Brewing My Own Kombucha

About six months ago I dove into making my own Kombucha.  I mainly started because I got tired of paying $3/bottle.  Not only am I thrifty, but I also enjoy being able to make my own food & drink.  It took a few rounds, but now that I have the process down, its pretty easy to do and I’m glad I started making my own.

The website that I probably follow the most is YouBrewKombucha.com.  Here are her instructions on the 1st & 2nd fermentations:

1st Fermentation
2nd Fermentation

I LOVE the jars I found through Azure: Gallon Wide Mouth.  They have been perfect for brewing Kombucha.  As for the jar covers, I love Fermentaholics Unbleached Muslin covers.  I found thermometer strips on Amazon.

I purchased my 1st scoby from Azure.com.  The Herbucha Kombucha Starter Kit.  It came with the scoby and the 2 cups of starter brew.  That’s the main ingredients that you need to get started.  That scoby had continued to grow into many scobies.  Many who have made their way to scoby heaven.  In addition to the scoby, you need some sort of black tea, sugar, and jars.

It took me a few times to get the process down, but now it’s piece of cake.  I make 3 – gallon batches each time.  I’ve made strawberry, raspberry, cherry, mango, kiwi, plus combos.  So far I love the mango and strawberry/raspberry the best.

The steps I follow each batch:

1. Start boiling the water in my electric kettle.
2. Once it’s boiling good, I take it off the heat and add the tea.  I’ve been using 8 Paul Newman black tea bags but I want to start using loose leaf tea soon so I can avoid any of the toxic chemicals in the tea bags.  Once I start using loose leaf tea, add 3 tbsp of it to the tea infuser on the kettle.
3. Set the timer for 20 mins to steep.
4. During this time I start cutting up the fruit and add to my blender to puree.
5. I use a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup for each batch.  I us a ladle and put 2 cups of brew from each batch.  Then I pull the scoby out and put in the measuring cup.
6. Add 1/3 cup of fruit puree to each jar using the funnels I purchased on Azure.  They fit perfectly in my jars.  For the jars, my dad gave me a bunch of old wine jars that work great, similar to these Swing Top Glass bottles.
7. Fill the remaining of the jars with the kombucha.  I leave 2-3″ of head space in each bottle.  Seal the lid then I store in my basement in a dark area.
8. After the 20 minute steep I pour the new tea back into the empty gallon jar.
9. Add 1 cup of can sugar, stir to dissolve.  After it’s dissolved, I add cold filtered water and let it cool down for an hour or two.  Be sure to leave enough room to add the 2 cups of starter tea and scoby once it’s cooled down.
10. Once cooled down, add the 2 cups of starter tea and the scoby.
11. Repeat this for all 3 batches.
12. After 3 days I move the bottles to the refrigerator.  Once they’ve cooled down I’ll start drinking them.  Just in case it has a lot of pressure in it, I’ll open over the sink and have a zip lock baggie ready so that I don’t have a mess to clean up.