Making kombucha at home is not difficult. If you enjoy this mildly effervescent drink, making it at home may be for you. Kombucha probably originated in China and is still a popular drink there today. Kombucha may provide health benefits from the live cultures present in the end product.
Make Kombucha by fermenting sweetened tea with a culture of yeast and bacteria. The symbiotic culture of the bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) is the starter. A SCOBY consists of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (common yeast) and probably Gluconacetobacter xylinus (bacteria). This bacteria produces acetic and lactic acids. The acids gives kombucha its distinctly sour taste. This bacteria also produces cellulose. It is the cellulose that gives the SCOBY it’s characteristic structure.
Kombucha is made by introducing a culture to sugared tea. The culture converts sugar to ethyl alcohol, and organic acids. The bacteria present produce cellulose from the alcohols. Additionally amino acids, enzymes and some vitamins result. These compounds are the basis for purported claims of health benefits. Although kombucha does contain some alcohol, it is usually less than 0.5%
For an in depth Understanding of Kombucha Tea Fermentation visit this page.
I decided to start a kombucha process a few weeks ago. So far it has been an easy process without complications.
Equipment and ingredients
Making kombucha at home requires very little equipment and all is easily obtained. This is a short list of what I used.
- A one gallon glass jar. Don’t use plastic or metal. You may find that having 2 jars or more is convenient.
- Measuring cups
- Rubber bands (thick)
- Paper towels or coffee filters
- Appropriate gas tight bottles
- Plain black tea
- Plain cane sugar
- A thermometer is helpful along with a funnel for bottling.
I found a cheap supply of one gallon glass jars at the supermarket. Cheap, readily available and a bonus if you like pickles! These jars are a more economical alternative to online sellers of fermenting jars.
The SCOBY
Making kombucha at home requires a SCOBY. However there are multiple ways to obtain a SCOBY
- Buy a SCOBY from an online seller or local brewing supply store
- Get a SCOBY from a friend. If you choose this route skip to here
- Make a SCOBY from a commercially produced kombucha. If you choose this route skip to here
- Start your own SCOBY from scratch. Continue below.
Although the first two may be quicker, there is some satisfaction in culturing your own SCOBY.
I chose to start a SCOBY from a bottle of commercially produced kombucha. I purchased a 16 oz bottle of plain, organic raw kombucha. These products have the live culture needed to start a SCOBY. Choose an unflavored, raw kombucha. In addition look for a bottle that has little baby SCOBYs floating around in it, if possible.
Starting a SCOBY for Making Kombucha at Home
At first ensure that your equipment and containers are clean. Washing in hot soapy water is sufficient. Rinse well.
After allow your bottle of raw, unflavored kombucha to warm to room temperature to wake up the microbes.
Then Brew 4 cups of strong black tea – I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of Lipton loose tea.
While the tea is steeping stir in 1/4 cup of plain cane sugar until dissolved. Next cool it to room temperature. If using loose tea, you’ll have to strain it. If using bags discard them when the tea has cooled.
Then pour the tea into a clean glass gallon-size jar and add 8 oz of the store bought kombucha. Make sure the tea is cooled down or you may kill the culture.
Then cover the jar with a paper coffee filter, paper towels or tight weave cloth and secure with a rubber band. I use doubled up paper towels. Cheap and effective.
Keep the jar undisturbed, for 2-3 weeks. The temperature should be between 68-85 degrees. In addition avoid direct sunlight on your jar.
The SCOBY will start to form after a few days. You will see some very small bubbles followed by a film forming on the surface of the tea. Brownish stringers of yeast may be visible too. Eventually a thicker creamy layer of cellulose will beginning to appear. It will continue to thicken over a period of a few weeks.
When the SCOBY is at least 1/4 inch thick you can make your first batch of kombucha. My SCOBY reached that stage after about 3 weeks. I let it continue to grow for another week before I started my first batch of kombucha at home. It finally ended up almost 1/2 inch thick.
I did not encounter any problems growing my SCOBY. However if you don’t see any development, then toss it and start over. Given the proper conditions the SCOBY should be easy to produce.
Brewing the Kombucha at Home
Once you have a strong healthy SCOBY, its time to brew up your first batch of kombucha at home.
When your SCOBY has formed the remaining tea will be quite sour and probably not suitable for drinking. It is important to use part of it to adjust the pH of your 1st batch of kombucha. Starting with a low ph inhibits mold growth in the beginning of the fermentation process. Additional discards could be used to make a kombucha vinaigrette salad dressing,
With very clean hands, carefully remove the SCOBY from the jar and place it in a bowl. Cover it with 2 cups of fermented tea to keep it wet while your are preparing your 1st fermentation.
