How I Make Kombucha

I've settled into a pretty good kombucha-making routine recently. Here's how I've been doing it, how you can get started, and how you can make sure your kombucha survives even if you need to abandon it for a few weeks!
Feel free to post any kombucha questions in the comments at the end of this post—I promise to answer them as quickly as I can.

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Here's why to make your own kombucha rather than buying it at the store: First, making it yourself is way cheaper. You can make a 16 oz. (450ml) bottle of kombucha for about $0.15 in the US (the price of an organic tea bag and two tablespoons of sugar). Compare this to $3 or $4 at the store. 20x savings!
Second, your kombucha will be better than what you can buy at most stores.

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This recipe yields 7 or 8 16-oz (450ml) bottles per week. (If you want information for how to get started, or how to keep your kombucha factory alive while you're traveling, scroll to the very end of this post.)

Stuff

Ingredients

• Sugar. I use plain old cane sugar. You'll go through it pretty fast, so you may as well buy it in 5 pound bags. Don't be afraid—most of the sugar gets "eaten" by the SCOBY!
• Tea. I use loose organic green tea. You can use tea bags if you prefer; they're slightly easier to deal with. Whole Foods "house brand" organic green tea bags work nicely, and are quite inexpensive. It's important to use organic tea, because non-organic tea can be high in fluoride.

  Equipment

• A 2-gallon glass vessel, typically sold as a "cookie jar". Get it at your favorite hardware store, at Target, or on Amazon. These often come with glass lids, but you won't need a lid.
• Two clean dishtowels and a rubber band. These will be used to cover your kombucha while it is fermenting.
• A large stainless steel stockpot, at least 6 quarts. If you are reading my blog, you may already have one of these. If not, you can get one at any decent hardware store.
• Eight or more 16 oz. kombucha bottles with caps, or pint Mason jars with lids. Some folks have reported that the caps from old kombucha bottles don't seal well, but I haven't found this. Use Mason jars if you prefer!
• A digital scale. Nowadays you can find them on Amazon for under $10—a totally worthwhile investment.
• A stainless ladle, stainless funnel (the narrow end must fit in your bottles or jars), and large stainless cooking spoon. If you don't have these exact things, you can probably make do, but they're good to have.
• A water filter. This can be as simple as a "pitcher" filter (like a Brita). You definitely want a water filter of some sort anyway, even if you're not making kombucha; municipal tap water is full of chlorine, which is pretty good for killing microbes but not so good for drinking.
• Some masking tape or painter's tape, plus a sharpie or magic marker. You will use this to label your finished kombucha!
• (optional) A metal mesh strainer, if you are using loose tea. All this gear may sound like a lot to you, but if you've been buying kombucha at the store for $4 a pop, the payoff is pretty quick.

Procedure

I do this once a week, generally on Sunday night or Monday morning. It takes me about 20 minutes total. It may take you longer the first couple of times.

Decant

1. Assemble 7 or 8 empty containers (bottles or jars). I'll generally rinse them once with hot tap water, then pour some boiling filtered water on them (especially around the lip), then let them cool and/or rinse them with room temp filtered water, then empty them. You may want a towel or something to hold onto them with!
2. Clean your gear (stockpot, ladle, funnel, spoon, optional strainer). Clean them as you normally would, then pour some boiling filtered water over all their surfaces to get them extra-clean.
3. Put the bottles or jars in the sink, and move the kombucha container to the edge of the counter next to the sink. This will make cleanup easiest.
4. Remove the towel from the top of the kombucha vessel.
5. Start ladling and funneling. Using the ladle, push the "mushroom" down to the bottom of your 2-gallon kombucha jar, put the funnel in the first bottle, and ladle kombucha into the funnel. Then move the funnel to the next bottle, and ladle again. I do one ladle of kombucha into each bottle, then another into each bottle, and so on, until I'm done. This may be two or three rounds, depending on the size of your ladle. You can fill the bottles pretty full, but you don't want the liquid to be touching the cap or lid when you close them. Make sure to leave at least one bottle's worth of kombucha in the vessel—this will be your starter liquid for your next batch. This may sometimes mean that you fill only 7 bottles rather than 8.
6. Close the caps firmly, rinse the bottles off under the tap, and dry them with a towel. Put a piece of masking tape on each cap, and mark it with today's date. Store the bottles somewhere on the cooler side, but not in the refrigerator if possible. Keeping them out of the fridge will give them an opportunity to ferment a little more, which will help them build up some fizz.

   Make new tea

7. Boil 1500 grams (1.5 liters, 1.5 quarts) of filtered water. I do this with an electric kettle, then pour it into the clean stockpot. You can boil the water directly in the stockpot if you prefer.
8. Add 20 grams (7 or so bags) of organic green tea to the stockpot.
9. Add 200 grams of sugar to the stockpot.
10. Stir, with the stainless spoon, until all the sugar has dissolved.
11. Wait 10 or more minutes.
12. Pour another 2500 grams (2.5 liters, 2.5 quarts) of room temperature or colder filtered water into the stockpot. At this point, the liquid should be cool enough that it won't burn you. You may test this by ladling some off into a glass and sticking your finger in the glass. You should be able to hold your finger in the liquid for as long as you like without pain.
13. Pour the contents of the stockpot, minus the tea solids, into the 2-gallon vessel. If you're using tea bags, fish them out and discard them beforehand with the spoon; if you're using loose tea, pour the liquid through the mesh strainer.
14. Put a clean dishtowel onto the top of the vessel, and secure it with a rubber band. It's nice to have two dishtowels so that you can rotate them.
15. Move the vessel somewhere safe, on the warmer side, out of the way of children and pets, and away from shoes, fruit, and other potential sources of mold. Kombucha likes to stay above 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), but if it's a little cooler than that, it's probably okay.
16. Wait seven days, then repeat!

Travel

If I'm traveling, I'll generally go through my routine through step 6 right before I leave, cover my vessel with a towel, and leave it at room temperature in its usual place while I'm away for up to a few weeks. Then when I get back, I'll pick up at step 7.

Getting started

To get started, acquire a "mushroom" with some starter liquid from a friend who's already making kombucha, or from an online source. Ideally you'll get at least 16 or so ounces (450ml) of liquid along with a piece of "mushroom". If you get approximately this much liquid, put it in your 2-gallon vessel along with the "mushroom", and jump right in at step 7. If you are starting with less liquid, say 8 ounces, try cutting the ingredients in half for your first batch, decant only two bottles after your first week, and then pick up the recipe from there.

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This post participates in Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival; also Waste Not Want Not Wednesday at Poor and Gluten Free. Give the carnivals a visit and see some other great real food posts!