How To Make Kombucha

Hello, hello! Hope everyone is doing as well as they can, staying safe, and staying home. I’ve been busy learning how to make kombucha and wanted to share just how easy it is with you all. This recipe is for making one gallon of kombucha, but you can make as much or as little as you want.

Making kombucha requires minimal ingredients. Basically, you need a scoby, tea, sugar, and water. I used an Oregon Kombucha Kit that had almost everything I needed included. The links in this blog post will take you to our website where you can get what you need.

 You’ll also need a pot or something to boil water in, a one-gallon jar, breathable cloth, and rubber band.

The first step is to clean all of the equipment your kombucha will come into contact with. Here are what we recommend as cleaner, but you can just use soap and water if you wish. 

Next, boil the water and add the tea bag(s). If you are using single tea bags, you will need 6-8 bags depending on how strong of a flavor you would like. If you're using the kit, you'll just need the one tea bag that comes with it. You can use tap water or bottled water, but don’t use water from faucet mounted water filters because they can sometimes cause mold to grow in your kombucha.

Steep the tea for 5-10 minutes, then remove it, add 1 cup of sugar, and stir until it’s dissolved. Transfer the tea to your jar and fill it almost all the way up to the top with water. Let your kombucha cool until it is less than 100 degrees. This can take an hour or two, or you can just add ice and let it melt to speed up the process. 

Carefully place the scoby on top of the jar and add the starter liquid.

Next, cover the container with breathable cloth and rubber band into place. I used part of an old cotton shirt and it worked great.

Store your kombucha in temperatures of 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. I got a little heat blanket for my kombucha to keep it right at 78 degrees, but if you don’t want to do that it’s fine, your kombucha may just take a little longer to make. If you put your kombucha in a cabinet, make sure to leave the door open a little because it needs fresh air.

After about a week, start taste testing your kombucha. Kombucha can take anywhere from 10-20 days to ferment properly. When it is a good mixture of sweet and tangy, your kombucha is ready to bottle.

Before you bottle, it’s important to remember to scoop out 1-2 cups of liquid so that you can use this as starter liquid for your next batch.

Bottle your kombucha. Add any flavorings, like fruit or extracts.

Leave the bottles out in room temperature to carbonate, after 2-4 days, refrigerate.

And that’s it! The cool part about kombucha is that once you have a scoby and some starter liquid, you can keep making it over and over and all you’ll need to buy is some sugar and tea. Store bought kombucha can get quite expensive, so making it at home can help save some money and is a fun activity.

I hope you all have found this helpful! Please leave comments or questions and make sure to check out our YouTube channel for more information if you are interested! The link to our How To Make Kombucha Video is right here.