Since we're on the subject of fermented drinks, why not revisit one of my all time favorite things.
No, it's not Stuart. Or Georgia. Or chocolate. Or freshly whipped cream.
But close…
Guessed yet? It's KOMBUCHA, BABY. What? I couldn't help myself. We talked about fermenting kvass yesterday – what was I supposed to do!
We've been brewing our own here on the homestead for going on two years now and not only have I saved myself from the 1000% mark-up of the store-bought kombucha, but I've also been able to relish in the good, err…benefit, that kombucha brings to my…..err…gut.
Fine, I'll say it. Kombucha is super wonderful for keeping the gut *regular*, if you catch my drift.
Somehow, saying the word poop just seems inappropriate for this blog, so I won't say it.
…
Whoops.
Anyway….
Homemade Kombucha
You will need:
– 8 organic black tea bags or 8 teaspoons of your favorite loose leaf tea. I've found that a nice black tea yields the best results. White tea has a very delicate flavor and I prefer mine with a bit more punch. The only tea *off limits* are herbal teas and earl grey varieties.
– 2 cups of white, kill-ya-tomorrow sugar (don't worry, the sugar is consumed in the process)
– 8(ish) liters of water. I fill up my stock pot all the way to the top.
– Mother SCOBY (available online HERE)
– 6(ish) cups of the best quality juice you can find! Make sure that it's real juice. I use homemade grape juice.
Step One: Heat up the water to just below a boil. Add in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add in the tea bags, cover the pot, and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature (this can take overnight).
Step Two: After the tea has completely cooled, remove the tea bags, and pour the tea into a food-grade bucket. (Hint: I got our buckets for free from the local bakery – they have tons of them from all the frostings they use!)
Step Three: Add the SCOBY, cover the bucket, and tuck it away in a dark closet where it can sit undisturbed for one week.
Step Four: After the week has passed, remove your SCOBY, which will now be two! One “Mother” – the large one you started with and one “Baby” – the new snot-like (sorry, but it's true) film that has grown over the tea. Put the SCOBY into a jar and fill it with some of the kombucha tea. This will feed it until you're ready to use it again. I store mine on top of the fridge covered with a cloth.
Ah yes, here's said “Baby” now. Hello, baby SCOBY.
Oh, and hello Mother SCOBY. Yikes.
Now, here's another change in my original recipe – now, I always had 6 cups of juice to the batch before bottling. The natural sugar occuring in the fruit allows for a small second fermentation once the kombucha is bottled. This secondary fermentation ensures that the batch of kombucha is nice and carbonated. And trust me, you're going to want your kombucha carbonated. Flat kombucha is not nearly as fun.
See? See all those beautiful bubbles?
That's what I'm talking about!
And instead of bottling in recycled beer bottles, thanks to my dear friend Carlee, I now have enough store-bought glass kombucha bottles to use! They are much easier, as I can just twist the cap right now! And even though these are reused, I've never had a problem getting the kombucha to carbonate with the twist caps. So start stashing away – any glass bottle will do!
Step Five: Fill all your clean bottles 85-90% full with the kombucha tea. Then, top 'em off with the juice. Twist on the caps.
Bam!
That's how you make kombucha, baby!
Step Six: Let the bottles hang out at room temperature for 2-3 days. Then, move 'em to the refrigerator and enjoy at your pleasure.
I've found that kombucha can usually cure my sweet tooth in the late afternoons before dinner. It can also help to fill my belly with goodness so I don't overindulge come supper.
Ahem. Not that I would ever do something as glutenous as overindulge.
…Right?
Okay, fine. Sometimes I've been known to overindulge.
But lucky for me, if I overindulge on kombucha, well that's not such a bad thing.
Enjoy!
For other great meal ideas, no matter what your dietary restrictions, check out the meal planning service I use: Real Plans.
Homemade Kombucha
Ingredients
- 8 organic black tea bags or 8 teaspoons of your favorite loose leaf tea. I've found that a nice black tea yields the best results. White tea has a very delicate flavor and I prefer mine with a bit more punch. The only tea *off limits* are herbal teas and earl grey varieties.
