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Have you ever wondered how to make kombucha? Save your money and brew your own homemade kombucha with this easy tutorial and kombucha recipe teaching you how PLUS fun flavor variations! Your budget and digestive system will thank you.

Ever wondered how to make homemade kombucha? This kombucha recipe will walk you through the process step-by-step showing you how easy it to to make kombucha at home! #kombucha #howto
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Brewing your own kombucha can be intimidating but I promise it’s actually pretty easy! I wanted to create a fully comprehensive resource for you including the benefits of drinking kombucha, how to make your own kombucha, pro tips to mastering the brewing process, as well as kombucha recipe flavor combinations to try! Here’s what we’re covering:

This actually isn’t my first time brewing kombucha. I took a fermentation course a few years ago (it’s true!) and loved learning how to make kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi. I’ve even posted a kombucha recipe for homemade kombucha before (circa 2013!)

At some point I fell off the wagon and just started buying kombucha. But at $3-$4 a bottle, the price tag quickly catches up with you and while your tummy may feel awesome, your budget certainly doesn’t. So I decided to get back on my game and start the brewing process up again. And this time I’m bringing you two new kombucha recipe flavours: grapefruit and ginger aka my two favourite flavors of kombucha and teaching you how to make kombucha on your own.

But first let’s chat about why kombucha is so great.

Why Drink Kombucha?

I’m guessing a descent portion of you got lost somewhere along SCOBY (more on that below) and would like a simple definition of what kombucha is and why you need to start drinking it. So here you go:

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is packed full of probiotics, amino acids and various vitamins that help keep your digestive system in sync and balanced with a good amount of healthy bacteria. The taste is a little bit sweet (depending upon how long its left to ferment and if flavours are added) with a fizzy bite. It is always made with caffeinated green, black or oolong tea (sometimes herbal tea is added but never alone), sugar and a SCOBY. The sugar is required so that the SCOBY has something to eat and in turn produce all sorts of healthy byproducts. 

In simple terms: Kombucha is an amazing source of probiotics for your gut. Healthy gut = healthy immune system = healthy human.

Have you ever wondered how to make homemade kombucha? Save your money and brew your own with this easy tutorial teaching you how PLUS two recipes for flavor variations. Your budget and digestive system will thank you.

What You Need To Make Homemade Kombucha

Surprisingly you don’t actually need many supplies to make homemade kombucha. Let’s start with ingredients and then we’ll get to tools.

For this Kombucha Recipe you will need:

  • a SCOBY (more on this below)
  • tea bags (green, black or oolong)
  • organic cane sugar
  • filtered water
  • 1 cup of already brewed kombucha (can be storebought or homemade)

Kombucha brewing supplies:

  • 1 large glass jar (I used this one but any large mason jar will work)
  • 1 dish towel
  • 1 elastic band or piece of strong
  • empty mason jars or bottles for bottling your finished product
Have you ever wondered how to make homemade kombucha? Save your money and brew your own with this easy tutorial teaching you how PLUS two recipes for flavor variations. Your budget and digestive system will thank you.

What is a SCOBY?

If you’ve ever learned how to make kombucha before you know that part of the brewing process requires that you use a SCOBY or Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeasts. The purpose of the SCOBY is to eat the sugar and caffeine in the tea and metabolize it to produce all sorts of health benefits like probiotics, vitamins and amino acids. It’s health properties are particularly impressive considering it looks like a plastic mushroom or IMO a deflated silicone boob. Yes, I just said that.

Can you eat the SCOBY? A question I often get. Technically you can while I wouldn’t recommend it. SCOBY’s are actually great additions to your compost or garden so feel free to dump in there if you’re done with your kombucha making.

Where can I get a SCOBY? Another great question! For starters: ask around! Anyone who is brewing their own kombucha can cut off some of their SCOBY and give that piece to you. This will become your SCOBY (it will continue to grow with each brew). Or you can order one here or make your own according to this tutorial.

Have you ever wondered how to make homemade kombucha? Save your money and brew your own with this easy tutorial teaching you how PLUS two recipes for flavor variations. Your budget and digestive system will thank you.

Pro Tips: This Kombucha Recipe

A couple of notes about brewing kombucha:

1. YOU MUST USE SUGAR. Calm yourselves people, the sugar provides nourishment to the SCOBY which needs it to survive and produce all of its awesome health benefits. Please do not try to substitute it with another sweetener or GASP…sugar-free sweetener. If done right, the SCOBY will eat most of the sugar and what you’re left with is a tangy, fizzy drink with all sorts of probiotics.

