Kombucha Brewing
Early September my friend Rose gifted me a bottle of homemade Kombucha. Another friend had gifted her with a starter scoby, and she’s been brewing a few batches over the summer. I was getting tired of my own baking and wanted to try something new in the kitchen, so I asked Rose for some brewing tips and started my own.
I went and got my starting ingredients from someone on Facebook Marketplace. Instead of buying a starter kit with the scoby and kombucha, try looking for the ingredients from other brewers. Scobys will continue to grow with every batch so it’s a gift that keeps on giving!
As for my tea, I decided to use the loose tea I bought from Stockholm. It’s a blend called Sir Williams, which is a mixture of seven different Chinese tea leaves. I was initially a little worried about the tea since the recipe called for black tea, and Sir Williams is a blend consist of black, red and green with red flowers. The first batch turned out great and I am continuing to use this blend!
Sir Williams tea blend from Stockholm
I followed the recipe from this youtube video and made some modifications since I am using a one-gallon sized jar (the math in the description of the video doesn’t add up).
Homemade Kombucha
Ingredients
Scoby
1 cup of unflavored kombucha
8 + 6 = 14 cups of filtered water (8 cups for brewing the tea and an additional 6 to cool the tea)
12 grams of tea
1 cup of white sugar
Some of the brewing tips that I got from my friend and put into practice:
Use a cheese cloth. You don’t want any other materials that can shred and get into your batch
Make sure the dark storage space for your jar has some air circulation. The scoby is a bacteria that needs oxygen to grow and to eat away the sugar
After about 3-4 days in storage, the scoby will likely form at the top of your jar and creating a seal. Push the scoby down to allow air to get in
Patience is key! Other than checking on the jar for air circulation, leave the jar alone and let the scoby do its work.
I am currently in my 2nd batch of kombucha making, and have just started playing with the flavors! This batch it’s ginger and apples from apple picking this season. After just 2 days in their bottles my apple ginger kombucha is fizzing up nicely.
I am by no means an expert in kombucha, but I’m looking forward to making more and trying new flavors with seasonal fruits!
