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Kombucha Making

Kombucha Making

Kombucha

Kombucha is a fermented tea created with a SCOBY, or Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, that has a myriad of health benefits. These health benefits range from being a great source of probiotics and antioxidants. 

The fermentation process of making Kombucha produces acetic acid, which is also found in vinegar, and will create several species of lactic-acid bacteria which is commonly thought to have a probiotic function. These probiotics provide your body with healthy bacteria to aid your digestion and possibly inflammation. These acetic acids that are produced also can help to kill harmful bacteria.

During this fermentation process alcohol is produced and homemade kombucha can contain up to 3% ABV if you do not let it fully ferment, but that should not deter you from trying to whip up a batch yourself, as long as you allow it to fully ferment in a clean and sterile environment you should have great success in making a non-alcoholic Kombucha yourself.

The ingredients of Kombucha is incredibly simple, you really only need a SCOBY, tea, water, and sugar. There are several variations of Kombucha Tea including those made with Green Tea and Honey called Jun.

Thanks to our amazing Instructor, Julia Wills, you too can now make Kombucha at home!

Basic Kombucha Recipe

Supplies Needed:

Fermentation Vessel (Wide Mouth Jug)

Pot for Boiling Water (Optional)

Cloth or Coffee Filter and Rubber Band

OR Check out our Kombucha Starter Kit

Ingredients:

About 1 Gallon of Filtered Water

1 c. Sugar

4-6 Bags of Organic Black Tea or 2 tbsp. Loose Leaf Black Tea

1/2 - 2 c. Kombucha from a previous batch

1 SCOBY

Directions:

  1. Bring your water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and add the sugar stirring until it is fully dissolved.
  2. Remove from heat and add the tea bags and allow the tea to steep for 10 minutes, or until the water has completely cooled.
  3. Remove the tea bags and discard. Transfer this sweetened tea to your fermentation vessel.
  4. Add the pre-made Kombucha and place a SCOBY on top of the liquid.
  5. Cover this with a towel, cloth or coffee filter and seal with a rubber rubberband.
  6. Transfer the entire jar to a warm, dark place away from contaminates and insects. (A great choice for this is a shelf in a kitchen cabinet.)
  7. Depending on temperature, it will take 7 to 14 days to culture, meaning a new SCOBY will form in addition to the existing one. This fermented tea will have a sour or vinegary taste. It can also be fizzy. Transfer this fermented tea to smaller bottles, and add your flavoring if you desire. Store these bottles in a cool place until ready to drink.
  8. You can now begin another batch if you want with these SCOBY's or you can keep them for use at a later date.
  9. If you want to save them for a later date, you should create a SCOBY hotel, which is a highly sweetened tea that your SCOBY can live in and create more SCOBYs in until you are ready to use them again. To do this you simply add 1 c. of brewed black tea combined with 1/8 c. sugar to the SCOBY container, and allow it to sit in a dark, warm place undisturbed until you are ready to use them again.

 

There are so many variations of flavorings that you can do when you make Kombucha from scratch. There are also various Green Tea Versions that are made by substituting the sugar for Honey and the Black Tea for Green Tea.

We hope to follow up this recipe with some common questions and foibles soon!

 

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