How to Make Kombucha at Home
Making kombucha at home is surprisingly easy. All it takes is a little experimentation and a bit of patience.
For those unacquainted with kombucha - it is a fruity, fizzy, refined sugar free drink that has become insanely popular over the last couple of years. As an added bonus it is loaded with good bacteria making it a great choice to improve overall gut health.
The steps to making homemade kombucha is straight forward and requires just three stages:
- Make the SCOBY (takes approximately 4 weeks from scratch or purchase MOD Kombucha Starter Kit which includes one ready to go!)
- First fermentation (10-16 days) - to make the actual kombucha tea
- Second fermentation (5-10 days) - to flavour and carbonate your booch!
Some tips to know straight up:
- Using unflavoured black tea will help strengthen your SCOBY! For the first few brews, it is essential that you use black tea such as English Breakfast. The SCOBY feeds best off black tea. Once it is nice and strong, then you can start experimenting with green tea bags. Avoid using any fruity or flavoured tea bags as this can damage the SCOBY.
- Cleanliness is key! As you will be creating an environment to allow good bacteria to flourish. If bad bacteria makes its way into your brew, then it will ruin your batch and require you to start all over again. Make sure your hands and all equipment used is nice and clean.
- Temperature will impact fermentation times! Living in Australia we are exposed to a pretty diverse range of temperatures. Warmer temperatures will cause the fermentation to speed up and therefore the total length required for fermentation will decrease. The opposite is true with cooler temperatures. You will need to avoid having your brew sit at either ends of the scale. Too cold and your fermentation will become dormant. Too hot and your brew will spoil. Aim for a spot in your house that is between 20C and 25C.
How to get started
The easiest way to get going is to purchase a starter pack which will provide you with a ready-to-go SCOBY and all the instructions. The MOD Kombucha Starter Kit comes with a 2 litre glass jar, room thermometer, a live SCOBY, the starter liquid as well as detailed instructions meaning a lot of the guesswork and waiting around is taken care of. Done right, this starter kit will provide you with unlimited number of batches of your favourite kombucha.
The process of making kombucha at home is pretty simple and once you do it a few times, the steps involved become second nature and making a fresh batch will take you less than 10 minutes to organise. The SCOBY takes care of the rest.
Flavouring your booch
Once your brew has undergone its first fermentation, it is time to flavour your brew. Here are just a few of our favourite flavours to really take your booch to the next level:
- 2 litres first fermentation kombucha + 2 cups fresh or frozen mango + 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 2 litres first fermentation kombucha + 100g chopped pineapple + 20g fresh basil leaves torn + 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 2 litres first fermentation kombucha + 3/4 cup chopped fresh or frozen strawberries + 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 2 litres first fermentation kombucha + 1 ripe peach, chopped + 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 2 litres first fermentation kombucha + 1 large knob of fresh ginger sliced + 1 semi ripe pear, sliced + 2 TBSP maple syrup
Simply adjust the flavourings ratio to the amount of first fermentation kombucha you have.
Kombucha, like making homemade cider or beer, is all about experimentation so feel free to get creative!
If you are interested in trying your hand at making it yourself, check out our Kombucha Starter Kit here!
