My First Experience Making Kombucha

Kombucha. Typically, when people talk about kombucha, they fall into one of three categories: Love it! Hate it! What the heck is it? Kombucha is a sweetened tea that's been fermented using a scoby ("Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast"). It takes between 7-14 days to make a batch of kombucha, and the result is an effervescent slightly tart, slightly sweet brew that apparently contains a whole slew of amino acids and vitamins. You can now find rows of different kombucha brands and flavors in the drink case at Whole Foods, but brewing my own at home sounded like the more interesting way to go.

But where to start? In my case, a class with expert kombucha brewer Eric Childs of Kombucha Brooklyn.

The Class

The thing that spurred my intimidated little self to give this a real try was a class I saw advertised at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg: an "All About Kombucha" class taught by Brooklyn's own Kombuchaman, Eric Childs, the founder of Kombucha Brooklyn. The one and a half hour class promised to teach me the history of the beverage, its health benefits, and —most importantly— give me everything I'd need to start brewing at home. Sounded perfect. And it was exactly what I'd hoped. Eric Childs was exuberant about drinking and making kombucha, and he freely shared his tips, tricks, and recipes. I left that evening with my little starter jar (containing my 3-inch-in-diameter scoby disc), my Kombucha 101 packet, and a large 5-liter jar. (Maybe a bit ambitious, but I was determined.)

My Kombucha starter jar; our teacher Eric Childs, founder of Kombucha Brooklyn.

A picture of one of Eric's healthy scobys

The First Batch

Materials:

4 liters of filtered (not tap!) water
8 tea bags (black, oolong, green or white tea only)
1.5 cups white sugar (NOT brown. Whole Foods' 365 Organic Cane Sugar works well)
1.2 cups kombucha from a previous batch as an acid starter
1 kombucha culture, or scoby (size doesn't matter)

The Equipment:

A 5 liter glass jar
A clean piece of cloth to cover the jar, something with a looser weave. Cheesecloth or a piece of a thin undershirt would work fine.
A rubber band to secure the cloth
Some bottles to store the finished tea
A warm location for storing (70-86 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal)
Non-metallic spoon and measuring cup

The Process:

I ultimately decided that I should start with the quart bell jar rather than the 5-liter jar, as Eric instructed, in the event that my "booch," as he calls it, didn't turn out to my liking the first time around. (See below if you're making a 5-liter batch.) So, after thoroughly cleaning my hands and the counters, jars, and non-metallic utensils I was going to use, I gently took my scoby out of the bag and placed it to sit on a plate (primed with a teaspoon of kombucha, so as not to shock the culture) while I prepared the tea.

Since I was brewing a very small 1-quart batch, I used the supplies that came in my starter jar. (Eric Childs essentially made our first brew "dummy proof" by pre-measuring out the sugar, tea and kombucha starter for us... it was just a matter of putting it all together.) I poured boiling water into the jar (which I primed by running it under hot water for a few minutes so the glass wouldn't crack) about half way and let my black tea bags (Darjeeling and Oolong are the best) steep for 20 minutes.

Once the tea had sufficiently steeped, I removed the bags and stirred in the sugar till it was dissolved. Then I filled up the rest of the jar with cold water, added the starter liquid, and carefully dropped my scoby into the brew (brown side down) and secured the tea cloth covering it with a rubber band. Finally, it was off to the dark, warm cupboard above my fridge to sit and ferment. And I waited...

From top left to right: Day 1, Day 3, Day 7, Day 10 - time to drink!

...and it worked! After a few days, a new scoby started to form at the top of the brew — the "baby" scoby. As you can see from my time lapse picture above, my mother scoby moved to the top of my brew around Day 3, and then a new scoby started to form. The new scoby was white and the brew smelled very vinegary-ey — like kombucha — which is a good sign. You never want your booch to smell meaty or cheesy. That means it's contaminated.

I started sampling the brew around Day 5 to determine when I could bottle it. When to bottle is really determined by personal taste, by how sweet you want your booch. The longer you leave it, the more sugar will be "eaten up" by the culture, and the more tart your booch will be. I ended up bottling around Day 8 this time around.

When I determined the booch was ready, I carefully removed the scoby (again, making sure everything around me was extremely clean!) and filtered out the brew, leaving a little bit behind as my "starter liquid" for my next brew. Then I poured the brew into a canning jar and put it in the cupboard to carbonate for 2 days. After that I transferred it to chill in the fridge... and voila! My first glass of homemade kombucha.

The Follow-up 5-liter Batch

I felt confident enough to start a 5-liter batch, and I was now able to follow the measurements provided by Eric in his "Kombucha 101" packet (and shown above). Because it was such a bigger batch, I let it brew for a full 14 days. You can see it here on Day 12. Even though I started with my small 3-inch-in-diameter mother, my baby scoby grew to the width of my large jar. My bounty from this batch yielded 7 jars!

Day 12 of my 5-liter brew

7 containers of booch!

If you're interested in brewing at home, you can buy home brew kits (including scoby) from Brooklyn Kombucha . If you have any friends brewing kombucha, you can also score a baby scoby from them, or else find a restaurant in your area that makes and sells kombucha, and ask their chef if he/she would be willing to share a culture with you. I almost did this myself before I found the Kombucha class.

There are a whole host of flavors and teas you can add after you ferment, before you bottle. You can add another tea flavor, a juice puree, dried fruit... the options are endless!

Do you brew your own kombucha? What has your experience been?

Related: Make or Buy? Kombucha

(Images: Cambria Bold)

Comments (19)

Can you please not refer to a men's undershirt as a "wife beater"?

Thanks for this post! My hubby has been trying to persuade me that we should attempt our own homemade kombucha for a while now but it has really seemed too daunting to me. Your post makes the whole process look much more do-able than I had anticipated. I think maybe we'll have to give this a go now.

