Recipe for 1 Quart Kombucha
Ingredients:
4 cups Water
1/4 Cup Sugar
3 bags or 1 tbsp Black tea
1/2 Cup Scoby starter liquid
Brew sweet tea, let it cool until it reaches room temperature.
Combine sweet tea with starter culture (this can just be kombucha from the last batch or store bought raw unflavored) in your brewing container. You can include a pellicle(also called a scoby) or pieces of it if you want to but it isn’t a neccesity. If this is your very first brew, it is beneficial to add extra starter liquid. This will drop the pH level and help keep away mold.
Cover the container with a breathable cloth like coffee filters that will let air pass through but not let dirt or bugs in. Cheesecloth doesn’t work the holes are too big, using it you risk contamination. Use a rubber band to secure the cloth.
Let it to sit in a warm corner inside with no direct sunlight indirect is fine though. Minimum temperatures for brewing are 65F or 18C, with the best around 80F or 27C. Around a week in, you can start tasting. If it taste too sweet leave it for longer. If it taste perfect then bottle it up. Brew time depends ENTIRELY on preference and environment.
For bottling (sometimes called the second fermentation or “2F” for short) you can add fruit, fruit puree, or sugar. This will help with carbonation/fizz, If you decide to use fruit juice, add 10 to 20% sugar. Start with a teaspoon per bottle and change it after some experimenting. If you decide to use fruit, experiment or check what other people are doing for some creative flavor ideas.
The bottles should sit at room temp for 1 to 7 days so they make enough fizz. It varies greatly depending on how you mixed your brew and what fruits or flavors you used. Check them every day to see if they fizz up that way you don’t get bottles exploding from too much carbonation. You don’t have to check every bottle every day you can just check one of them from each batch and then the next day check a different one until they are ready to put into the fridge.
Sambucha 