- 2 cups white, kill-ya-tomorrow sugar (don't worry, the sugar is consumed in the process)
- 8(ish) liters liters of water. I fill up my stock pot all the way to the top.– Mother SCOBY (available online HERE)
- 6(ish) cups the best quality juice you can find! Make sure that it's real juice. I use homemade grape juice.
Instructions
- Heat up the water to just below a boil. Add in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add in the tea bags, cover the pot, and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature (this can take overnight).
- After the tea has completely cooled, remove the tea bags, and pour the tea into a food-grade bucket. (Hint: I got our buckets for free from the local bakery – they have tons of them from all the frostings they use!)
- Add the SCOBY, cover the bucket, and tuck it away in a dark closet where it can sit undisturbed for one week.
- After the week has passed, remove your SCOBY, which will now be two! One “Mother” – the large one you started with and one “Baby” – the new snot-like (sorry, but it's true) film that has grown over the tea. Put the SCOBY into a jar and fill it with some of the kombucha tea. This will feed it until you're ready to use it again. I store mine on top of the fridge covered with a cloth.
- Fill all your clean bottles 85-90% full with the kombucha tea. Then, top 'em off with the juice. Twist on the caps.
- Let the bottles hang out at room temperature for 2-3 days. Then, move 'em to the refrigerator and enjoy at your pleasure.
This is so cool. I recently banned soft drinks and, although they aren’t as mad as I thought, my twins would like to have something fizzy to drink every once in awhile. Do you have to use white sugar? I gave that the boot too and now use sucanat. Thanks for all the directions!!!!
Yes, use white sugar! It will be eaten by the yeast in the SCOBY and there will no sugar left once the kombucha has finished brewing. I’ve tried using alternative sugars and it is no-bueno.
I actually use an organic evaporated cane sugar (not processed white sugar) in a continuous brewer and it works fine. Make tea, add sugar, let cool, add more water and pour into brewwer with SCOBY, cover, wait five days and voila…..kombucha!
I have a question. I just finished my first batch of Kombucha, and there was only one SCOBY. Should I throw this batch out and start over?
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. This was very interesting! Hope to see you next week!
Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-january-17-2012/
Share your great fermented food recipes at my Probiotic Food Linky – open through Februray 6, 2012.
http://realfoodforager.com/probiotic-food-challenge-linky/
Thank you for posting this! I have been wanting to try kombucha for a while but honestly have been a little scared … now to find a scoby somewhere! Thank you so much for the inspiration!
We’ve got to get going with kombucha again! I never liked it from the store because of all the floaty bits, but homemade I can make sure it’s really filtered before I drink it. We always just have it in a big jar and pour glasses from it. I like the bottle idea. Since I have to watch out for caffeine we make ours from rooibos tea.
This great post is featured at Sunday Snippets this week! Thanks for sharing! Come and check it out!
http://realfoodforager.com/sunday-snippets-january-22-2012/
Ok, probably a dumb question, but do you put the “baby SCOBY” into the tea for next time too? Or do you throw it out and save only the “mother”?
This looks fun and EASY to make!!
I save both. That way, if a friends want one, I always have extras! I put them all in, every time I make a batch. I suppose you could throw it away…but I just can’t get myself to do it! 🙂
Compost it if you must discard, I wonder if my chickens will like it:)
Yay! I am starting on the Kombucha band wagon! I had no way to get a mama SCOBY so I googled my way to The Food Renegade. She posted how to make a mama SCOBY. I just got it started a few minutes ago! I think I used too much tea though, so we shall see if it still works!
Oh awesome! I love the Food Renegade! 🙂 Good luck!
Hi, I have a couple of questions about how you make your kombucha. What do you cover your bucket with? If you use the original lid, how tightly do you put it on the bucket? Also, I noticed you didn’t use any starter tea from an old batch. Is it not necessary? Thanks!
