Recipe and Directions for 1 Gallon Kombucha
You’ll need:
One gallon glass vessel (a spigot is very hand but not necessary)
2 tablespoons loose tea or 6-8 tea bags (organic preferred)
1 cup sugar (organic cane sugar is best)
1 healthy SCOBY and at least 1 cup starter liquid
Chlorine and fluoride free water
Lint free cotton cloth, towel, paper towel or cheese cloth (tripled)
Mixing spoon
Rubber band
Helpful info:
One gallon = 16 cups
One quart mason jar = 4 cups
You can ½ this recipe, double it, or do whatever you’d like, but be sure to keep the ratios the same.
Run your glass vessel through the dishwasher or wash with hot water. Rinse with vinegar or mature kombucha before using to clear of any bad bacteria.
Wash your hands but rinse extremely well if using antibacterial soap or just use vinegar right before handling SCOBY. Antibacterial soaps will damage the good bacteria of the SCOBY
A spigot is not necessary but it really nice to have. Must be 304 stainless steel.
Always brew and bottle in glass. The acidity of the finished kombucha is too strong for plastic.
Recipe for ONE GALLON
Obtain a starter pack with SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony/Culture of Yeast and Bacteria) with at least 1 cup of starter liquid (mature kombucha). Set that aside for the last step.
Bring 4 cups of water to boil, turn off the heat, add the tea and steep for 10-15 minutes. Remove tea bags or, if using loose tea, strain through cheese cloth or mesh strainer.
Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
Add it to your clean glass vessel, straining off any loose tea bits.
Add water to total 15 cups.
Let it cool further if needed, to (75° to 85°)
Add SCOBY and pour in one cup or more of Starter Liquid, stir
Cover with lint-free cloth, secure with rubber band
Date it
Let sit in a warm place in your home (68°-78° is ideal)
The hardest part – patience!
A new SCOBY will form across the top. You may see stringy bits in the tea. These are normal. The scoby can be white, shades of brown, smooth, bubbly – all are normal. The only thing that is NOT normal is dots of white or green fuzz. This is mold. Discard the batch. Boil or sanitize your jar in the dishwasher.
Begin to taste after 7 days. The tea will change from sweet tea to tangy over time. It is done when it suits your taste. The more tart it is, the less sugar it contains and the more good bacteria that have populated
Ways to taste:
stick a straw past the scoby along the side of the vessel trying not to disturb it too much.
Depress the edge of the SCOBY gently with a spoon to get a taste
If using a vessel with spigot, dispense a small amount for tasting
When to drink
You may begin to drink it right from the brewing vessel when it is still sweet and let it continue to brew. Each day it will likely get more tart. Use a ladle if you don’t have a spigot
You may let the batch sit until is it perfectly to your liking, then bottle it off
Ways to bottle:
Reuse a store bought kombucha bottle
Swing top, grolsch type bottle
Dispense it into a mason jar (fyi this will not hold a 2nd ferment well)
(Second Ferment video coming soon)
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