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 (5% (v/v)) = 50 ml

Ingredients

• Black tea (0.6% (w/v)) = 6 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

Method 1 - Starting new batch of kombucha

• Bring 250 ml of water to boil.

• Transfer the boiled water to the pot, 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 1 L with cold or lukewarm water.

• Add the SCOBY (young white side up).

• Cover the top of the container with a 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 fermented and to your liking, harvest it (see section below) and start a new batch of kombucha with your freshly harvested kombucha mother, repeating the process above

Method 2 - Starting new batch of kombucha

• Clean all the equipment, preferable with vinegar.
• Boil 1L water for 2-3 minutes to make it cleaner.
• Wait until your the water becomes 70-80 C.
• Add two teaspoon green tea and 0,1 kg sugar to the water.
• You need to mix it a bit to make the sugar dissolve.
• Wait until the tea is on room temperature.
• Add the tea to the kombucha in ratio of 10% kombucha, 5% scoby.
• Taste it every 3-4 days.
• When the taste is ok, you can start drinking. (Probably 2 weeks.)

Harvesting and drinking kombucha

• Once the kombucha tastes to your liking, it is time to harvest it.

• Prepare the pot and fix the strainer on top.

• Lay out the cheesecloth or muslin on top of the strainer.

• Strain the liquid from the harvesting batch through the strainer and muslin, dispose the debris.

• Add sugar and flavouring agent (for example ginger infusion) to the strained brew, to your liking.

• Transfer to swing-top bottles, or any bottle which can be closed properly and move them to the cold (4°C - fridge).

• 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 the amount recommended for daily consumption differs widely (even within our group), drinking 1-2 dl per day is fine for most people (Algoldor drinks up to 0.5-1 l nearly everyday for years and feels great). Drinking more may cause health problems after a longer period of time (eg. 8 months). note: the maximum recommended amount of tea / day is 0.5 L, but for 'standard' tea! Disclaimer here - many people drink more kombucha than mentioned above for years and they are fine, keep in mind that kombucha is basically vinegar so use in reasonably.

• Well-stored kombucha can taste great even after half a year.

Secondary fermentation

• If you prefer your drinks fizzy, sweeten the harvested brew a bit more than you like and transfer it to the bottles.

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

• You can fill some kombucha into a soft plastic bottle to gauge the developing pressure more easily.