Emilie, I cover my bucket with the plastic lid it came with. I just set it on there (enough to keep the bugs and dog hair out!). My Mom covers hers with a cloth and it seems to do just fine as well. After I finish a batch, I keep my Kombucha in a mason jar that I fill halfway with the finished brew. This feeds the scoby until I’m ready to use it again. Some people keep more liquid in the jar, but I’ve found that about half full feeds it till I’m ready again. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the recipe! I just found your blog and will now stalk you to the ends of the earth~~~ Your site popped up in a search for homemade chai and now I’m off to the kitchen to see if I have all the ingredients. Tomorrow it’s off to the store in search of organic plain chai tea to make my own SCOBY (thanks for the heads-up Jessica!)
Bonjour, Je veux savoir en français comment préparer Kombucha avec les JUS des Fruits. Merci
Girl, your blog is fabulous. I feel like I know you! I just wanted to share with you that I bought a large glass iced tea jar with a spout at the bottom. This way, at the end of the week, I can pour the kombucha right into the glass containers, instead of fussing with pouring it into a funnel and then into the jar. Also, I was able to find a scoby from a local beer brewing supply store. That would be a good place to look for anyone searching for a scoby, instead of using a starter kit. Please never stop blogging. I fear I will run out of inspiration and recipes and good laughs. You rock!
I have learned that you can start a Kombucha scoby with a bottle of komucha, Im assuming like the gt daves brand that contains the floating mother. Have you heard of this? I am excited to try making it myself, as even my child will drink it up!
We commonly will pour our kombucha into numerous dishes to start new scobies.
Do you know if you can use powdered glucose instead of the sugar? I use glucose in beer brewing and it does the same thing you would want in kombucha. Also, a beer brewing kit would be perfect for brewing Kombucha.
Thanks for the inspiration to start making Kombucha. I’m making my 7th batch today and so excited with how it’s been turning out. I’ve been using a blend of black and orange pekoe teas and blueberry pomegranate juice. My husband and 2 year old daughter love it as well. My hubby had a horible habit of drinking 1 to 2 low carb energy drinks per day. Thanks to the kombucha, he’s weaned himself down to 3 or less per week! I make 4 gallons each week and use 2 two gallon glass canisters covered with a cloth napkin and one of those elastic hair head bands. My next goal is making kombucha from coffee. Has anyone else tried this yet?
We do. We prefer a mix of half coffee, half tea. My husband finds he gets a double kick but it doesn’t bother his stomach like straight coffee does.
I just ordered my scoby and am DYING to get started brewing kombucha! Questions for you, if you will. Do you use unchlorinated water? I’ve read several recipes that say you HAVE to use unchlorinated water and since it would be a pain in the neck I thought I would check with you.
Nope. You don’t. People like to make things complicated. I’ve used both filtered water and regular tap water with no problems. I’d recommend using filtered (I just use my Brita).
Definitely non chlorinated, fluoride free water!!!! Good well water is best, if not, find the best filtered water you can!
If you boil your water for 10 minutes or just let it sit overnight before boiling it to make the tea, the chlorine will be gone.
Really awesome post, thank you! I have 2 questions though, first does it matter the kind of juice, like for instance could it be like homemade lemon juice/lemonade or does it need to be a “dark” juice? Secondly, instead of “topping off” all the jars, could I just pour all the juice into the bucket (after removing the mother/baby of course), give it a stir and then pour into jars? I love following all your adventures, and will be starting many of my own very very soon and have been accumulating information like a mad woman to make the transition period for my family a little less psychotic, rebellious and “mutiny’d”, if you catch my drift 😛 I did make the deal with my husband that I wouldn’t mess with his sweet tea. We’re a good southern family with good southern sweet tea, and he agreed he’d support me 100% in everything I did, when I asked him too, and I told him that for that support I’d not “jack with” his sweet tea! I think that’s quite the bargain honestly! Plus I figure in time, with other sugars disappearing or diminishing around the house in our foods, soon his sweet tea will taste too sweet and he’ll start making it less sweet so it’s win win!
