Recipe:Kombucha brewing manual - short workshop form

Kombucha Manual - short workshop form

This manual will teach you how to prepare and harvest your first batch of kombucha, helping you to continue to brew the kombucha on your own.

• culture/brew volume Vc = 1 litre

active culture

• piece of kombucha SCOBY (mother) (1-5% (w/v) = 10-50 g)

• kombucha beverage (1% (v/v)) = 10 ml

ingredients

• black tea (0.5 %(w/v)) = 5 g

• brown cane sugar (6% (w/v)) = 60 g

equipment

• 1.5 l culture container (glass, wide mouth)

• water kettle or pot for water boiling

• scale

• strainer

• spoon

• 250 – 1000 ml measuring vessel

• cheesecloth or muslin

• 3 l pot

working manual

Starting new batch of kombucha

- bring 250 ml of water to boil

- transfer the boiled water to the pot and add 6 g of tea and leave to steep for 5-10 minutes

- strain the tea leaves and dispose them

- add 60 g of sugar to the liquid and stir to dissolve

- add 500 ml of cold water and mix checking the temperature aiming for lukewarm

- transfer the tea sugar syrup to the culture container

- add 50 ml of kombucha starter

- fill up to the final volume of one l with cold or lukewarm water

- add the SCOBY (young white side up)

- cover the top of the container by breathable screen to protect against flies (especially fruitflies)

- leave the culture to ferment at room temperature (15-25°C) for 4-7 days out of direct sun

- start to taste after 3 days

- once the beverage tastes like fermented and to your liking harvest it (see section below) and start a new batch of kombucha with your freshly harvested kombucha mother epeating the process above, therefore making new black tea sugar sirup and adding the culture to it

Harvesting kombucha

- one the kombucha tastes to your liking it is time to harvest it

- prepare the pot and fix strainer on the top

- lay out the cheesecloth or muslin on the top of the strainer

- strain the liquid from the harvesting batch through the strainer and muslin, dispose the debris

- add sugar and flavouring agent if you like to the strained brew (for example ginger infusion)

/ - if you prefer still drinks adjust the sweetness to your liking and transfer preferably to swing-top bottles or any bottle which can be closed properly and move them to the cold (4°C - fridge) and drink when you like

/ - if you like your drinks fizzy sweeten the brew a bit more than you like and transfer it to the bottles, again preferably swing top bottles

- seal them and leave them to secondary ferment at room temperature for 1-2 days (20-30°C) creating the fizzyness by capturing by fermentation produced carbon dioxide

- move the bottles to the fridge and drink preferably after a week or so allowing the flavours to combine (sweetness is decreasing with prolonged time of storage)

- kombucha fermented for 4-7 days is quite light, drinking 0.5 to 1 l per day is fine for majority of the people

- well stored kombucha can taste great even after a half year