- First boil 4 cups of water and add 3 tablespoons of loose tea. You can use black or green tea or a combination of both. Avoid flavored teas as they may contain aromatic oils that are not friendly to your SCOBY. Then allow the tea to steep for about 15 minutes
- Stir in 1 cup of cane sugar until dissolved
- After 15 minutes transfer the tea to your cleaned 1 gallon glass jar. If using loose tea, strain out the leaves or discard bags
- Then add 8 cups of cold water to the jar and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. (65-85 degrees F).
- Add 2 cups from your SCOBY batch only when the tea is cooled. Stir.
- Carefully place the SCOBY in the fresh batch of sweet tea.
- Finally cover with a doubled paper towel or coffee filters and secure with a rubber band.
Your SCOBY may sink to the bottom of the jar, but that’s OK. Once fermentation begins it will probably float back to the top.
At last you are now beginning to ferment your first batch of kombucha!
The fermentation rate is highly dependent on temperature. If your environment is at least 75 degrees F, then your fermentation should occur in about 6-10 days. Taste the brew at this point. Adjust the schedule to reach the desired level of sourness. This batch fermented for 9 days prior to the 2nd fermentation.
Making Kombucha at Home
Although kombucha is ready to drink at the end of the 1st fermentation, most people prefer a flavored batch. Additionally an effervescent quality is also desirable. Bottle your kombucha if you want it fizzy. Combine flavoring at this stage, resulting in a flavored and fizzy end product.
The key to achieve a good carbonation is an adequate bottle. The bottles must seal well enough to contain the carbon dioxide. Additionally they must be strong enough to stand the pressure of carbonation. There are many solutions to this step, but I have chosen to used cleaned Grolsch beer bottles with swing top ceramic stoppers with a gasket seal. These bottles are strong and seal well. The bottles are cheaper than ordering new bottles. Also there is no risk of breakage during shipping. If you like Grolsch, that’s a bonus too!
Additionally there must be sufficient sugar left in the brew to allow the culture to continue to produce carbon dioxide after bottling. This can be achieved by bottling the kombucha when the 1st fermentation is still on the sweet side. If you prefer it to be more tart, introduced fruit or additional cane sugar will provide food.
The list of flavorings is endless. The most common choice is fresh fruit juice or fruit. Ginger is also very popular.
Once the kombucha passes your personal taste test, it is ready to bottle. For this batch I used lemon zest, blueberry puree and 1 teaspoon of cane sugar in each bottle. First using a stainless steel funnel, I filled each bottle to within about 1 inch from the top. After I cleaned the top of the bottles and the gaskets then sealed them tightly.
The bottled kombucha ferments at room temperature for 4-8 days. During this period the produced carbon dioxide builds pressure and is in solution. The next step is to place the bottles in the refrigerator. The fermentation process slows to a crawl when chilled. Once the kombucha is thoroughly chilled, carefully open one of the bottles to check the carbonation level. If you are satisfied with the result, keep the kombucha cold to prevent further fermentation. If you want more carbonation, move the bottles out of the refrigerator and keep them at room temperature for a few more days. It’s best to check them when cold to reduce loss of carbonation and having the kombucha foam out of the bottles.
After you have bottled your kombucha start your next batch. Repeat your first fermentation steps above. A new SCOBY started very rapidly in this batch.
Flavor Recommendations
Add one of these to your 2nd fermentation
- BLACKBERRY: 1/4c blackberry simple syrup
- ORANGE: 1/4c orange juice
- BLUEBERRY: 1/4c juice or 1/4 fresh blueberries
- CHERRY: 1/4 cup cherry juice or 1/4 cup dried cherries
- COCONUT: 2 tbsp coconut extract, 1/4 cup coconut milk
- PAPAYA-LIME: 1/4 cup pureed papaya and 1/4 cup lime juice
- CRANBERRY: 1/4c cranberry juice
- CRANBERRY-ORANGE: 1/4c + 2 tbsp orange zest
- GINGER: 3-4 slices ginger
- GRAPEFRUIT-GINGER: 1/4c grapefruit juice, 3-4 slices ginger
- GUAVA: 1/4c guava nectar
- KIWI: 1/4c kiwi juice or 1 sliced kiwi
- STRAWBERRY/BASIL: 1/4c strawberries, 1 sprig fresh basil
- WATERMELON: 1/4c watermelon juice
- MANGO: 1/4c Mango juice/4-5 mango segments
- PINEAPPLE: 1/4c pineapple juice
Flavor combinations are limited only by your imagination and your personal taste.
A Kombucha SCOBY doing its work.
Bottling Another Batch
I checked my previous batch and decided it needed a bit more fizz. Taking the bottles out of the refrigerator for a few days should solve that problem.