1 large glass jar or bowl that has a wide opening. ---Avoid using a plastic/ceramic jar or bowl because the chemicals in the plastic/ceramic glaze can leach into the kombucha during the fermentation period. Use a big glass jug/jar/bowl and make sure the opening is wide enough to allow a lot of oxygen to reach the kombucha while it ferments.
1 large piece of cloth or dish towel to secure around the opening of the jar with a rubber band.
1 SCOBY disk. You will need to purchase a “SCOBY” disk and can find one either in health food stores or online at very inexpensive prices. 1
6 cups of water.
1 cup cane sugar.
8 black tea bags.
2 cups of pre-made kombucha, which you can either buy or use from a previous kombucha batch that you or a friend made.
1. Bring water to boil in a pot large enough to hold 1 gallon. Once boiling, remove from the heat and add teabags and sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2. Allow the pot to sit and the tea to steep until it cools to room temparature, then remove and discard tea bags.
3. Add tea mixture to your big jar/bowl. Drop in the SCOBY disk and 2 cups of pre-made kombucha.
4. Cover the jar/bowl with a cloth or thin kitchen towel. Keep the cloth in place by using a rubber band. The cloth should cover the wide opening of the jar and stay in place, but be thin enough to allow air to pass through.
5. Allow the kombucha to sit for 7–10 days depending on the flavor you’re looking for. Less time produces a weaker kombucha that tastes less sour, while a longer sitting time allows the kombucha to develop more taste.
Fermenting kombucha for up to a month can have great results.
Taste test the batch every couple of days to see if its reached the right taste and level of carbonation you’re looking for.
Once you’re happy with the taste, put your kombucha into smaller glass bottles (or whatever type of bottle fits in your refrigerator), and refrigerate the kombucha for at least 24 hours to allow it to cool and finish carbonating.
Once it’s cooled, you are ready to drink your homemade kombucha!
If you'd like to add additional flavor to you kombucha, see how here
*Note that as the fermentation process happens, you will notice that the SCOBY disk “grows” a second SCOBY disk.
Many people call the SCOBY that you purchased and used to make the kombucha the “mother” SCOBY and the second SCOBY that grows is the “baby.”
The mother SCOBY is located on top of the baby. You can actually use the newly formed baby SCOBY to create a whole new batch of kombucha, so you don’t want to throw out the baby disk.
Store the baby SCOBY in a bit of already-made kombucha in a glass jar while not using it, so you have it on hand to start a new batch when you want it.
It will remain “active” for several weeks when it’s stored in some kombucha at room temperature on a counter top. While some people prefer to keep the mother scoby disk attached to the baby, others prefer to throw away the mother SCOBY once the kombucha is finished fermenting. It seems to work well both ways and keeping the mother disk hasn’t caused any reported problems or contamination.
According to some sources, the mother disk can keep fermenting new kombucha batches for about another month after its first use, but then will become inactive and should be thrown away.
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