mother’ (the original SCOBY)  grows a ‘baby’ (a new SCOBY). These names are misleading because the two are identical in every way, indistinguishable from one another. They’ll be stacked together, like two pancakes. You can either leave them be and keep on going with a double-thick SCOBY, or you can carefully separate them. If you do take them apart, each one can brew its own batch. Then you can stagger your batches for constant kombucha flow! Remember: each time you brew, the mother makes a baby.

13)  You’ll need a jar to hold your SCOBY while you’re not brewing.  Make sure the jar has a plastic (non-metal) lid.  With very clean hands, fish your SCOBY out of the widemouth jar and fold it into the storage jar. Then add enough of the new brew to completely cover it.  This is your starter tea for next time.  Store the SCOBY + starter tea in the refrigerator, indefinitely.

14)  Portion out your brewed kombucha into smaller storage containers.  I save glass bottles with plastic lids just for this purpose.  Store the tea in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

15)  Drink!  Experiment!  Enjoy!

 

img_0166

 

Notes on Safety

  • Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.
  • Sometimes a culture will become contaminated.  It happens!  If your SCOBY shows anything resembling mold, TOSS IT!  If your brewed kombucha comes out smelling funny, TOSS IT!  If your kombucha ends up tasting funny, TOSS IT!  Remember, there’s only a porous rag separating your fermenting sugar water from any and all airborne bugs.  Contamination can happen, so be wise and play it ‘better safe than sorry’, okay?
  • If you want to add fruit juice to your kombucha, do it after you’ve brewed.  DO NOT add fruit juice before fermentation.
  • Don’t use bleach on any of your kombucha-making equipment. Vinegar is a great cleanser. The dishwasher (with a mild detergent) is also okay.
  • Listen to your body!  Start by drinking a little at a time.  Home brew is A LOT stronger than the store bought stuff, and the B-vitamins can get you quite heady. So take it slow and listen to your body!

 

Close-up during brewing - you can see it bubbling.

Close-up during the brewing process - you can see it bubbling away!

 

***DISCLAIMER – My dears, I cannot be held responsible for what you do with this information.  So please, use your big beautiful brains, and be thoughtful and be careful.***

 

I know there’s been a ton of interest out there, so I can’t wait to hear how this works for you guys. Make sure to report back! And LUCK!

sign-off

  • Louie CC

    Oops! After brewing my Kombachu tea for two weeks I forgot about the “no metal” warning and scooped my scoby out with a stainless steel spoon. Have I just flushed 2 months of work down the drain? By the way, my tea tastes great! Thank you for your help!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    No way! I’m sure it’s fine, the no metal rule is just to be on the very safe side. But I’m SURE your scoby is a-okay. No worries!

  • Heidi

    Hi! So glad to had found this site. I am new to Kombucha tea brewing. I am using a continuous brewing system and have two questions. I’ve made about 5-6 batches and my tea has a very strong vinegar taste to it. Very similar to apple cider vinegar. I actually don’t mind it at all after I add a little cranberry juice to it. I just wanted to make sure it was ok and I’m not doing something wrong. Is that a normal way for it to taste? It’s very fizzy when I pour it out.

    The second question is do I need to separate the scoby already and how often should that be done? I started with a gallon and once it was ready, I took out a quart and then replace that quart. I do that about every 3 days.

    I guess I have a third question. If I wanted to increase my tea up to 2 gallons in the same jug I am brewing in, how do I go about doing that? It seems like just adding more tea to the existing gallon I have would make it out of balance. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    The vinegar is normal, that’s just a strong ferment. Probably because you are using the continuous brewing system, it’s just becoming very concentrated and very very strong. I’d try taking out more each time and putting more tea in, to “water it down”.

    I’m not sure about the continuous brewing method, but yeah I’d just remove extra scobies as needed, whenever it seems to be getting too big.

    As far as making it bigger, I think adding more tea would be fine, but again, I don’t have any experience with the continuous brewing so i can’t say for sure. Sorry!

  • Kasia

    A question: Has anyone tried letting their batch brew in a Fido jar? I have lots of these on hand for fermenting and preserving, and it seems like it would be better for keeping out contaminates. Or does the SCOBY require oxygen? Anyone?

  • Marcia

    Gosh, thank you for providing us such thorough/detailed instructions! Love them details. The more the merrier!

  • Pingback: Cheek ‘Booch! (aka Snail ‘Booch) | Caracol Wellness

  • Christophe

    I just finished making my first SCOBY using Sayward’s other recipe (link below) and I realized you can skip a step and make things a whole lot easier and less easily contaminated. Once you finish growing your SCOBY it will already be sitting in its own starter tea already, so if you brewed this in a very large container like I did you can just pour in the new brew on top of it and never have to touch it with your hands. I’ll post results to let you know how it turns out!

    http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2010/05/how-to-grow-a-motherscoby-from-store-bought-kombucha/

  • Pingback: Kombucha: Not so scary after all.

  • Coco

    Hi all. I had wonderful wonderful SCOBY going a couple of years back. I used one of the large glass dispensers with the plastic tap at the bottom and my tea was great and my SCOBY was THICK. I got it to about three inches before I could convince a couple of friends to try brewing kombucha too. Then I pulled off some “babies” for them. Lots stared happening in our lives and we ended up moving from our home state to another state, and my SCOBY fell by the wayside, I’m sorry to say. But, I have started growing a new mother (started two days ago) and have my handy-dandy glass pitcher with the plastic tap. Hoping it will go as well this time as it did for me before!

