Welcome to our Kombucha Master Brew Guide! We use the word “guide” instead of “recipe” here because there are about a million variables involved in making your perfect Kombucha, and to pretend like 1 recipe will work for everyone ignores the uncertainty of it all! Making Kombucha takes a fair amount of time, so it’s only right that you make something that’s specially tuned to you! This guide is intended to give you the basic tools needed to start brewing your own masterpieces. These are some of the most common practices in home-Kombucha-making, but we can’t stress enough how much we encourage you to take this adventure into your own hands and experiment!

If you haven’t already checked it out, we have an article about Kombucha that may explain and demystify the beverage and the many processes involved in making it! We encourage you to give it a read before diving in!

Before getting into making Kombucha, there are a couple of things you’re going to need. This is my setup:

A roughly 5 quart (or larger) Vessel: we recommend something glass so that you can monitor your Kombucha and scoby more easily
1 Scoby
6 Fermentation-Grade Bottles: this is non-negotiable, you could have a glass explosion if you use a sub-grade bottle!
A cloth and rubber band: to cover the Scoby vessel
An Auto-Siphon: totally not required but helps transfer large amounts of liquid without making a mess
A fine-mesh sieve with cheese cloth: you can also use a colander with cheese cloth or other porous cloths
Tape and a marker: not required but recommended

Ingredients: This is per quart of Kombucha, scale accordingly

½ quart of water
½ quart of ice water: reserved in the freezer or refrigerator until used
70-90 grams of sugar: this depends on how sweet or acidic you want the final product to be
7 grams of loose leaf tea: you can do this with tea bags as well, but you may require a larger weight because they will infuse more slowly
6-8 oz of flavoring: look further down in the guide to determine what you want yours to be!

As I mentioned before, this is just a guide, but my process is one derived from research and tradition and has worked well for me thus far!

Brew your tea and sugar in 50% of your desired final kombucha volume (this will be all of your non-iced water): bring to a boil, stirring well, and after 5-10 minutes, remove the heat, and add in the remaining volume with ice/chilled water.
Let your tea come to room temperature (65-85ºF), if you introduce the scoby to very cold (below 40º) or very hot (above 90º) liquids, you could kill it.
Add your tea to your vessel and then add in your scoby with its starter fluid
Cover your vessel, and give it a label (include the date and your chosen recipe to keep track of progress!)
If this is a brand new scoby this could take several weeks (it will need to grow to full size before it can ferment more quickly), but after several days, begin tasting your kombucha every day (small tastes!), and keeping track of how close it is getting to your desired product.
While primary fermentation is taking place, begin thinking about your additional flavorings! If you are planning on doing an infusion, you may want to begin making this flavoring several days before you begin secondary fermentation.
Once your kombucha has fermented to a point that you like, begin bottling! I would fill each bottle approximately 20% with your flavoring first (in a 16oz bottle, I’ll pour between ⅓ and ½ a cup of these flavorings). I recommend transferring your tea to a vessel (or series of vessels) that will make it easier to pour into your bottles. Make sure to reserve at least 2-3 cups of kombucha for your scoby to feed on in the meantime. Fill your bottles with the tea (not to the top, you want to leave space for pressure to build, if its a bottle with a neck, I fill it only to the beginning of the neck), seal, and label!
Brew another batch of starter tea as soon as possible, let it cool, and refeed your Scoby!
After 4 days, I’ll beginning testing my bottles one at a time (refrigerate, then try once cooled)
Once they're ready, refrigerate them all and enjoy!

My flavorings

I have only done fruit juices thus far! I have done pomegranate juice, lemon juice, pineapple juice, and infusions of ginger root. I have tried these in a variety of combinations, and plan on continuing to try new things like herbs, different fruit juices, spices, and even vegetable juices!

My experimentation

After a batch or two you will begin to find patterns! I know that with my set-up, primary fermentation will be done in around 7-10 days, and my secondary fermentation will be done in around 6 days.
I have found that more fibrous juices are not as good at containing the carbonation (this could just be my experience, but juices with less solids in them seem to be much more fizzy)

Cleanliness

This is fermentation, meaning there is rampant bacterial growth and activity. If properly managed, this is just an avenue into an incredible (and healthy) world of flavors and foods. However, if improperly managed and left unmonitored, pathogens and mold can form and can be very detrimental to your health. Therefore, keeping all of your tools/vessels clean, and monitoring your fermented products regularly is not just recommended, but required. That being said, for the average person, determining what good bacterial growth and bad bacterial growth looks like can be very difficult! So here are some rules of thumb:

Fuzzy and green/white/blue/black mold is not good
If it stings your nose to smell or causes an intense reaction (gagging, pulling away, sneezing), not good
When in doubt - throw it out
If you're afraid, you can cook your kombucha (without the scoby in it!) and cool it before consuming. This will kill any pathogens, but will negatively impact the flavor
Clean your hands, tools, vessels, etc before using and of them (antibacterial soaps are not advisable)
Monitor the temperature of your fermented products and any ingredients you add to them!
Regularly inspect your fermented products to ensure that everything is remaining healthy

Kombucha Master Brew Guide