2. Keep things as clean as possible. Make sure your jar is clean and hands are clean when handling the SCOBY. You don’t want any bad bacteria getting in there.

3. My fermentation teacher (this is a thing) always told me to “just relax”. If you find yourselves worrying about your kombucha, it will not turn out. Have faith and put out good juju and you will end up with a delicious brew.

4. Any homemade kombucha recipe is a continuous process, which means as soon as you’re done your first batch you continue brewing another one. If you decide to stop brewing you can keep your SCOBY alive between brews by keeping it in its vessel with a little bit of sugar and kombucha so it’s fully coated. You’ll need to add a bit of sugar each week to “feed” it. If you don’t do this your SCOBY will die and you’ll need to get a new one to continue the brewing process.

Flavor Combinations

After you’re done brewing your kombucha, you can add flavors! You’ll add the flavor to a bottle, top with kombucha (leaving one inch of space between kombucha and the lid), and let sit in a cool, dark place for an additional 1-2 days with the lid secured. After that, you’ll just strain it if there’s thicker material in your flavor and then store your kombucha bottles in the fridge until you’re ready to drink!

  • Grapefruit – add ¼ cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.
  • Ginger – add 1 teaspoon of freshly ground ginger. 
  • Lemon ginger – add 1 teaspoon of freshly ground ginger and 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon.
  • Peach mint – add 1 ripe peach and two sprigs of mint. 
  • Blueberry – add ½ cup mashed blueberries.
  • Mint lime – add two sprigs of mint and the juice of 1-2 limes. 
  • Mango – 1 ripe mango, chopped.
  • Pineapple basil – Add ½ cup chopped pineapple with ¼ cup chopped basil leaves. 
  • Raspberry, lemon, ginger – Add ½ cup raspberries, the juice of 1 lemon and 1 inch fresh ginger, grated.

Again, remember to strain before storing in the fridge or drinking!

Storage Instructions

So long as you’ve sterirlized your bottles well, your homemade kombucha will last in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Continue brewing your kombucha to keep your SCOBY alive or store in the fridge for several weeks before making another batch.

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Kombucha Recipe

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Brewing your own kombucha is not as hard as it seems! This tutorial will walk you through how to make kombucha and customize it to the flavors of your liking.

  • Author: Davida Lederle
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 2 weeks
  • Yield: 24 cups 1x
  • Category: Drinks
  • Method: Ferment
  • Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 SCOBY*
  • 24 cups of filtered water
  • 1 1/4 cups organic cane sugar
  • 6 organic and natural tea bags (green, black or oolong work great – I used green)
  • 1 cup already brewed kombucha (you can get this at health food stores or at whole foods)

Supplies:

  • 1 large GLASS jar (only use glass – I used this one but any large mason jar will work)
  • 1 dish towel
  • 1 elastic band or piece of string
  • empty glass bottles (amount will depend on size of bottles)

Instructions

  1. Clean out your glass container so there is no possibility of remaining bacteria.
  2. Boil 24 cups of water in a large pot and once boiling, turn off heat and add tea bags.
  3. Steep until water has reached room temperature.
  4. Remove tea bags and add SCOBY, 1 cup of kombucha, cane sugar, and steeped tea to jar.
  5. Cover with a dish towel and secure in place with string or an elastic band.
  6. Store in a cool, dark place for 10 days. Do not touch at all. I keep mine in a cupboard.
  7. After 10 days, remove dish towel and divide kombucha between jars, leaving 1 inch of space between kombucha and lid in each jar.
  8. Your kombucha is ready! You can drink and store them in the fridge for several months.
  9. If you’d like to flavor your kombucha, here are two options (note* flavored kombucha requires a short second fermentation):

Grapefruit Flavor:

  1. Add 1/4 cup of freshly squeeze grapefruit juice to a medium sized bottle.
  2. Top with kombucha, leaving 1 inch of space between kombucha and lid.
  3. Let sit in a cool, dark place for 1-2 days with lid secured and then store in the fridge until you decide to drink.

