Basic Kombucha Directions

Source: http://www.deliciousobsessions.com/2011/09/brewing-kombucha-beginners-guide/

Ingredients

4 quarts
filtered water
1 cup
organic sugar
1⁄4 cup
black tea leaves (or 6-8 tea bags)
 
some liquid from the last batch
 
Kombucha SCOBY

Instructions

Initial Fermentation:

Boil a quart of water and steep 8 black or green tea bags for ten minutes.  Discard bags, add sugar, dissolve.  Add 2 more quarts of water.  Cool.  Add SCOBY and liquid. If you’re going to touch the SCOBY, wash your hands and rinse in vinegar first. Secure with a tight cloth top, put in a dark place and don’t disturb at all for a week.

At day 7, taste with a straw.  If too sweet, let it brew some more.  If too vinegary, brew shorter time next time. I let mine go for 3 weeks or so to get rid of the sugar.

Second Fermentation:

Sanitize your hands with the vinegar. Remove the SCOBYs from the brewed kombucha and set aside. You should have two SCOBYs now – your original one and the new one that formed during this brew. Reserve 1 cup of brewed kombucha as your starter.

Strain your fermented tea into a flip top bottle that can stand some pressure building.  Add a few tbs of juice, berries, maybe ginger or a cinnamon stick.  Tighten.  Burp once a day for 3 or 4 days or until you like the flavor.  Store in the fridge once it’s done fermenting.

To make more SCOBYs:

Put a SCOBY and some kombucha in a Ball jar.  Add COOLED sweet tea at the rate of 4 ounces of black tea to 1 TBS organic sugar.  Cover with a plastic lid.  A new SCOBY will form.  If you don’t use it in a month, feed it again.  A third SCOBY will form.  Keep this on hand in case a friend wants one or yours gets contaminated.  (Recipe ♦168)