Have you ever bought kombucha? Then you know it's delicious, but paying 3-5 USD for a bottle is a hefty price. Kombucha is in fact one of the easiest cultured food you can make. In this post, we're going to tell you how to brew it at home. We've split the process of making kombucha in 10 small steps, with tips and tricks collected from our expert brewing friends who regularly purchase loose tea from us.
Not familiar with kombucha yet? Then read our introduction post: What is kombucha tea?
Ingredients for making kombucha tea
To make 1 gallon or 3.8 litres of fermented tea. You'll need the following:
- 3 1/2 quarts or 3.3 litres of water
- 1 cup of sugar
- 8 tea bags or 20 grams of loose leaf tea of your choice
- 2 cups of starter tea or store bought (unpasteurized & unflavored) kombucha
- 1 scoby (also known as 'mother' or 'kombucha mushroom')
- Optional flavoring such as herbs, spices, honey
1. Brew tea
Bring the water to the boil in a large pan that fits the amount of water required. Then remove from heat and add the sugar. Stir and let the sugar dissolve. Now you can add the tea bags or loose leaf tea. For very delicate loose leaf teas (especially full leaf and bud rich loose leaf teas), the the water cool slightly for 5 minutes before you add them.
Now let the water slowly absorb all the flavor of the tea and cool down naturally. Stir once in a while for a better infusion and increase the cool down speed. This can take a few hours, have patience.
Best tea for kombucha
Tea is one of the most important ingredients for making your own kombucha. And it's therefore natural that cultured food loves want to know what the best tea is to make this fermented drink. Of course, tea bags are safe, as they've been tested by many brewers, but there's a few disadvantages:
- Tea bags often contain some artificial flavoring. We're not talking about the fruit teas, even simple earl grey's and traditional English breakfast tea blends might contain some added aromas and flavoring. And this, isn't loved by the bacteria culture.
- Tea bags are boring. Tea bags are about consistency. The big companies source leaves from different regions in countries like Kenya, Sri Lanka, India and China and blend them together so the taste stays consistent over time. Real tea lovers, demand the opposite. They actually appreciate the diversity of flavors and aromas as a result of different terrors, weather conditions and the skills of the tea master behind the tea.
Nevertheless, it's good to start out with tea bags. They're easily available and they're easy to use. However, once you get the hang of it, and when you need some more adventure, you should definitely create more champagne quality kombuchas by looking into loose leaf tea. Stay away from loose leaf teas blended with herbs, fruits or any spices. Go for pure loose leaf teas (expect smokey ones). The scoby will love it.
Here's a selection of teas recommended by Teasenz:
Lapsang Souchong black tea (non-smokey) Note: we've tried making kombucha with a smokey black tea in cooperation with local brewers, and it didn't work out well.
Note there's an option on the product pages to buy 15 grams of tea to try out some small batches at home first.
Notes from expert brewers:
- "You might want to let the tea cool down faster by, for example, placing the pan in an ice bath. However, the disadvantage of this is that less flavor might be extracted from the leaves. It's therefore better to have patience. It's not that you're actively waiting, just go and enjoy some of your other hobbies." (Scott Wilson)
2. Strain the tea & transfer into jars
Pour the tea into a 1 or multiple jars. Now at the starter tea from the previous batch. If you don't have a starter tea, you may use distilled white vinegar instead.
Now wash your hands with soap and make sure you rinse all the soap of your hands. Now gently add the scoby into the jar(s).
If it's your first time then you should get your own scoby first. They're not available in your local supermarket, but don't worry, there's several ways to get it:
- Obtain kombucha culture from a friend that's already brewing.
- Buy a starter culture online. These are shipped in a dehydrated state. If you buy them from a legit online merchant, they should come with instructions on how you can activate them.
- Make it yourself. Read the next paragraph on how to do that:
How to make kombucha scoby at home
You can do this buy purchasing a bottle of raw kombucha tea. With 'raw', we mean unpasteurized. This is important because pasteurization basically will kill all the bacteria, including the onces you'll need to make your own scoby. Once you've obtained a raw kombucha you'll need to store it in a jar with some cooled green or black tea and let it ferment in room temperature for about 7 days until a layer of scoby appears. Ideally the temperature is around 68-85 ºF (20-30 ºC).
The scoby is ready to use when it's about 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) thick. This could take in total 3-4 weeks. Be patience!
When in 3 weeks, there's no sign of scoby then you'll have to throw the substance away and start over again.
What is a scoby?
'Scoby' stands for 'symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. You can see it as a living home for bacteria and yeast that converts your sweet tea in kombucha. It's a rubbery substance that will float on the surface. Another function of the kombucha culture (or 'mother') is to fermenting drink from the outside air and protect it from other bacterias from entering.
3. Let it ferment & taste
Now store the jar at room temperature and make sure it stays away from direct sunlight. You'll have to let it ferment for 7-10 days. Starting from the 7th day, you can start tasting the kombucha every day until it has a perfect balance of sweetness and tartness.
Notes from expert brewers:
- "At this step, many of my kombucha friends ask me whether it's normal for the scoby to be at the bottom, float a top, or sideways during the fermentation period. In my experience, the behavior of the scoby can sometimes be pretty unpredictable, but it's not unusual for the scoby to be located in any part of the jar. A new layer of scoby should form on the surface in a few days. It's kinda cream colored and often attached to the old scoby. However, if it's separate, that's still ok. You might also see bubbles starting to appear around the scoby and brown stringy bits below the scoby. That might all look weird in the beginning, but it's all a sign of a healthy fermentation." (J. Ling)
4. Remove the scoby, bottle & carbonate
Once you're absolutely happy with the flavor, remove the scoby with clean hands. Also measure out 2 cups of starter tea for your next batch. At this stage, it's also good to have new freshly brewed tea ready so you can directly start with the new batch.
Once you've bottled the kombucha tea, you'll need to let it carbonate for 1-3 days first at room temperature. It's hard to estimate the right amount of time that is required for carbonation. For the first time, it's therefore advisable to use a plastic bottle first. It's well carbonated when the bottle becomes rock solid.
Now refrigerate your fermented tea to stop the carbonation and consume within 1 month of time.
Now clean the jar for the next round of fermentation. If you're good at planning ahead, you probably have your next batch of tea ready ;)
That's it now you know how to brew kombucha!
It's possible, to add additional flavoring to the kombucha. Make sure to follow our blog as we're launching special recipes soon! The next one will be a green tea kombucha recipe with additional flavoring suggestions!