Great instructions! I’ve been making Kombucha tea for years using glass containers. Are you sure it’s wise to use plastic container? Won’t that leach harmful chemicals?
It’s not the harmful chemicals but the way the culture adheres to different containers. Glass is best but I run a secondary process with just sugar-teawater and a bottle of kombucha in a kitchen grade plastic continuous delivery system. It is great because the plastic retards the growth and I can provide sparkling but not sour K for the wife and daily use.
I really, REALLY want to make a grape version, but unfortunately don’t have access to any grape juice except store bought. I know that unfortunately means it will have been pasteurized – will I still be able to use it? I am so excited to do my own kombucha!
Buy some grapes and run through a juicer. Without a juicer, (I bought one at Wal-Mart for $40.) you don’t really give a shit about your health.
3 Stages of kombucha poops: 1. Tight balls, 2. Bigass stinky poop, 3. pink easy stuff. If you don’t like to talk about shit, go somewhere else. I like my shit. It is an important factor of my health. Probiotics provided by kombucha first clean out the system and have some very wowing effects. Once the colony is established and maintained, everything you eat is processed, nutrients secreted, and non-smelly, yellowish baby poop extracted. This requires regular dosages of kombucha, which no normal person can afford, so make your own. JM(NS)HO.
First let me say that I love reading your blog and I think you are just adorable but your poor little scobys look sick. Please don’t brew in plastic and in a dark closet. I think they need a glass jar & covered with a white dish towel that is only used for brewing K.tea. They need fresh air but not a draft. The baby should be about 1/4 ” thick when done. The Mother should be nice and firm and solid. Kombucha should be 3 to 3.5 on the ph scale test striips. Today I found a good K tea site “Kombucha Brooklyn”. I bought a siphon from them that allows for continuous brewing in your regular jars. For years I’ve been brewing in glass jars and didn’t purchase the continuous brewer because of the plastic tap on those brewers.” Kombucha Brooklyn” has good videos too. Also “The Healthy Home Economist” has excellent videos
on brewing Kombucha too. I love what you’re doing with the grape juice. I’m going to try it.
You can get those labels off of the bottles easy peasy by spreading a little peanut butter on them and let them sit for a day. The labels will peel right off.
how do you reuse the beer bottles…just twist the cap back on? Also I left mine to brew for 14 days, today is the day I’m going to bottle it. Also how much did you drink while you were pregnant or breastfeeding? I haven’t had this before and I am nursing now, so I want to be sure that I can drink it. thanks!! Cynthia Vanden Beukel
I want to set up a continuous brew, i asked my son to pick me up a glass jug with spigot but he got an aladdin food grade recycled plastic is that ok for a continuous brew, I really don’t want to have to find another jar this will be perfect if it’s not harmful. It’s very difficult for me to go shopping and everything I find online is at least 15$ and then you have to pay shipping, or do you recommend a store I live in Denver so I should be around most major stores.
So how long do you keep the Scoby in another container until you are ready for it? I mean I know you let it initially sit a week or so but after you have made a batch do you do it again in another week or have you let it go for a long period? Do you ever have issues with (fruit) flies? Do you always which one the ‘mother’ is and it’s fine to let them pile on top of each other? How do you keep from introducing bad bacteria in..do you just wash your hands when you take out the Scoby (I’m always worried my fingernails are never clean enough) and pull it apart? Thanks!
Hi! 🙂 I have to say that your blog has really helped me to get into this whole foods! I have begun brewing kombucha with the continuous brew system and I love it! Thanks so much for being a wonderful voice in the world. <3
Man… sighhh… I have so many different questions for you. I wish there was a second you to do your blog and the other you to do all of the other millions of things that you do. How did you ever get the courage to start doing ALL OF THIS STUFFFFF? I want to try so many of these things and recipes but like, I just don’t know where to begin! If I even get an hour to myself while my kids are napping, I spend it washing dishes and doing laundry, before I have to whip out the ol’ boob again. And I don’t even have a homestead! LOL