A couple of months ago I realized that I have been making and enjoying my own kombucha for the last two years now. I know it was two years, because I was bartending at the time in downtown Nashville at Pinewood Social, when a fellow employee and I were talking about kombucha. She had been making her own for the past little while and had an extra SCOBY. She offered it to me and I eagerly accepted. 

I had always wanted to make my own kombucha, but I had no idea how to do it. Chelsea had made it back in the day when she lived in Hawaii, but didn’t really have the desire to do it again. I loved the health benefits of kombucha and the fizziness and the different flavors. I don’t drink sodas, except for plain soda, so this gives me something fun to drink that’s actually good for me.

The hardest part in my mind to making your own kombucha was getting the SCOBY. Kind of like getting a queen bee for your bee hive, its essential. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. It’s the fermentation starter that kicks off kombucha fermentation.

So now that I had my queen, I needed to learn how to take care of her and actually make the kombucha. Sure, I could watch some youtube videos and learn everything I needed to know from the internet, but I’m more of a hands on type of person when it comes to learning tactile things. I want to see it in action and talk about it and ask questions and all of that helps me understand and remember it.

Well it just so happened that our dear friend Shann, (Shannon Larsen) and her boyfriend, now fiancé Zander, (Alexander Puentes) came to visit us. Zander had been brewing his own kombucha for years and even made a PDF on how to do it. I still reference it to make sure I’m doing everything right. 

He walked me through the steps and I am sharing those with you in this blog post and in the youtube video my kids and I made last year. Brewing your own ‘booch’ is a little bit of a process and takes some time. Not too much, but there are a few steps you need to remember.

A SCOBY is a living organism that continues to grow. It is also called “the mother” because it will eventually have “babies”. These can be given away, like my friend did for me and like I have done for several neighbors and friends over the last couple of years. Or they can be saved or used to make multiple batches. Mine is getting really big at the moment and I am hoping it will split off soon so I can have another one and make more. Each batch gives me 5 pint sized glass bottles of kombucha. So if I can have two going at once, then we can have plenty to both enjoy and share with friends.

I love giving away my kombucha to friends. When I find out someone is into it, I’ll give them a bottle. It’s so fun to say, here you go, I made this. Enjoy. Then you know it’s going to taste good and be good for them. How awesome is that? If they’re really into it, I’ll offer them one of my SCOBY offspring and they can start to make their own.

Last Summer I had two SCOBY’s going and we went on vacation. When we came back, fruit flies had gotten into one of them. So I had to let it go. Fortunately I had the second one, which I am still using today. 

I try to make a new batch every 10 days or so, but sometimes I’ll get out of the habit and it sits for a couple of weeks and that’s ok. The SCOBY just keeps on livin’.

We use our ‘booch’ a few different ways. 

In the morning for breakfast, I pour a little shot for the boys. To get them some healthy probiotics to start the day.

I also make popsicles with it and we enjoy these in the afternoons.

Finally at night, when I’m craving a drink besides water and don’t want to drink alcohol, then a little kombucha and soda over ice is a satisfying mocktail. 

I love finding healthy things that the whole family enjoys. It also feels good to be able to make this on my own. I know where it comes from. Me, my kitchen. I’m putting my positive energy into it when I make it. I love doing it. It’s fun to make things, I love drinking it and it’s good for me. So it seems like it’s one of those beautiful things that hits on all levels.  If you want to give it a try and make your own, go for it. If you find yourself a SCOBY, then check back here for what to do next. Here are the steps that I learned from my friend Zander with my own personal modifications.

First, bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat, then, add 6 -7 bags of black tea and steep for 30 minutes. Squeeze and remove the tea bags and add 1 cup of organic cane sugar. Stir until dissolved. 

Now fill your pitcher with 8 cups of filtered water. Add the hot tea. The temperature of the tea should cool to under 100 degrees.

Add the 2 cups of the starter liquid that came with your SCOBY and stir with a wooden spoon, (it doesn’t like metal).

Now add the SCOBY.

Cover with a cloth and use a rubber band to keep it on. This will keep out fruit flies or any other bugs, but still allowing the SCOBY to breathe. 

That comes up to a total of 16 cups of liquid, which is one gallon or 128 ounces. So make sure you have a gallon size glass container to keep your brew. You also want an opening at the top of at least 3 or more inches so your SCOBY can grow and breathe. 

That’s it! Now you just have to wait. Anywhere from 7-21 days, depending on several factors, but I’ve found that 10 days is the sweet spot for me. The temperature has a lot to do with it. We keep our house pretty warm and I place it in a cabinet. You can start tasting after 5 days and when it seems ready to you, then it’s time to move on to the 2nd Ferment

The Second Ferment is the fun part where you get to flavor your kombucha. There are many different flavors and recipes out there, but we usually just keep it simple and do Lemon and Ginger.

This is the flavor that my wife and kids like the best. I will often experiment with different flavor combinations, depending on what fruits are in season and what we have at the house at the time of the 2nd ferment. But Lemon and Ginger always seems to be the best. 

Before you put the kombucha in the bottles, be sure to take out the SCOBY and 2 cups of the liquid and put it into a glass container. Cover this with a cloth and rubber band like you just did before and now you have your starter for the next batch. You can get started and make another one right away, going back to step 1 and boiling tea or simply let it sit in your cupboard for up to a month or more. Give it a stir every week or so, just to keep it happy. 

Today I did 5 bottles of Lemon/Ginger and 1 bottle of the Lilac syrup that we made from our lilac bushes that were blooming this week. They only bloom for a couple of weeks a year, so I thought, why not give it a try. 

If you have a juicer, you can experiment with different flavor combinations and see what you like the best. 

For the lemon and ginger, all I do is peel the ginger with a spoon, then dice it up into little chunks and drop 4-5 little cubes into the bottle. Then I will squeeze the juice out of 1 lemon and then evenly distribute it in the 5 bottles with the ginger. 

Once you have your flavor in the bottle, add the kombucha to the bottle and fill it almost to the top, leaving about an inch of air. This helps the carbonation process. Put the cap on and turn it over a couple of times to mix up the ingredients. 

All you have to do now is wait a few days and your brew will be ready to go. 3 days seems to be the sweet spot for me. By having the bottles capped, the CO2 has no way to escape, so this creates natural carbonation. When they have reached your desired carbonation, then put them in the fridge and enjoy. Refrigerating the kombucha will pretty much stop the carbonation process. The longer you leave them out of the fridge, the more carbonated they will get, but they will also get more sour. So again, depending on your preference, find your sweet spot. 

Apparently, if you leave them out too long, they can explode. Although I’ve never had this happen to me or anyone I know, I have had them give out quite a ‘pop’ when I burp them after they’ve been fermenting for more than 3 days. 

Ok, there you go. Have fun and enjoy. There are so many health benefits to drinking kombucha and so many different ways to enjoy it. I’d love to hear about your experience. Cheers!