fermentation 101: how to make your own kombucha

Your handy guide to home brewed booch:

Ingredients:

1 gallon of water

8-10 tea bags (high quality plain green or black tea

1 cup of sugar

Scoby 

Supplies:

1 gallon pot

1 gallon glass jar (a container used for iced tea etc works great, just no metal spout-plastic ok for that part) 

Cheesecloth or breathable smaller towel & rubber band to secure over top of jar (the scoby is a living symbiotic yeast culture and needs to breathe so don't seal it closed)

Smaller jars/glass bottles with plastic lids for making infused batches 

....or skip the time & $$ tracking down all of the above and get a handy "Feed the Mother" DIY booch kit here: https://www.rebellecollective.com/edibles-elixirs-1

Step by step: bring water to boil, boil 5 minutes, reduce heat and add 1 cup of sugar, simmer for 5 minutes, turn off heat and add tea, steep for 10 mins then cool fully to room temp before adding to base batch 

IMPORTANT: •Tea must be room temperature before coming in contact with scoby

•Use a glass container for your large base batch-NO METAL on the spout, etc

•Use filtered, fresh water and plain white sugar-the scoby cant break down complex sugars like honey, etc. 

•Also keep in mind this is a strange but true fact: if you happen to make your own lacto based culture concotions (ie yogurts etc) make sure not to do it any where near the booch-the cultures will literally kill each other through the air!

  Let sit 2 weeks to begin, taste test and add to smaller jars for infusions or drink up plain-leave a bit of the original batch for the base and repeat steps! 

INFUSIONS: Once your booch is ready (about 1-2 weeks depending on your personal taste preference, the longer it sits the more it ferments/gets more vinegary) its time to add flavors! Fill up a few jars with your favorite combos, refrigerate a few days to enhance the flavors and enjoy! Here are a few of my favs: •Triple Root: ginger, ginseng, turmeric (fresh chopped ginger & turmeric, dried ginseng) 

•Apple-Mango-Carrot: dried mango & apple, fresh ginger, about 2 oz fresh apple carrot tumeric ginger juice 

•Sea Monster: 1/2 tsp spirulina, chlorella, E3Afa algae (aka kalmouth lake algae, info on that here: http://www.e3live.com/p-8-e3afa.aspx), chopped fresh ginger (this one is great to add to green juices)

•Apple Cinnamon: dried apple, 2 oz apple ginger juice, tea bag full of mulling spices 

•Matcha Chai: 1/2 tsp matcha powder, 2 chai tea bags steep 1-2 days 

•Mint Lemonade: candied lemon rind (I make this by steeping lemon peels in a "simple syrup" made from monk fruit sweetener for a few days and then dehydrating them overnight), fresh mint leaves muddled at the bottom of the jar, 1 tbs fresh lemon juice (this one is best fresh, remove mint pieces after a day or use dried mint leaves) 

•Heart Beet: 2 oz beet-carrot-orange-turmeric-ginger juice, dried beets, fresh turmeric & ginger, dried rosemary in a tea bag

•Pina Colada: pineapple-ginger-mango-papaya puree, dried coconut, dried pineapple & mango

You are only limited by your imagination on possible flavor combinations!

Short on time? Pick up a bottle of pre-made booch under the "edibles and elixirs" tab-flavors rotate seasonally, available in 16oz & 32oz (local MPLS-STP delivery/pickup only).

Happy brewing :)