For Ginger Flavor:

  1. Add 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger to a medium sized bottle.
  2. Top with kombucha, leaving 1 inch of space between kombucha and lid.
  3. Let sit in a cool, dark place for 1-2 days with lid secured and then store in the fridge until you decide to drink.

*In order to acquire a SCOBY you can ask a friend, order one here or make your own according to this tutorial.

Learn how to make kombucha with this step-by-step tutorial teaching you how to make your own kombucha recipe - two variations included! #howto #kombucha

Meet the Maven

Hi! I'm Davida and welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a wellness blogger, yoga teacher, certified herbalist, and green beauty lover.

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30 Comments

  1. Hi,

    I love Kombucha and I was excited to find it at our local grocery store here in Germany, but paying in euros, makes it even more expensive of course….I’m not sure if I’m able to order to SCOBY because of the strict mailing rules here, but if I am able to get one… how do you care for it? Let’s say you just finished making a batch and aren’t ready to make another….

    Thanks!

    1. Hi lovely! You’ll want to keep about a cup of Kombucha or tea in there and feed it a 1/4 cup of sugar every week or so!

  2. Quick question, what if I do not have space in my refrigerator for individual bottles? Can I keep my kambucha in the large glass container with spout? How much juice do I add in that case?

        1. Should be okay but fermenting and bacteria is a tricky thing. Try to store it in a cool place if you do!

  3. I’ll say this. My first experience with homemade Kampuchea was in high school. 1998. A coach gave me some (her grandma brewed it) to get rid of a wart on my hand. It worked. Never got one again, but I’d had several removed by dermatologists before that. For me, experience is the only thing that gets me over the mixed reviews. Started brewing my own in my 20s and would never support the Whole Foods price tag on something that is so easy to do at home. That said, I also do my own brazilians. Perhaps it takes just the right level of “cheap” to put our health and dignity at risk. Hah. Cheers.

  4. Does it matter if the sugar melts while brewing the tea. I realised that I should have added the sugar when cool.?

    1. It should be okay but Kombucha can be quite finicky so I can’t guarantee. It’s optimal to put the sugar in when it’s luke-warm-to-cool but it may still work if you added it when it’s hot.

  5. Hey Davida! I absolutely love kombucha and want to start brewing my own cause, uh, $4 a bottle…
    I have a couple questions though. Would this be considered the continuous method of brewing? Basically, what do you do with the SCOBY after you do all the steps and want to start a new batch? Do you just repeat? Can you store the SCOBY if you have to put off making a new batch?

    1. Hi Lovely! So fun you’re ready to start brewing your own ‘buch! So yes, brewing kombucha is pretty much a continious process. When you’re done your first batch you just keep going until you’re ready to be done, which after a few rounds you usually are because your house will be overflowing. You can definitely keep your scoby alive between brewing by storing it in a cool place (same place where you typically brew) in about a few cups of kombucha and some sugar, being sure to refill the sugar every week or so. The scoby needs sugar to survive so if you don’t feed it, it will die. Let me know how it goes!

      1. To continue the brewing, would you just put the kombucha in bottles and leave a little starter liquid in the dispenser and repeat the steps with the sweet tea?

  6. Does anyone know if making homemade kombucha makes the room you brew it in smell? I would really love to try to make my won but since I live in an apt. I’m hesitant.

    1. Hey Chloe! I place mine in a cupboard. It smells a tiny bit but nothing noticeable except for the fact that I happen to know it’s Kombucha. But that’s only in the cupboard. Definitely doesn’t smell anywhere else!

  7. I actually just tried storebought kombucha this past weekend and now I am hooked! As a result, I have a feeling that I will definitely try brewing my own. When you pour in the already brewed kombucha, does it matter what kind? Can it be something that is already flavored?

  8. That is one photogenic looking SCOBY! I was so sad when mine (whom I’d named Sid) died 🙁 The best flavour combos I ever made was earl grey tea + raspberries and green tea + dried bloobs! TO DIE FOR. Dried fruits make the flavour soooo intense!

  9. Love this!! I was just gifted 4 scobys and my friend and I are going to have a dinner and kombucha party tonight. I also am giving some away to other friends. I bought decaffeinated black tea at the store, do I need to just get the regular kind? And can I use coconut sugar, or should it just be regular sugar?

    1. You need both caffeinated and real sugar (not coconut palm sugar). Don’t worry though, the SCOBY will eat up most of it! Enjoy 🙂