  • Chris McCollough

    Hi Kasia, did you ever get an answer. I have searched for a couple of hours and haven’t found an answer. I have lots of Fido jars. Should I take the lid off and cover or can I close it with the lid. I was going to wait til I have a few scobies and experiment. But if you can save me the trouble, I’d greatly appreciate it.

  • carolyn zollo

    reading recipe to make and it does not tell how many teabags to put in. can someone help

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I use between 4-6 bags. At least 3 and you should be fine!

  • http://skatterednotes.blogspot.com/ Colette @ Skattered Notes

    Sorry enemee, for some reason i never got the notification of your response. To answer to your question, it seemed like it didn’t work for me, as the fungus grew over my scoby :( I have not tried to regrow it since then as I was not home.

  • http://skatterednotes.blogspot.com/ Colette @ Skattered Notes

    Thank you Jimmy! That totally makes sense! :D

  • http://www.vegan.ee Minna Toots

    I got SCOBY as a birthday gift from a friend, but I forgot all about it and it’s been in a glass jar (with the lid off so it gets air <- as he recommended) on a window sill for nearly 1,5 weeks. It smells a little bit like vinegar but I don't really see any mold in there. Should I still throw it all away or should it be fine to use? Also, I quit caffeine since getting pregnant, but I guess you can't really make kombucha without caffeine? I read that kombucha itself is ok to drink while pregnant (with precautions), I wonder how much caffeine will 4oz (about 100ml I suppose) of kombucha have? 4 oz is what they recommend you start with if you're not a regular kombucha drinker.

  • Robyn Scott

    Hi Minna,
    I brew kombucha with no caffeine all the time. I use decaf black and decaf green teas and it works out just fine. If you want to contact me drop me a line at robynscott@cox.net

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    MInna!!! I totally meant to comment on your last comment on my other post, but I’ll have to do it here – CONGRATULATIONS! I am so happy for you, and also so happy to hear from you again. I’ve often wondered how you were doing, and what was happening over in your corner of the world. It’s just such a pleasure to hear from you again!

    As for the SCOBY, as long as it’s not scuzzy or moldy, I’d say it’s fine to use. Since your pregnant I would use extra precaution though, and from now on maybe store it with a lid in the fridge (at least, that’s how I store mine when I’m not brewing).

    I think kombucha is generally safe while pregnant. I wouldn’t worry about the caffeine at all – but that’s just me!

    So great to hear from you, and happy brewing!

  • Pingback: Kombucha love! | Polymind

  • Pam

    Is kombacha acholic in any way at all? I do not drink anything alcoholic at all in my life!
    Thanks!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    There may be a small bit of alcohol due to the fermentation process, but the amount would be so low as to be negligible. For example, I give it to my son all the time and do not worry, and I know alcoholics who drink it without concern. Hope that helps!

  • Rebekah

    Hi there. I’ve been making kombucha tea for only about a year, but I do know that there is no reason that the tea one starts with must be caffeinated. You make a point stating such, but that is not true. Great success can be had using decaf black or green tea.

  • Pingback: Brew Your Own Kombucha | Caracol Wellness

  • pixiebeach

    i brewed some tea last night, however, one of the tea bags released some leaves and i didnt notice until this morning. some leaves are attached to the scoby now. not alot, but a few. is it done? :(

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I would take the scoby out and rinse it off with plain water. Then either skim out the leaves or pour through a strainer to remove any leaves/debris. Then put the scoby back in and hope for the best. As long as you don’t get mold it should be good!

  • Pingback: Hibiscus Kombucha

  • http://angieeatspeace.com/ Angie

    I am so glad I found this post! I am trying this today.

  • totallywired

    This is old but yes, the SCOBY requires oxygen. You could use those jars if you wanted to but you would need to leave the lid off and cover the jars with something breathable. Like a paper towel, rag, coffee filter, etc. I do this and then wrap a hairband around it tightly to get out flies, dust, and other contaminants. Also take the size of the jar into consideration. Most recipes require half gallon jars but you could do the math and I think you’d come out with a good brew.

  • GGSquaw

    I removed scoby before checking my ph, (ding dong), can i put scoby back intea and brew a couple more days?

  • MWAW TV

    Throw that one away and just start over. When you do have a healthy mother and baby tuck away the baby for times like this.

  • Larry Bender

    You can burp the bottles every or every other day to manage the fizz – then refrigerate.

  • Suzanne

    I want to give a SCOBY to my son who lives 9 hours by car away! I’m going to do a trip next week. How do I carry it? Is a zip-lock plastic bag okay?

  • Suzanne

    I want to give my son a SCOBY!

    He lives 9 hours away by car.

    I am doing a trip next week..what is the best way to carry it??

    I’ve currently got it in a zip-lock plastic bag with a cup of starter
    tea..There are a few small air bubbles and I have kept it
    unrefrigerated! I’m a bit worried this is not the right way to do it??

    Help!

    Cheers

    Suzanne

  • BerryMac

    You can use decaf, I would recommend organic tea to reduce contaminants.

  • Christie Du Toit

    Hi there. Thank you. Your instructions are clear and easy to follow, standing out as easy to follow.

  • Lucia

    Hi!! I’m wondering why I can’t use a non stick pan to boil my water. I didn’t realize I couldn’t until now and I’ve already made mama scoby