Home-Brewed Kombucha

Making kombucha at home doesn’t have to be complicated. This straight-forward recipe for a fizzy home brew is endlessly variable—and saves you money, too!

• Ready In: 168 hrs
• Yields: 1 gallon

Ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup white vinegar, for sanitizing equipment
• 14  cups  filtered water
• 1  cup  unbleached cane sugar
• 8  black tea bags
• 2  cups  plain  kombucha
• 1  kombucha, scoby
•  additional sugar, if desired
• 2 -3  cups  unsweetened fruit juice, organic

Directions

1. Special Equipment:
2. 4-quart pot (uncoated or stainless steel).
3. Glass jar, 1 gallon capacity.
4. Adhesive strip thermometer, optional.
5. Tightly-woven cloth at least 8"x8".
6. Large rubber band.
7. 7-10 swing top glass bottles 16 oz. capacity.
8. Small funnel.
9. Directions:
10. Wash the pot, gallon jar, and swing top bottles and wipe down with plain white vinegar. Let it sit a few minutes, and then rinse well with hot water. Dry with a clean towel, or allow to air dry.
11. Heat the 14 cups of water in the large pot and bring to a boil on the stovetop. Add the teabags and allow it to steep 7-10 minutes. While tea is still warm, remove tea bags. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Cool to room temperature. Transfer the tea to the large gallon jar.
12. Add 2 cups of ready-made kombucha to the tea mixture. Stir gently with a clean metal spoon to make sure this is well incorporated into the tea.
13. Place the SCOBY inside the jar. Cover the entire mouth of the jar with the cloth and secure it with a rubber band.
14. Allow the tea to ferment at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for 6 to 10 days. After a week’s time, use a straw to withdraw some of the liquid to taste test the brew to your desired level of fermentation. The longer the fermentation, the more tart and sour the tea will be.
15. When the taste and fermentation are pleasing to your palate, decant the kombucha into the prepared swing top bottles using the funnel, leaving about 1-inch headroom. Add additional sweetener if desired. Or, if you’re making flavored kombucha, add fruit juice to the bottles first. Add up to ¼ cup to each bottle before topping it off with kombucha. Leave about 1 inch of head room in each bottle. Seal the lids and allow the bottles to ferment at room temperature 1- 10 days. Carbonation usually happens between 1-4 days.
16. Burp the bottles every day or two to check and relieve pressure. To burp, slowly and carefully open the cap, and then put it back on. You may hear a hissing noise and bubbles may rise. This is a good sign that your kombucha is well carbonated and ready to store in the refrigerator. Refrigeration will stop the carbonation.
17. Notes:
18. Before you preserve or ferment anything, including a SCOBY or kombucha, it is important to follow all canning and processing instructions included in the recipe and refer to USDA guidelines about the sterilization of canned products. Find information on canning at the National Center for Home Food Preservation website: http://nchfp.uga.edu/.
19. Be sure to use a glass container in which to ferment kombucha. Plastic containers can harbor all kinds of bad bacteria that can grow while brewing kombucha.