Have you tried kombucha yet? If you’re reading this post on how to make kombucha at home, chances are you have. But it’s a tangy, often subtly sweet carbonated drink that is extremely healthy. Kombucha contains probiotics that support a healthy gut, while improving digestion and helping your body detox and giving you energy.
Kombucha is made with sweet tea that is fermented over time with the help of a SCOBY, which is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. It feeds on the sugar, and produces carbonation. If you’re wondering how a sugary drink can be healthy, there is very little sugar left after the fermentation process.
I won’t go into all the alleged health benefits of kombucha, because I’ve already written about them in my post, Beginner’s Guide to Kombucha. But you can read my post or take my word for it – kombucha is amazing for you.
Unfortunately, kombucha can be a bit pricey to buy in large quantities from the store. One small bottle usually costs between $2-4. Thankfully, you can brew your own kombucha at home very inexpensively!
The process of learning how to make kombucha at home can be a little intimidating, so I simplified the instructions as much as possible in this post. I’ve also included the supplies I recommend you get to get started. There’s a bit of a cost up front. But once you have the equipment you need, all you have to really buy is black tea bags and sugar, which are inexpensive.
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Read before you brew:
1. Don’t allow anything metal to have prolonged contact with your kombucha. It can harm the SCOBY and impact the flavor.
2. Make sure all your containers and utensils are extremely clean. You don’t want to introduce any bad bacteria to the SCOBY.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 gallon filtered water
1 cup organic white sugar
8 organic caffeinated black or green tea bags (or 2 tablespoons of loose leaf tea)
1/2 cup unflavored kombucha, store-bought, or from a previous batch
A SCOBY. You can ask for one from a friend who is already brewing kombucha, from a health food store, or online
1 gallon glass jar with cheesecloth, coffee filter, or clean paper towel, and rubber band to cover jar
Funnel
16 oz glass bottles that can be air-tight
How to Make Kombucha
1. Brew your sweet tea.
Use your gallon jar to measure out a gallon of water and pour it into a pot. Bring the pot to a boil, and stir in the white sugar and 8 tea bags. Remove from heat.
2. Let the sweet tea cool completely.
You want the tea to be room temperature so that when you touch it, it feels neither hot nor cold. Once it has cooled, remove the tea bags, and stir in the 1/2 cup of kombucha.
3. Pour the sweet tea into the gallon jar.
Use a wooden or plastic spoon (or clean hands) to add your SCOBY to the jar.
4. Cover the jar with cheesecloth and a rubber band.
5. Let it sit in a warm place for 7-10 days.
Don’t put it in direct sunlight, but you also don’t want to put it in a fridge or cool place, because it can interfere with fermentation. Keeping it around 75 degrees F (24 degrees C), give or take 10 degrees or so, should be ok. Begin tasting your kombucha daily at 7 days until it’s your ideal sweetness level. The longer it brews, the less sweet it will be, since the SCOBY feeds on the sugar.
6. Reserve 2 cups of the kombucha, and store your SCOBY in it until your next brew.
This preserves your SCOBY and gives you starter kombucha for your next batch. It’s easiest to just continue to store the 2 cups and the SCOBY in the jar you brewed in.
7. Pour the rest of the kombucha into your glass bottles, with optional additional ingredients for flavor.
Leave about an inch of space at the top of each bottle. Your bottles should have an airtight seal of some kind, like these swing top bottles, to keep carbonation from escaping.
Check out my post of 12 Kombucha Flavor Recipes for delicious ideas on how to add fruit and herbs in this step!
Close the bottles and let them continue to ferment with the flavors you added for another 1-3 days in a warm place out of direct sunlight. The carbonation will increase over time. Once the kombucha has reached your desired carbonation level, strain out the fruit or other ingredients out if you want to, and store the bottles in the fridge. Drink your kombucha within a month or so.
