I've had lots of request for my recipe that I use for brewing my own kombucha. If you aren't familiar with kombucha, then you are missing out! It's a lovely probiotic drink made from fermented tea that can be a great addition to a healing diet. I usually drink it daily, as well as adding in other fermented foods and beverages like sauerkraut, water kefir, milk kefir, apple cider vinegar, and Jun. I've included a great link from Cultures of Health if you'd like to read up more on exactly what is in kombucha. If you'd like to brew your own, then let's get started!
Kombucha
Materials you will need:
- Glass brewing vessel, ranging from 1 quart to 1 gallon
- SCOBY (Request from a local brewer or feel free to ask me! I ship them out regularly for $7 including shipping!)
- White cane sugar or evaporated cane juice sugar (YES! REAL SUGAR!)
- Cold water (filtered, distilled, or spring water)
- Wooden or plastic spoon
- Tea (Black, green, white, or oolong)
- Coffee filter or breathable, tightly woven cloth
- Rubber band
- White vinegar
Ratio Chart
Tea: bags or 1 tsp if loose leaf
Directions
Gather your materials. Using only quarter of the water called for in the recipe, brew your tea. For example, if making 1 quart of kombucha, brew the tea in 8 ounces of water. Allow tea to steep per directions on packaging. Remove tea bag or leaves. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Add in half of remaining cold water. Make sure tea is room temperature! If not, allow to cool to room temp. Add in starter tea. Rinse hands with white vinegar and add in SCOBY. Slowly add in remaining cold water until vessel is full (a one quart vessel will brew 1 quart of kombucha but may not have room for all the water), leaving 1 inch of headspace at the top. If you have extra water, that's ok. You don't need it. Cover with a coffee filter or cloth and secure with a rubber band. Store out of direct sunlight. Depending on temperatures and how much you are brewing, your tea may take anywhere from 3-14 days to brew. When the tea no longer tastes like sweet tea and starts tasting tart, it is ready. If you would like it extra tart, allow it to brew longer. If you would like flavor or fizz, try a second fermentation. Once the brew is ready, pour into air-tight bottles and add different fruits for flavor (frozen, fresh, whole, pureed, juice is all up to you). Seal tightly and leave on counter to ferment again for 2-3 days. Be careful when opening as it can build up pressure. Make sure to burp the bottles (let some of the pressure escape) every 24 hours to avoid a bursting bottle.
