How to Make Homemade Kombucha

What You Need

1. Fermenting container (At least 1 gallon or larger)
2. Black Tea (About 8 Bags)
3. Sugar
4. SCOBY
5. Water
6. Plastic tubing
7. Smaller containers to hold the kombucha for flavoring after brewing (I will be using reusable glass bottles)
8. Bottle of store-bought kombucha (or 2 cups of Kombucha from a friend who makes their own)
9. Fruit for flavoring
10. Cheese cloth

What’s a SCOBY

A SCOBY is a bacteria/yeast colony that does the work for you to make the kombucha. You can purchase these online. They are living things so you need to handle them carefully and make sure not to shock them with cleaning agents or water above room tempurature.

Making the Kombucha

Step 1:

Take your brewing container and sanitize it using boiling water or food-grade sanitizer. Make sure that if the brewing container is glass to heat it slowly. Heating it too quickly could cause it to shatter.

Step 2:

Boil 1 gallon of water and steep the 8 tea bags in it for the directed amount of time. Stir in 1 cup of sugar until it dissolves.

Step 3:

Fill your brewing jar with the tea ensuring there is enough space for about 2 cups of extra liquid plus the SCOBY. Let it sit out until it reaches room tempurature. Normally this takes several hours so plan on taking a break in between this step and the next.

Step 4:

Once the tea in the brewing jar reaches room tempurature, add up to 2 cups of the store-bought kombucha. Mix well then add the SCOBY.

Step 5:

Secure the cheese cloth over the top of the brewing jar (a rubber band works well). Make sure you do not put the lid on. It needs to be able to breathe.

Step 6:

Allow to brew for 10 days. Make sure you check on the SCOBY occasionally to make sure it isn’t growing anything that you don’t want. Look for odd colors such as dark browns, blacks, greens, and blues. If you see these colors throw out the kombucha and the SCOBY and try again.

Step 7:

Prepare a new fermenting jar’s worth of tea and let it cool to room temp. Transfer the SCOBY into the fresh tea and pour two cups of your kombucha into the jar with the SCOBY and start the next batch’s fermentation process.

Step 8:

Put any flavorings into your bottles then pour the kombucha into the bottles, leaving 1/4” of head space. If you have bottles that are twist top you may want to burp the bottles by twisting the tops every few days initially to prevent them from bursting.

Step 9:

Set your bottles in a room tempurature area with low light to let them build up carbonation for 3 days then refrigerate them.

Step 10:

Enjoy within the next 30 days 🙌

An Ozarker writing about self-reliance, doing things that are meaningful, and staying connected to reality in a digital world.
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