How to make Kombucha

Kombucha has seen a huge rise in popularity over the last few years. Once an obscure potion on the shelves of health food stores, it’s now gone mainstream! Known for its probiotic health properties, Kombucha is a slightly sparkling fermented tea drink. It’s made from a blend of water, tea, sugar and a live culture called Scoby, or ‘symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast’.

I’m a relative newcomer to kombucha. It’s only over the past couple of years that I’ve started to drink and appreciate it. The best kombucha I’ve tasted is from Mighty Brew - love their Lemongrass! However, I can only get my hands on it when in the UK (I live in Finland). I’ve tried a few other brands, but many are just like pop. So I decided to try making my own.

For my birthday present this year, I asked Paul (my husband) for a Kombucha Starter Kit. As is usually the way with tea presents, I researched it myself and then told him exactly what I wanted! You can find all the ingredients and equipment individually, but a kit’s a nice way to get started. There’s lots of starter kits out there (link), but I went for a local company - The Good Guys, who also have their own kombucha range.

Equipment & Ingredients

Here’s what you get in the kit to make 3 litres of kombucha:

Glass mason jar, 3L
Piece of cloth and string
Steeping bags, x 2
Organic loose leaf tea (green and black mix), 15g
Organic cane sugar, 180g
Scoby
Unflavoured kombucha, 300ml

And here’s what I needed to buy separately:

Bottles with stopper tops, 1L x 3
Stainless steel funnel

Method

To make the kombucha:

Boil 2.7 litres of water. I boiled the water in an electric kettle and then poured it into a large pan.
Add 15g tea in the steeping bags to the water, and let them steep for 20 minutes.
Remove the tea and add 180g sugar, stirring until it’s dissolved.
Let it cool to room temperature and then pour the tea into the glass mason jar. You can also quicken the process by putting the tea in the fridge for a while.
Add the scoby and 300ml of starter tea (the strong unflavoured kombucha). The starter tea kickstarts the fermentation process and helps protect the new kombucha from harmful bacteria. Rule of thumb is to add 10% starter tea to a new kombucha batch.
Cover the mason jar with a clean cloth and secure it with an elastic band or string. Avoid using cheesecloth as it needs a tight weave to keep away any fruit flies.
Place the jar somewhere quiet and dark. Room light is ok, but a darkened cupboard is better. The optimal temperature is 22-27C. Too cold and it slows down the fermentation process, too hot and it speeds it up. Anything below 21C will increase the chance of mold growth.
Leave the kombucha to ferment for 7-14 days, depending on the temperature, eg. shorter when it’s hot. You can use a straw to taste test as it ferments. Kombucha should be semi-sweet with a cidery aroma (pH 2.5-3.5). A longer fermentation results in a more vinegary taste.
When the kombucha is ready, set aside 300ml as the starter tea for your next batch. Remove the scoby, and pour the kombucha into bottles. I used a stainless steel funnel, as well as a small sieve to keep the stringy bits out.
Either refrigerate the kombucha to drink plain, or you can do a secondary fermentation to make flavoured kombucha (blog post coming soon on how to flavour kombucha!).

Day 1 - scoby floating on the top

Day 3 - scoby sank to the bottom!

Day 5 - scoby still at the bottom

Day 7 - time to decant (but should've left it longer)

Scoby hotel

I was wondering how I should store my scoby until the next time. After a quick research, I came across the wonderful concept of a scoby hotel! Basically, take a clean mason jar, add the scoby and the starter tea, and cover with a cloth. Then leave the scoby hotel in a dark cupboard until you brew up your next batch.

The verdict

I was really keen to get going with my first batch, so kicked it off right away after my birthday. I didn’t take into account our summer holiday that we’d booked just 7 days later. Luckily it was summer and pretty hot so I figured the fermentation would be quick.

I couldn’t help checking on it daily! On day 2 the scoby had sank to the bottom and stayed there for the rest of the fermentation. Is this normal?! After another quick research, it seems that scobies have a mind of their own. They can get up to allsorts during the fermentation process, and it doesn’t have any adverse effects.

The day before our holiday (day 7), I bottled up the kombucha. There were some stringy bits floating about in the kombucha so I used a small sieve, as well as a funnel to help pour from the mason jar into the bottles.

I took a bottle with us to the summer cottage we’d rented out in the Finnish forest. It certainly had that distinctive cidery aroma, but perhaps just a little too much sweetness. It was like a punchy apple juice. I think it needed a bit longer to ferment.