How to Make More Kombucha Than You’ll Know What to Do With
Tastes like store bought, but more free
Making kombucha is easy and requires less than twenty minutes of time bi-weekly. This is how my friends and I make it and we are all living large with a seemingly unlimited supply. If you end up giving it a go, I’d love to hear how it went. Do it. Do it. Do it. Now. That’s Right.
Related article:
- How to Grow a Scoby for $2.50 — Peace of mind that you know where it came from and that the final product is 99% your creation. It’s the base that all future brews will ferment from.
How to Make 1 Gallon of Kombucha
Needed:
- 1 gallon glass jar. Double this recipe like me and make two gallons at a time.
- 7 16 fl oz glass bottles per gallon (used GT’s-sized bottles work well if you keep the cap.) These are for your final product.
- 3/4 cup cane sugar per gallon
- 5 bags of black tea (must be plain ol’ black tea, think Irish or English Breakfast) (5 bags is enough for a 1 gallon brew, but I would use 7 if you scale up the water and sugar to make a two gallon batch.)
- 1 scoby* (*Need a Scoby? Learn how to grow one for $2.50) If you brew two jars, you will need two scobys.
- 2 cups of raw unflavored kombucha per gallon (aka, starter liquid.) If you didn’t grow your own Scoby and don’t have any starter liquid, you can use a whole bottle of GT’s Original Kombucha from the market.
- Optional: A stick-on thermometer for your jar.
- Optional: 12 foot strip of incandescent Christmas lights + A basic outlet timer. My preferred warming method for colder climates where your home is cooler then 70°F/21°C.
Process:
- Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.
- Remove from heat and add the tea bags
- Add the sugar too, stir until dissolved
- Steep for a while, like 10 min. Remove the tea bags.
Caution: Do not add hot water directly to raw kombucha or scoby for risk of killing the good bacteria
5. Next, add the hot tea to your empty 1 gallon jar.
6. Add cold water to the jar (about 6 cups) leaving room for the 2 cups of starter kombucha and the scoby. This should probably be filtered water, but I use tap water and my scoby and I are still alive.
7. If the tea mixture is warm but not super hot, it’s now okay to add the kombucha starter liquid and the scoby to the jar.
8. Add more water to top off the jar. Fill until the liquid reaches the curved glass leading to the threaded rim.
9. Place a coffee filter over the top opening of the jar and secure with a rubber band. Now the jar can breath but any curious bugs will be turned away.
10. Place the jar in a darkish (no direct sunlight (just cover it with a towel)) area that is 65–82°F, 75-82°F degrees is ideal as this will make things ferment faster (8–20 days to ferment). The total length of fermentation will depend on ambient temperature and your taste preferences.
Pro Tip: How to keep your kombucha properly warm if your house is colder then 65 degrees (i.e. just like my casa in the winter). One solution is to wrap a 10 foot chain of incandescent Christmas lights around your jar and plug it into a basic outlet timer. For the coldest months, I needed to have my lights cycle on for 45 min, off for 15 min, 24/7. You may need to run your lights for a longer or shorter period. Even though the kombucha should be out of direct sunlight, I found that the light from the Christmas lights did not have any negative affect to the brew. LED lights will not work as they don’t generate an ample amount of heat. I prefer the Christmas light method over using a warm seedling mat because it applies the heat evenly around the jar. A seedling mat only heats the base of your jar and promotes an overgrowth of yeast that typically lingers at the base of the jar.
11. Don’t move or touch the jar for the first 7–8 days. Around this point you will start to see a new layer of scoby forming on top of the original scoby. Leaving the jar alone initially allows for a stable environment for the new layer of scoby to form and solidify. To the untrained eye, this may look like mold in the early stages. If the temperature is around 70–82°F mold will be very unlikely, wait for the growth to magically come together and it will look like a regular scoby eventually.
12. After about 8–10 days start to gently dip a tablespoon into the jar and taste for doneness (Test once per day or every other day). You will know it’s ready when it’s not sweet anymore (all of the sugar you added has fermented away) and the kombucha is as vinegary as you like. The longer you let it ferment the less it will taste like sweet tea and the more it will taste like vinegar. If it tastes similar to kombucha that you’ve had before, then you are ready to move on to bottling and flavoring.
Bottling:
1. First, take the scoby out and place it in a bowl. Just grab it with your washed hands, don’t overthink this, that sucker is tough.
2. Stir the jar to get the good yeast off of the bottom and mixed in.
Pro Tip: Pour the kombucha into a easy to pour pitcher at this step.
3. Take 2 cups of kombucha and add it to your already set-aside scoby bowl and save this for the next batch. These 2 cups will be your starter liquid for your next gallon of brew.
Pro Tip: Start fermenting your second batch the day you bottle your first batch so that you never run out of precious buch.
4. Now with the remaining kombucha, this is what you will bottle.
Bottling, also called second fermentation (F2), accomplishes two things. First, it lets your kombucha become slightly carbonated. Second, it allows you the option to add flavorings — hibiscus, ginger, berries, spices. Ultimately, you are adding the kombucha to drinking-sized bottles with an airtight cap and adding a little bit more sugar in the form of raw fruit juice or cane sugar. The sweetness will get fermented away in 2–3 days and be the fuel for carbonation.
To go unflavored, fill your individual drinking bottles (16–32oz) with kombucha and add a half tsp of sugar (per 16oz) before capping tightly.
To add flavor, add your favorite unpasteurized raw fruit juice in place of adding additional sugar. Or add a little bit of sweetened flavorful tea (think: hibiscus).
5. Leave bottles out for 2–3 days in a dark warm area, not the refrigerator yet.
Pro Tip: While it’s never happened to me, the bottles could explode at this stage. Place bottles in a trash bag or plastic tub to prevent a moist mess. Look for the cap starting to balloon up, this means pressure is building. I’ve never burped the bottles like everyone on the internet wants you to do…. live dangerously.
6. Place in fridge when done and open bottles only once cooled to ensure they don’t fizz all over the place. If they still taste too sweet, just remove them from the fridge and let them ferment for another day or two.
7. ENJOY.
Now Go Brew Some More Sweet Tea to Start Fermenting the Next Batch:
- Those two cups of kombucha you set aside before bottling (step 3 above) is your starter liquid for your next gallon batch.
- Add the starter liquid to a fresh brew of sweet tea that has been diluted in cool water.
- Add your flaccid scoby to the jar.
ATTN: The scoby does not need to be floating on the surface. Upside down, on the bottom, sideways, it doesn’t matter. It tends to float to the top after a few days due to bubbles forming underneath, but sometimes it chills wherever it pleases for the whole time.
Pro Tip: If your scoby gets thick, peel off a few layers and use what looks best. Additional scoby just takes up room in your jar. Less room = less Kombucha = failure.
Pro Tip #2: Dry the excess scoby, make vegan leather and sew a human body suit for someone you love.
4. In general, start fermenting your second batch when you bottle your first batch so that you never run out of precious buch.
Timeline:
- F1 (ferment one) 8–20 days in 1 gal. jar
- F2 (ferment two) 2–6 days in individual bottles
If you follow these instructions and give it a try, please come back and leave a comment telling me how it went.
PS: You may find that the second, third, forth.. batches begin to taste even better.
