Kombucha: Brewing My First Batch of 'Booch

 Home-brewed Kombucha.

Two words I've been pondering for quite some time... And now I am making it a reality.

     Kombucha has so many great health benefits including liver support, detoxification, aiding digestion, and it can help with weight loss. It is a great drink to add to your daily liquid intake and I know I feel so good and regulated when I'm on it. The problem: Store bought kombucha is priced ridiculously! I started calculating how easy and inexpensive it is to home brew your own: once you have all the equipment, the reoccurring cost for a one gallon brew is $2, which per serving is only fifteen cents!!! Or you can just shill out $3.49 for a store bought one. I knew this would be my new fun experiment and hopefully a new part of my routine.

     Every kombucha is based around the living, slimy-looking scoby = symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. You can find an allotment of good scobies on Amazon, but I decided to go with etsy.com. I really like the idea of supporting small businesses when I have the opportunity, and I know that is what Etsy is made up of. I found a really good inexpensive culturing seller who does all sorts of things like scobies, water kefir grains, and milk kefir grains. Her site's here. She was having a sale on organic scobies for only $3.99 with $3.99 shipping! Umm, yes please, I'll take ten... oh wait, that is what is awesome about scobies, they make babies each time, so if you take good care of him, he will keep producing new ones.
     So I will admit, I killed my first scoby! And it was like loosing a pet, I was really sad! So after burying him with tears streaking down my cheeks, I... just kidding. I reordered a new one from my Etsy pal, and she was so sweet and sent me two scobies (probably from pity). She also gave me free trials of milk kefir which was an awesome addition I had been wanting to try as well.

*Ideally I would love to be able to have a whole fermentation area dedicated to kombuchas, 

kefirs, sauerkraut, and pickling veggies. But as I have mentioned before, I kind of jump 

into things too quickly, so Justin lovingly reminded me to get good at kombucha first, then 

we can add on another project. Fermentation is also a great homesteading act that we 

can start learning with I have talked about wanting to do in my blog post A Homestead.*

      I decided to do a green tea base. After researching, you need to choose either a black, green, or oolong tea. If using white, rooibos, or herbal, you have to mix around 40%/60% with either one that they say to use for optimal scoby health. As I've said, it is all about the scoby! I decided to go with green tea since most research points to the higher health benefits of green opposed to black tea. Also the usual kombucha I opted to buy at the store was the GT's Multigreen Kombucha which is green tea based, so knew I would like the flavor. Kombucha brewing is actually a very simple, easy process, and like most fermentation, depends on patience to let the bacteria and yeast do its work.
Here are my steps to brewing and I will note where I messed up and killed my first scoby to hopefully save you from the pitiful death of your own.
 One, make sure you have all the equipment which needs to be cleaned carefully since you are dealing with a healthy live bacteria. You do not want the potential of bad bacteria to grow and cause harmful mold. This is the equipment for a gallon brew of kombucha.

      A gallon glass jar (preferably with a large top opening for the scoby to grow). Good organic sugar. Black or green tea from a reputable source making sure the ingredient is camellia sinensis, proving it is real tea leaves. A healthy scoby, starter kombucha from a previous batch or a store boughten plain kombucha like GT's Original. Choose either a cheese cloth, paper towel, or kitchen towel. Since I am doing a secondary fermentation to produce a carbonated kombucha, I also got mason jars (or you can use flip-top jars -anything airtight).
 Two, you start with making your sweet tea. I brew about half a gallon of purified water, do not use tap water. Since I used green tea, I stopped the heating of the water at 170 degrees instead of boiling so as not to burn my tea leaves. There are many different amounts of tea you can use (every 'booch maker has their unique take), I decided 10 packets would be a good first batch. I let steep for 10 minutes, then took out the bags and added 2 cups of sugar. It usually only calls for 1 cup, but when it's your first batch with a new scoby, its better to chunk him with more sugar than less!

***IMPORTANT! You must be patient and wait for the tea to cool to below 81 degrees or your scoby perishes!!*** yes it was late at night and I had just put Cedric down to bed, I was impatient (when am I not?)... RIP poor Toby the Scoby. I realized if I didn't use the whole gallon of water during the sweet tea making, I can pour the cool rest of the gallon into the tea to help speed up the cooling process.
Three, once the tea is at room temperature, you can put all the water in your CLEAN gallon glass jar. I got mine for pretty cheap at World Market, I was having trouble finding a large open mouth jar in normal grocery stores.
Four, pour in the 1 cup starter kombucha, store bought or from previous batch (many times when you order your scoby, the provider will send enough starter liquid to help preserve the scoby during shipment and to help in your first batch). That is the one negative point from my Etsy lady, I did not think I had enough starter fluid which is my second mistake from my first batch ***Have at least 1 cup starter liquid to make sure the scoby will survive too.***
Five, you are now ready to touch that weird creepy-looking scoby. Do not fret, it didn't feel as slimy as I thought it would (or maybe I just feel in love with my little pet so it didn't matter!? Sort of like cleaning your baby's diaper, you love them, so you get pass the stench. For me it did not feel as weird in my hands as expected) Just handle carefully and make sure your hands are clean!!! And by all means do not have anti-bacterial soap on your hands, that would kill your poor bacterial yeasty pal.
Six, cover with a loose cloth and rubber band to keep in place. You are done! Put in a room without direct sunlight and preferably a warm place. When in a cold area, it takes longer to ferment. I keep mine in the nursery room since at night there is a heater to keep Cedric's little feeties warm.

Smart to add the date you started each batch to keep track of time!

      Fermentation is a great practice for me, helping with my patience. You have to wait anywhere from 7-30 days depending on how sweet you want the kombucha. I, being sugar-free these days, wanted the scoby to feast on most of the sugar so I am not drinking a sugar-filled drink. Anytime after 7 days you can put a straw in and get a taste. The longer you wait the more tart the kombucha will be. My first batch I put into the mason jars to have their second fermentation for carbonation. When I tried it after three days, it was still really sweet. I am thinking since I had put 2 cups of sugar for the first batch that it had made the kombucha way sweeter then a normal batch would be with the same fermentation time. So I am hoping with my next batch that I have already started that I won't have to wait 30 days to make it less sweet!

Look at those nice carbonation bubbles!

       Also with this next batch, I am going to add berries, ginger, and a few drops of liquid stevia to the second fermentation to add a different flavor. I am very excited. The flavor mixtures are endless and can't wait to perfect my kombucha making.

  If anyone ever wants to try making their own kombucha just let me know. I will gladly let you adopt one of my baby scobies! I would feel so wasteful if I ended up just throwing them away when they have produced too many. And look at how beautiful and healthy they look?!?  That, or I read they can help make an awesome mulch.

Have you tried kombucha before? Ever think of making it on your own? Have you tried fermenting other things?