Timeline: Homemade Kombucha

altheagyde, , , ,

I’ve been drinking kombucha since the first time I was standing in the health food store with a girlfriend and hearing about gut health.

Oh, there’s a drink to give me healthy guts? Yes, please!

Oh, and it has chia seeds in it? For sure, yes please!

I’m certain I wasn’t shopping at the health food store with my husband because his head would have exploded. Want to see someone break out into a series of cursing and swearing about the price of anything then take Mr. Gyde to the health food store. He has about a 93 second shelf life in there before things start to get embarrassing!

He gets louder and louder with…

Who in their right mind thinks they can get away with charging FIVE FORTY NINE for this?!?!

Or this…

What even is this anyway, it looks like–

You get the idea. I never go to the health food store with my husband.

In any case, I can promise you he is thrilled that, thanks to my friend Lesa, I now know how to make my own kombucha!

I’m about three weeks into my homemade kombucha journey

Week 1: Attend Kombucha 101 Class located at Lesa’s house and scheduled, conveniently, before knitting club😉

Ingredients and Supplies Needed:

  • ½ gallon jar

  • ½ cup sugar

  • 2 ½ cups hot water

  • 1 Tbsp black tea (placed into disposable tea filter)

  • 4 cups cold or room temperature water

  • 1 cup of week old kombucha

  • 1 cup of juice (optional)

  • flip top bottles (optional)

Lesa had everything gathered up
Loose leaf tea and filters available online
Step 1: Dissolve the sugar into hot water.
Step 2: Put tea into hot sugar water. Steep for 20+ minutes
Step 3: Add cold water to jar, ending with 6 1/2 cups of tea. Pictured are three additional jars of new sugar tea that Lesa made up in advance.

Step 4: Take Scoby from last week’s kombucha. Remove new baby scoby and discard, give to someone else, or create a scoby hotel.
Lesa’s Scoby Hotel…beautiful! Be sure to add some new sugar tea to the hotel to feed the scobys.
Step 5: Place large scoby into new tea mixture. Also (not pictured) add one cup of kombucha from last week’s jar.
Step 6: Place a coffee filter with a rubber band “hat” over the top of the jar. Set the jar in a location out of the sunlight for about a week. The fermentation may be longer or shorter depending on temperature…about 1 week inside a home at 70 degrees.
OPTIONAL 2nd Fermentation Step 1: Add one cup of juice (or some fresh fruit) to last week’s kombucha jar. Stir.
OPTIONAL 2nd Fermentation Step 2: Pour kombucha juice mixture into flip top bottles and seal. Put bottles in a location out of sunlight…preferably inside a plastic tote with a lid because there will be pressure and the bottles could explode! Let sit for 3 days then place carbonated kombucha into the refrigerator.

Week 2: Making Kombucha *sings in best Celine Dion voice* All By Myself

Step 1: Pour a glass of carbonated Kombucha that Lesa gave me last week. Delicious!
Step 2: Move the scoby to this week’s tea after carefully removing the baby scoby.
Step 3: Start my own scoby hotel. (Pictured L to R: newly fermented kombucha, this week’s new tea with scoby inside, scoby hotel)

Week 3: It’s Working!

Next week I’m going to try the second fermentation process. I think I’ll use ginger to flavor it and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Quick Notes About the SCOBY

What is it?

Symbiotic

Culture

Of

Bacteria and

Yeast.

What does it do?

Learn More Here (video)

How about the science?

Read Here

Watch Here and Here and Here

Published by altheagyde

2 Comments

  1. I started making my own just after Christmas, so easy and yummy. Still haven’t gotten much fizz but it has been flavorful. I make a gallon at a time, am getting 6 bottles per week and drink about 8 ounces per day. Have been trying all different flavors.

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    Reply

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