Things to note:
- It’s completely normal for the SCOBY to grow during fermentation. There may be stringy brown bits coming off of it, and there may be some sediment that settles in the bottom. You can filter these out if you want to, but they’re not harmful to drink. Once the SCOBY grows to be about an inch (2.5 cm) thick, you can peel it apart to create a second SCOBY to keep or give away.
- Once you’ve used your SCOBY to brew a few batches and it’s going strong, you can make a batch with other types of teas in addition to black and green. Just make sure you mix them with at least a few black tea bags, because black tea is what the SCOBY really thrives on.
- As the kombucha carbonates in the glass bottles, pressure inside the bottles will increase. This could burst the bottles if it became too extreme! It’s a good idea to put some of the kombucha in a plastic bottle, which will become hard when it is fully carbonated, and act as a gauge of how the other bottles are doing. You can open each bottle to release some pressure when they become fully carbonated. Fermentation and the increase of carbonation will pretty much stop once you put the bottles in the fridge.
These instructions on how to make kombucha were compiled from Wellness Mama, The Kitchn, and Live Eat Learn.
Here’s a printable version of How to Make Kombucha!
- 1 SCOBY
- 1/2 cup unflavored kombucha
- 1 gallon glass jar
- cheesecloth and rubber band
- funnel
- 1 gallon filtered water
- 1 cup organic white sugar
- 8 organic caffeinated black or green tea bags
- sealable glass bottles
Use your gallon jar to measure out a gallon of water and pour it into a pot. Bring the pot to a boil, and stir in the organic white sugar and 8 tea bags. Remove from heat.
Let the sweet tea cool completely. You want the tea to be room temperature so that when you touch it, it feels neither hot nor cold. Once it has cooled, remove the tea bags, and stir in the 1/2 cup of kombucha.
Pour the sweet tea into the gallon jar. Use a wooden or plastic spoon (or clean hands) to add your SCOBY to the jar.
Cover the jar with cheesecloth, a paper towel, or tightly woven cloth and a rubber band.
Let it sit in a warm place for 7-10 days. Don't put it in direct sunlight, but you also don't want to put it in a fridge or cool place, because it can interfere with fermentation. Keeping it around 75 degrees F (24 degrees C), give or take 10 degrees or so, should be ok.
Begin tasting your kombucha at 7 days. Continue to taste it every day, until it's your ideal sweetness and fizziness level. The longer it brews, the less sweet it will be, since the SCOBY feeds on the sugar.
Reserve 2 cups of the kombucha, and store your SCOBY in it until your next brew.
This preserves your SCOBY and gives you starter kombucha for your next batch. It's easiest to just continue to store the 2 cups and the SCOBY in the jar you brewed in.
Pour the rest of the kombucha into your glass bottles, leaving about an inch of space at the top of each bottle. Your bottles should have an airtight seal of some kind, like these swing top bottles, to keep carbonation from escaping.
Add additional ingredients for flavor if you'd like. Let it continue to ferment with the flavors you added for another 1-3 days in a warm place out of direct sunlight, and the carbonation will increase. Once the kombucha has reached your desired carbonation level, strain out the fruit if you want to, and store it in the fridge. Drink your kombucha within a month or so.
- It's completely normal for the SCOBY to grow during fermentation. There may be stringy brown bits coming off of it, and there may be some sediment that settles in the bottom, which you can filter out if you want to, but it's not harmful to drink. Once the SCOBY grows to be about an inch (2.5 cm) thick, you can peel it apart to create a second SCOBY to keep or give away.
- Once you've used your SCOBY to brew a few batches and it's going strong, you can make a batch with other types of teas besides black and green. Just make sure you mix them with at least a few black tea bags, because black tea is what the SCOBY really likes to feed off of.
- As the kombucha carbonates in the glass bottles, pressure inside the bottles will increase which could burst the bottles if it became too extreme! It's a good idea to put some kombucha in a plastic bottle, which will become hard when it is fully carbonated, and act as a gauge of how the other bottles are doing. You can open each bottle to release some pressure when they become fully carbonated. Fermentation and the increase of carbonation will pretty much stop once you put the bottles in the fridge.
