25.4 Directions

This got to be a bit longer than I wanted, so I broke it up into a couple sections.

25.4.1 First ferment

25.4.1.1 Brew the tea

Dump all the water into your stock pot and get it heating up. At some point, dissolve in the sugar. Put the tea in whenever. I usually bring the water to a boil, take the pot off the stove, and then put in my tea diffusers.

Wait for the tea to cool. If you put the SCOBY in too soon, the heat might kill the good bacteria or yeast. To speed this process along, I’ll sometimes reduce how much water I initially used, and then dump in cold water once the tea has brewed strongly enough. From what I’ve looked up, you want the temp to be at least below 90 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer: It can be somewhat warm, but shouldn’t be hot.

Two comments on this:

  • I brew the tea first thing in the morning, and let it cool throughout the day. By night it has generally cooled off enough. I leave it uncovered initially, but once the main steaming has stopped I put a tea towel over it to ward of bugs.
  • I sometimes brew the tea with a smaller amount of water. I try to get just enough so that my diffusers will be submerged. After the tea brews for a while, then I’ll add cold water to the stock pot to get up to my 2-gallon batch. This helps jump-start the cooling process.

25.4.1.2 Basic run-through

Once your tea has cooled off, dump it into your big fermentation jug(s) and add the SCOBY. Or add the SCOBY first if you want. It doesn’t matter.

If you have and want to keep the mushroom, put that on top. Then cover with a thin, breathable cloth (something like cheesecloth) and let it sit for at least 7-10 days to ferment. I tend to let mine go for about 2 weeks, but I like sour things.

After a week or so, you can start tasting. Just use a spoon and scoop a bit of the liquid out. If it’s still a bit sweet, let it go longer. If it’s got a nice sourness, feel free to bottle it up. This is really up to your taste. If you let it go for TOO long, it gets really tart, and starts to resemble apple cider vinegar. You may or may not like that.

Don’t let it get too cold. Cooler temperatures will slow down the fermentation. If it gets too cold, undesirable bacteria or even mold may take root. People say not to have it against an outside wall, but I have and it’s been fine. I think about 60 degrees is on the low end of what still works.

25.4.1.3 Personal comments

The jelly mat may sometimes sink, or float sideways, especially as you’re getting started. If you don’t have the mushroom, or if it sinks, your kombucha should form one on top anyway. It might look like mold forming, but it probably isn’t. It’ll start as a thin film, then might form some whitish spots, and eventually a more noticeable white film.

If it’s mold, you should know, it will usually be fuzzy. At that point you should throw out the whole batch, sterilize everything, and start over. Hopefully you had some extra (like a second batch, or a SCOBY hotel) that you can use to restart. Otherwise go talk to your local hippie again.

Initially the mushroom will probably be thin, but if you keep it and put onto the new batches, it’ll get thicker. I don’t think having a thick mushroom provides any benefit. Some people like to brag about it being like an inch or more tall, having a lot of layers like a pancake, etc. To me that’s just taking up more room in the jug. If it starts getting too big for your preference, you can peel it apart (carefully) almost like flakey biscuits. I’ve had no issues with my kombucha whether the mushroom is 1mm thick, 5mm thick, or if I just toss it any don’t even start the new batch with the mushroom.

As I mentioned before, the excess can go into compost (you might want to chop it up), or otherwise you can Google all sorts of weird things people do with it.

25.4.2 Second ferment

25.4.2.1 Basic run-through

Once you’re happy with the taste, it’s time to bottle it up. My approach has been:

  • Pour the batch into something that has a much wider top.
  • Scoop out with a measuring cup, and dump into a funnel that goes into the bottle.

If you want to add flavoring, you can put some juice or fruit into the bottles at this time (I have some recipes in another section). While bottling, be sure to set aside some of your finished product (before flavoring) to serve as the starter / SCOBY for the next batch. For each gallon you plan to brew, set aside roughly 1.5 - 2 cups. I try to take from the bottom of the jug to get more of the yeast and such.

After bottling the kombucha, the bottles should sit out for 3+ days to build up carbonation. Some folks recommend putting them into a plastic bin in case they get over-carbonated and explode (“bottle-bomb”). Literally. Like glass shards all over. I haven’t had this happen, but a friend of mine has. Know what happened? He used a square bottle. The lesson? Don’t use square bottles.

After a few days, put them in the fridge, this will stop the fermentation / carbonation from continuing.