Yeah, I'm really interested in both taking that class and making my own kombucha, but referring to that particular item of clothing as a "wife beater" is super offensive.

I made my own kombucha a few years ago. The process was fun, but the results were nothing special. I gave up when summer came and pantry moths laid their eggs in my "mother." My preference now is to buy the occasional bottled kombucha from the store - the flavors are better anyway.

Nice! My brother was making his own kombucha for awhile...takes awhile and it's interesting to see how to make different flavors, etc.

@leepert and @JRoss1217, noted. I certainly meant no offense. That's how it was referred to in class, but I've updated the post with another description.

are people seriously offended that you called it a wifebeater? That is what they're called!
I've never heard any other term for them. ever.

I'm dumbfound that people would get so offended by something so silly

thanks for the article!!! (comments by those offended by one term don't give your article justice) i tried to "brew" kombucha without a guide, just from friends telling me what to do, and it turned out horrible. that and i don't think my cold house in seattle was a healthy environment for it. still debating whether to try again, but your article gives me hope, some good guidance and resources to get a "mother" scoby. Thanks!

I like kombucha pretty well, but probably not quite enough to put the effort in to make it for myself. That pretty much means that I don't drink it, because I really can't bring myself to buy it. It isn't just that it is sold for a ridiculous price (I'm just not paying 5 bucks for a bottle of tea), but also the promotion of it as some kind of miracle cure. Yes, it's probably pretty good for you, and yes, the placebo effect is a powerful thing, but the implication that at least Synergy brand kombucha makes that it basically cures cancer just makes me see them as sleazy snakeoil salesmen who I can't in good conscience support.

Cambria, thank you for changing it, I very much appreciate it and I'm sure you meant no offense. The article was lovely and I will definitely be trying this in the future.

To the people who think it's silly to be offended, I'm sure you wouldn't say that to the face of a domestic abuse survivor who had been brutally beaten by their husbands. Some of these survivors happen to be my close friends and it's just a needlessly violent term. I'm sure you don't believe that there's no other term for a men's undershirt? What do you think they call them in fancy menswear stores?

I brewed kombucha last year and it was a delightfully refreshing summer drink. I cannot speak to its health benefits, but I plan to do it again, come warm weather.

Nice article!

Thank you for this article! I'm also brewing my first batch right now. I got the whole kit from Whole Foods. It's been over three weeks since I stuck it under my sink. I guess it IS just personal preference but mine still tastes sweet and I'd prefer more of a vinegary taste. I have a very sizeable "daughter" scoby on the surface like the one in your bigger jar pictures.

I'm glad to see that the canning jars worked for you. I talked to some people that brew their own beer and they said that canning jars wouldn't be good for something that has carbonation. They also said if it needs to be an airtight seal, canning jars don't accomplish airtightness unless you have something cooling from a higher temperature creating a vacuum seal. Can you provide any insight here?

I make and drink kombucha myself. Apart from the fact that I love it, I also feel it helps me health-wise. I used to suffer from a lot of infections before I started drinking it. Kefir is another very healthy drink, similar to kombucha but it's main health benefits are related to the digestive tract. Can be made from milk or water. My dog and I drink it also and feel it helps too.

I love kombucha and did try making my own last year. However it seems to be less popular in the UK than the US and I couldn't find any scoby (felt weird ordering it online), so I tried creating one from store bought kombucha. Utter fail, sadly.

For anyone who wants flavor - you can add juices etc when you bottle. My sister's favorite involves ginger juice and cayenne...but you can just cut with cranberry if that's your style! I usually just do a 50/50 mix with whatever juice I make in the morning. YUM!

@Cambria Bold - thank you for updating the entry!

I brew kombucha myself and I love it (it's so easy--certainly doesn't require a class as such, but hey, to each their own!). Call me a rogue enthusiast, but I actually do use 1-2 flavored tea bags (such a berry or peach) in addition to the black tea and I've never run into an issue. It gives it a great juice-like flavor without having to actually dilute with juice.

I put mine in Grolsch bottles to get the carbonation; they sell the swing-tops ones here in MA at $10 for a 4-pack, and my boyfriend just drinks the beer for me :) It's the most cost effective! As far as flavor/taste, I think "tea wine"--one of its original names--is bang on target.

I have it everyday, and also find it's great to have in-between (or in!...try it with gin) alcoholic drinks, and/or the morning after. Perfect detoxifier.

actually i am from nyc and i never heard wife beater until i met people not born and raised in tri-state we call them guinea tee and i am italian. ha!

How fun to see a post on DYI kombucha here. I adore kombucha & made my own for years when I lived on the west coast. I pretty much only used black tea as the book I had stated that other varieties of tea like green, white, oolong, etc, have a greater risk of contamination as they aren't fermented as long as black tea is, though I knew many others who had consistent success with other teas. I haven't made any for the last couple + years since moving to the midwest (don't think my culture survived the cross country drive in summer heat). I miss it terribly. When pregnant last year a friend gave me a scoby to begin brewing again, but I was too near the end of pregnancy to get everything together. I still have it in a jar in my fridge, but doubt it's viable due to lack of air. (Anyone have any experience with trying to start a brew with a scoby this old?) Perhaps I'll try it, anyway...what have I got to lose? Your post has inspired me to get crackin' with the booch brewing again! I'll end with this tidbit of unusual kombucha brewing: I took a class a few years ago on wild fermentation in which they also featured kombucha brewing. These inventive brewers brewed kombucha from coffee. While this wouldn't be my personal choice & I doubt it would have the exact same health benefits as kombucha brewed from tea, I did try it & it was surprisingly good!