Store-bought kombucha runs four or five bucks a bottle. Homemade costs pennies per glass once you have the setup. The process is dead simple: make sweet tea, drop in a SCOBY, wait a week, bottle it.
Mike from LifebyMikeG walks through the first fermentation step by step, including how to source a SCOBY, the exact ratios for a two-gallon batch, and what to look for when checking if the brew is ready. He also covers the second fermentation where you add flavoring and build carbonation.
The SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) is the living culture that turns sweet tea into kombucha. It looks like a rubbery pancake floating in liquid. Buy one online for about seven bucks, or get a layer from someone who already brews.
Every batch of kombucha grows a new SCOBY layer on top, so once you have one, you never need to buy another.
Boil about 8 cups of water (half the total for a 2-gallon batch). Add 24 grams of loose black tea or 12 tea bags and steep for 10 minutes. Black tea handles the long steep time without getting bitter.
Green tea works but is less forgiving for beginners. Stick with black tea for your first few batches.
Pour the brewed tea into a large glass jar. Do not use plastic. Add the remaining 8 cups of cool water to bring the temperature down faster. Stir in 1.5 cups of sugar until it dissolves.
That sounds like a lot of sugar, but the bacteria and yeast eat most of it during fermentation. The finished kombucha has far less sugar than what you put in.
Wait until the liquid cools to 90 degrees or below. Hot liquid kills the SCOBY. Drop it in and let it float on its own. Add about a cup of plain kombucha from a previous batch or a store-bought bottle.
That starter liquid raises the acidity to the level the SCOBY needs. Without it, the culture struggles to get going and you risk growing mold instead.
Tip
Use plain, unflavored kombucha as your starter. Flavored varieties have ingredients that can interfere with the fermentation.
Cover the jar with cloth or cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band. Do not seal the jar. The brew needs airflow. Use organic cloth if you can. Paper towels shed fibers into the liquid and can ruin a batch.
Put the jar in a dark spot with a steady temperature between 66 and 78 degrees. A closet works. So does inside an oven that is turned off.
Leave it alone. Do not open it, do not check on it, do not move it around. The hardest part of making kombucha is the patience.
Seven days gives you a milder, slightly sweet brew. Ten days pushes it more toward tart and vinegary. Start with seven and adjust from there based on your taste.
After 7 days, the liquid should have lightened from dark black to a golden brown. That color shift is your first sign that fermentation happened. Check the SCOBY surface for any blue or red fuzz - that means mold and the whole batch needs to go.
Strings hanging down and weird textures on the SCOBY are normal. If you have a pH meter, look for a reading between 2.5 and 3.5.
Remove the SCOBY (save it for your next batch) and pour the kombucha into flip-top bottles. This is when you add flavoring - fruit, ginger, juice, herbs, whatever sounds good. Seal the bottles and let them sit at room temperature for 2-3 days.
The sealed bottles build carbonation naturally. Open carefully when the time is up. They can be very fizzy.