25.4.2.2 Personal comments

Bottling: Be careful when pouring into the bottles! It might get a bit fizzy, which means either cleaning up afterwards, or having to sit and wait for some fizz to dissipate. It might take a batch or three to get to the point that your fermentation produces a lot of fizz, but it will get there.

Flavoring: There are a few routes you can take here.

  • No flavor, just a 1/2 teaspoon or so more sugar.

  • 1.5 oz of “Pure XYZ” juice (personally I avoid the organic versions when possible, because money), or adjust the amount if you want more or less of the flavor. I’ve used the following: Cranberry, Pomegranate, Tart Cherry, and half/half Pineapple and Lime (0.75 of each). The Pineapple-Lime was probably my favorite so far, but I like both pineapple and lime, so … take that how you will. Cherry has been my second favorite.

  • Add fruit or fruit puree to the bottles. Only problem is it might get stuck in the neck. As a warning, using real fruit tends to make the bottles build up a LOT more carbonation and pressure, so they may shoot out like a volcano when you open them. The flavors I’ve tried here have been: Enough chopped up (fresh) ginger root to over the bottom of the bottle, and 0.5 pineapple juice. One peach, chopped/smashed very well and divided between 4 bottles. Both of these were great, and I’m interested in trying some other fruits.

  • Take out enough kombucha from the first fermentation jug to be the next SCOBY, and then add fruit to the big jug and let it sit for a few days. Then strain it out when bottling. I haven’t used this method, so I don’t know how well it works.

Carbonating:

  • Sometimes I put the bottles into the fridge right at the 3-4 day mark, other times I keep them out a few more days. So far I haven’t had any problems in terms of bottle bombs. The worst I’ve had is that the Pinapple-Ginger got VERY carbonated and upon opening about a third to half of the bottle fizzed over. But again, DON’T USE SQUARE BOTTLES. Those WILL become bottle-bombs at some point.

  • When I lived in a slightly cooler and less dry climate, I could leave my (round) bottles out for a week and not really have problems with over-carbonation. When I moved to a more dry climate, I’ve found that if I let the bottles sit for a week, they would violently erupt when opened (but not explode, because they were round). I think that I’ve found 3-4 days gets the carbonation to a good place for me, though that may vary throughout the year, depending on the temperature.

  • If you’re concerned about bottle-bombs or kombucha eruptions, you can “burp” the bottles after the first or second day. This should give you an indication of how pressurized they are becoming, and if you should be stopping the fermentation (by putting them into the fridge).

25.4.3 My Routine

Like I said, I’ve worked my process into a fairly stable routine. I have two batches of 2 gallons each, offset by a week. So on Saturday or Sunday morning, I’ll make the next batch (“Batch A”) of sweet tea, and set it to cool off (it can take a while).

When the tea is cooled enough, I bottle the two gallons that are ready. I try to agitate it a bit, so that the yeast / sediments mix around better. And I try to get roughly 2 cups from the bottom of each jug to set aside as the starter for the next batch. Then I wash out the fermentation jugs, split the SCOBY that I set aside between them, and fill them up with the sweet tea.

The next weekend, Batch A is still fermenting (roughly on day 7), so I brew/bottle Batch B, and the process repeats. So, assume you have Batches A1 and B1 from before. Then my timeline is:

  • Week 1: Brew the tea for Batch A2. Bottle Batch A1, and use some to start A2 fermentation.
  • Week 2: Brew the tea for Batch B2. Bottle Batch B1, and use some to start B2 fermentation.
  • Week 3: Brew the tea for batch A3. Bottle Batch A2, and use some to start A3 fermentation.
  • Week 4: Brew the tea for batch B3. Bottle Batch B2, and use some to start B3 fermentation.

If you just start with enough SCOBY to start one batch, it might take a little bit to get things settled into this process. Probably you just need to feed it to bulk it up a bit in volume, then use some for a batch, and use the rest for the batch the following week.

It’s perfectly fine to let the kombucha go longer than 10-14 days. I’ve read of people letting it go for a month or more. Even if it’s too sour for your taste, it can still be used as a SCOBY. At worst you’d just need to run a couple small batches to kick the yeast back into higher activity.

Kombucha is very forgiving in my experience. I sometimes have a little leftover starter after bottling, and I’ll throw it in a jug with some of the extra sweet tea, and it goes along just fine.