When my sister in law mentioned she started making kombucha and would often drink it in a wine glass as a wine replacement that sounded like a great idea.
Kombucha is a drink made from sweet tea that is fermented using a "scoby" to make a slightly vinegary, slightly fizzy probiotic drink.
In doing some research i've seen varying opinions of kombucha, some people thinks its amazing and super good for your stomach and intestines, others think it has no health benefits and can cause certain irritations. I've not read anybody having any serious effects from it but I suggest you do a little research for yourself if your thinking about starting to make it, especially if you are on any medication or hormone replacement therapy.
I let my sister in law do a few batches first to get the hang of it and then asked for some help.
Let me say that I haven't been to strict with my measurements, its a bit of a trial and error process but luckily I haven't had too many errors so far.
What you need:
A bowl for preparation
8 tea bags (black, white, green or rooibos - so far i've only tried black but i've read about some good results with the others)
3 litres of boiled filtered water
2 cups of muscovado sugar (so far i've used light, my current batch i'm experimenting with dark)(also i've read you can use other types of sugar but i've not tried it yet)
A large jar to ferment your kombucha in (see pic below, i like the ones with a tap at the bottom but I don't think thats essential), make sure it has no metal attachments that will touch the liquid.
A couple of bottles decant your kombucha into for the second fermenting stage
A nice scoby - donated by a friend, bought online, or it is possible to grow them from bottles of kombucha but I haven't tried that.
Instructions:
Day 1 - Put the tea bags and sugar into the bowl, poor in the boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar.
You need to then leave the water to cool down, I often get inpatient at this stage and throw in a few ice cubes to help it along.
While it is cooling give your jar a good clean, make sure theres no soap left in it.
When the tea is cool, remove the tea bags and pour it into the jar.
With clean hands pick up the scoby and place it into the jar, you should have a little liquid that its been living in, pour that in too. They look really weird, they are meant to look like that! Lumps and bits hanging off are fine, if they are mouldy or have a strange smell thats bad, you should throw it away or you can just put them in your compost! I call mine Susie!
I like to cover the lid with a tea towel (not the lid that comes with the jar, your mixture needs to breath) and place it somewhere that it won't get bumped or moved. I believe it should be in a clean environment too so not near your rubbish bin or compost.
Day 8 - Most instructions say to leave your kombucha fermenting between 7 and 10 days. I usually get inpatient by day 8 but so far that seems to have given a good result.
A new scoby should have formed on the top, mine are always much bigger than the original and thinner. I think this is ok although I haven't used any of the new ones to make kombucha yet.
You can keep the new scobys in a jar in the fridge, when there is a few together its called a scoby hotel!!
I add a little liquid from the batch to the scoby hotel.
Then decant the liquid from your jar into the sealable bottles. You can flavour your kombucha at this stage, I like small pieces of chopped up ginger, i'm also keen to try some bluesberries and cinamon and my sister-in-law just used frozen raspberries with good results.
Put the lid on the bottle and store it for a few days to ferments. I think about three is best, I usually open one bottle after about a day. The longer you leave it the fizzier it gets, some people suggest using plastic bottles so you can feel when the bottle gets hard and you know the pressures built up. I'm not keen to use plastic as i'm worried about the carcinogens.
So far i'm really happy with the results, I usually manage to have one batch on the first fermenting stage, one on the second and a third that can be drunk. Is it making me reduce my alcohol intake? Not really! But I hopefully I am at least getting some health benefits.
Let me say that I haven't been to strict with my measurements, its a bit of a trial and error process but luckily I haven't had too many errors so far.
What you need:
A bowl for preparation
8 tea bags (black, white, green or rooibos - so far i've only tried black but i've read about some good results with the others)
3 litres of boiled filtered water
2 cups of muscovado sugar (so far i've used light, my current batch i'm experimenting with dark)(also i've read you can use other types of sugar but i've not tried it yet)A large jar to ferment your kombucha in (see pic below, i like the ones with a tap at the bottom but I don't think thats essential), make sure it has no metal attachments that will touch the liquid.
A couple of bottles decant your kombucha into for the second fermenting stage
A nice scoby - donated by a friend, bought online, or it is possible to grow them from bottles of kombucha but I haven't tried that.
Instructions:
Day 1 - Put the tea bags and sugar into the bowl, poor in the boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar.You need to then leave the water to cool down, I often get inpatient at this stage and throw in a few ice cubes to help it along.
While it is cooling give your jar a good clean, make sure theres no soap left in it.
When the tea is cool, remove the tea bags and pour it into the jar.
With clean hands pick up the scoby and place it into the jar, you should have a little liquid that its been living in, pour that in too. They look really weird, they are meant to look like that! Lumps and bits hanging off are fine, if they are mouldy or have a strange smell thats bad, you should throw it away or you can just put them in your compost! I call mine Susie!
I like to cover the lid with a tea towel (not the lid that comes with the jar, your mixture needs to breath) and place it somewhere that it won't get bumped or moved. I believe it should be in a clean environment too so not near your rubbish bin or compost.
Day 8 - Most instructions say to leave your kombucha fermenting between 7 and 10 days. I usually get inpatient by day 8 but so far that seems to have given a good result.
A new scoby should have formed on the top, mine are always much bigger than the original and thinner. I think this is ok although I haven't used any of the new ones to make kombucha yet.You can keep the new scobys in a jar in the fridge, when there is a few together its called a scoby hotel!!I add a little liquid from the batch to the scoby hotel.
Then decant the liquid from your jar into the sealable bottles. You can flavour your kombucha at this stage, I like small pieces of chopped up ginger, i'm also keen to try some bluesberries and cinamon and my sister-in-law just used frozen raspberries with good results.
Put the lid on the bottle and store it for a few days to ferments. I think about three is best, I usually open one bottle after about a day. The longer you leave it the fizzier it gets, some people suggest using plastic bottles so you can feel when the bottle gets hard and you know the pressures built up. I'm not keen to use plastic as i'm worried about the carcinogens.
So far i'm really happy with the results, I usually manage to have one batch on the first fermenting stage, one on the second and a third that can be drunk. Is it making me reduce my alcohol intake? Not really! But I hopefully I am at least getting some health benefits.
