Kombucha Supplies List
The Big Book of Kombucha by Hannah Crum and Sandor Ellix Katz
A healthy, SCOBY ( Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) and 2 cups of starter tea.
French press or loose leaf tea strainer
Tea kettle to boil water for brewing the tea.
Two jars for processing. One glass jar (quart size is fine) for dissolving the sugar into the hot brewed tea. The second jar (gallon size is best) for combining the hot brewed tea with the cold filtered water before adding it back into the continuous brew jar.
High quality swing top bottles certified to work for 2nd fermenation kombucha
Kitchen scale that measures in ounces
Canning funnel for filling jars (to help with prevent spillage) and a bottle funnel to help fill kombucha bottles.
A jar for continuous brewing at least 1 gallon in size with spigot for filling bottles. We replaced our plastic spigot with a stainless steel spigot and love it!
Breathable cover for continuous brew jar. It needs to be breathable enough for air flow, but not porous enough for fruit flies to get in. We use a banneton liner for a sourdough basket and it works great!
A fine mesh strainer for straining out fruit puree, herbs, etc. after 2nd ferment as well as some sort of bowl that can pour back into your kombucha bottles.
Visual Step-by-Step Kombucha Instructions
To get your initial continuous brew jar going, you will need to start with a glass jar with a spigot and a breathable cover. Make sure the jar is clean and add in your SCOBY and 2 cups of your starter liquid. To this jar you will add in 12 cups of sweetened black tea and cover the jar with your breathable cover. To make the sweetened tea, follow the instructions below.
This tea will ferment for 7 days before you bottle it up!
In our glass, 1 gallon prep Mason jar we add 10 cups of filtered water. We typically do this the night before so we are prepped and ready for the next morning’s bottling.
To our quart size, glass mason jar we add 3/4C of the raw organic cane sugar and set it aside.
To our glass french press, we add 2-3TB of the loose leaf passion fruit black tea and 2 cups of boiling, filtered water. We place the press on top of the water and let the tea brew for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, we press the tea leaves down.
To our quart size mason jar with the cane sugar, we pour in the hot, brewed tea and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Once the sugar is dissolved into the hot tea, we add that jar or sweetened tea to our large, gallon size glass jar (with the 10 cups of cool, filtered water). Stir to combine, giving you 12 cups total liquid. This sweetened tea must be between 75-90 degrees before it can be added to your continuous brew jar.
Next begins the stage of bottling and what is called the second ferment. The tea has fermented for 7 days in a jar with a breathable cover. Now we will bottle it with a flavoring and seal the bottles. This begins the second ferment and beginning of carbonation.
We take our swing top bottles and label them. Labels don’t have to be fancy- something as simple as tape will suffice. We use reusable “chalkboard” labels. Place bottle on the scale with the bottling funnel and zero out the scale.
Next, we add 2-3oz of fruit puree or fruit juice per bottle. The more sugary the fruit, the more poppy the kombucha will be. For instance, we have learned that our pomegranate juice becomes very poppy so we only add 2-2.5oz of juice. Our cranberry orange is less poppy so we add a full 3oz.
Beyond just fruit puree, you can also add in herbs like basil or ginger or flowers like marigold or lavender.
Then we place the bottle (with the additions- fruit puree, etc) with the bottle filling funnel under the spigot of the continuous brew jar and we fill the bottles up to the point where the shoulders of the bottle. You will need the space in the neck of the bottle for the development of carbonation.
***BE SURE to leave 2 cups of the fermented tea in the jar with your SCOBY to get the next batch of tea going.
Seal the bottles and leave them on the counter for 2 days. As the fermented tea consumes the sugar in the fruit puree, it released carbonation and makes the kombucha fizzy. Some fruit gets poppier than others so this will be a learning process. Some bottles you will want to burp each day and some you won’t need to burp at all. You will have to learn that as you go.
After 2 days of being sealed on the counter, you move them to cold storage in the fridge. That’s it!
***Please note: The ONLY reason for doing a second ferment is to develop carbonation. If you don’t like it fizzy, you can fill the bottles and stick them in the fridge or drink right away.
Once you have filled all of your bottles, leaving 2 cups of the original fermented tea in the continuous brew jar, AND your newly brewed sweetened tea has come down to temperature (75-90 degrees), add the newly brewed sweetened tea to your continuous brew jar, cover with the breathable cover, date it and place it in a dark corner away from direct sunlight. This tea will brew for 7 days before you bottle and start all over again.