Brewing kombucha tea brewing guide instructions pictures brewing kombucha tea

What you'll need to get started brewing kombucha tea...

There will be a few items that you will need to gather before starting:
- A pot to heat the water/sugar solution. This can be metal for this step.
- Distilled water (the best choice) or well water, never city water
- Cane sugar or other natural sugar, we suggest organic cane sugar
- Tea (Camellia Sinensis) - This may be green,white, or black tea, or a mixture
thereof, we again suggest organic tea. Fruit tea and herbal tea will not work as
they do not provide the proper nutrients for the growing cultures. However, feel
free to add these to your finished product for added health benefits.
- A glass container for fermenting the tea solution (an old gallon pickle jar works
great!) Here some people use plastic, if you do, make sure it is
food grade plastic with a 1 or 2 symbol on the bottom. We always use glass
container for safety reasons. Never use lead crystal, ceramic, or metal containers
to ferment kombucha cultures.
- Clean cheese cloth (you can double this up if it seems to thin) or clean T-shirt

Step 1 - The actual process of brewing kombucha tea is really very simple. In this
example, we will be brewing a 1 gallon batch of tea. You start the brewing process by
bringing to boil just over 1 gal of filtered or distilled water. Just as with any equipment
you use, you'll want your water to be clean, too. Never use city water as it contains
chlorine and other additives from the treatment plant which could kill some of the cultures
in the kombucha.

Step 2 - Once the water comes to a boil add 1 1/4 to 11/2 cups of sweetener.
Caution: When brewing kombucha tea, make sure to add the sugar slowly as the hot water
will want to boil over if the cold sugar is added to fast! Simmer the sweetened solution for
another 10 min or until the sugar is completely dissolved.
We recommend using organic white sugar or organic cane sugar for the best results.
Other natural sugars may be used, however result may vary and could change the
structure of the cultures within the kombucha.
We suggest using a back up/extra mushroom culture if experimenting with other sugars or
sweeteners. Honey or maple sugar should never be used as this will kill some of the
cultures, as honey is anti-bacterial.

Step 3 - After the sweetener has dissolved, turn off heat, and add 6 tea bags or 6
teaspoons of loose tea in a tea ball, cover, and steep for ten minutes. Green or black tea
are most commonly used or you may use a combination of both. Feel free to try other
teas except herbal teas. Herbal teas may contain oils that the kombucha cultures do not
like. If you wish to add the benefits of herbal teas you may brew them separate and add
them after the fermentation process is complete and you have drawn the tea for
consumption.

This may seem like a long time to steep the tea but you'll want to pull out all the constitutes
from the tea. These constitutes will be part of the nutrients that the culture will grow from
and provide benefits, such as anti-oxidants, when you drink the tea.

Step 4 - After 10 minutes remove the tea bags or tea ball.

Step 5 - Now you'll have to allow the brewed tea solution to cool to room temperature
before adding the kombucha cultures. If the temperature is to high the cultures can be
killed! Once the tea solution is cooled we are ready for the culturing process!

BREWING TIPS

- To help avoid contamination always keep
the culture covered with a clean covering
even if it is just for a minute or so. The
culture needs oxygen to ferment but you
want to keep everything else out.

- Save 5-10% of your previous batch as
starter for the next batch

- Don't store your brewing cultures in the
kitchen as smoke, cooking smells, and food
particles are unfriendly to the kombucha
cultures. Plus, the kitchen has much more
mold and bacteria than other places in the
house. Also, keep away from cigarette
smoke.

- Allow your cultures to brew in a nice warm
and dark place, between 70 and 85 deg. No
direct sunlight and keep away from dust and
mold.

- Keep a mother culture or SCOBY as a
backup in case your batch is contaminated.
You can simply leave a culture growing
undistributed allowing the culture to go
dormant. Simply add some fresh sweetened
tea solution to this backup once in a while to
give it nutrients.

Hygiene and sanitation
when BREWING
KOMBUCHA...

Whenever you are going to brew a batch
of tea, it is necessary to clean all items
that you plan to use. This can be done
with hot soapy water. Wash all
containers that the kombucha will be
brewing in, too. Glass is recommended
for storing and fermenting all kombucha
products. Also, wash the pot and any
utensils that you will use to boil the
water, sugar and tea. Next is to rinse all
containers very well to remove any soap
residues. Although it is not a necessary
step, you may also do a final rinse of
everything in vinegar. This will help
remove any residue or molds that may of
been missed during the cleaning process.

The tea and sugar mixture is a great
source of nourishment for all kinds of
bacteria and molds, so the cleaner the
working area the less chance of
contamination. So, wiping down your
working area is also recommended.
Keeping the area and utensils clean is
important, because, you do not want to
contaminate the culture or it will be
unsafe to drink. If your culture becomes
contaminated you will have to start over
with a new culture and/or brewing cycle.

Never try to use a contaminated
culture to brew a new batch,
throw everything out a obtain a
new culture! Your health is at
risk if you do. You can not
simple wash off the mold or
contamination...sorry.

Make sure to wash your hands
thoroughly, with soap and water, before
handling the culture or reaching inside
any containers that the culture is stored
in. You must remove any food and oils
that may be on your hands. The
kombucha has a natural ability to fight or
compete with invaders, however, the
cleaner you keep things, the stronger
your cultures will be.

The last thing with contamination is to
always keep the container covered either
with a thick cheese cloth or an old clean
T-shirt works well, too. This is to keep
insects, molds, and other objects from
falling into the tea and contaminating the
brew.

Brewing Kombucha Tea...
The Culturing of Your Fresh Tea Solution...
Now that the sweetened tea solution has sufficiently cooled to room temperature, you are ready to
inoculate it with the kombucha cultures. This step is very easy and will only take a few minutes
to perform.
With each new batch you will want to save your best SCOBY or "mushroom" along with 5-10%
of the old tea as a starter or inculum. For a gallon size batch use about a cup or two of starter
tea. This will insure that you culture grows quickly and will be able to compete with any foreign
cultures or molds that may be present.

Step 6 - Add both the starter tea and mother culture/SCOBY to the sweetened tea solution. If
you did not save any left over tea or received just a SCOBY from say a friend, you may use 1/2
cup of white distilled vinegar as a starter for your first batch.
You have now inoculated the tea solution!

Step 7 - The last step is to allow the inoculated tea solution to set in a warm and dark place,
undistributed, for 5 to 10 days to allow the fermentation process to complete. This time will very
depending on the temperature, the culture likes the temperature to be between 70 and 85 degrees.
Having the correct temperature, especially in winter time, seems to be where most people go
wrong.
After the 5 to 10 days, you'll want to check if the tea is ready to drink.
You may buy pH strips for testing acid content, however, this is not necessary. The easiest way
to tell if your tea is ready is by smell and taste. After brewing a few batches of kombucha tea
you'll know when your tea is finished and ready to drink
It should have a slight vinegar smell, not to strong, and have carbonation. If your tea still smells
sweet and/or is flat, then most likely it needs to set a few more days. After 5 to 10 days, the taste
should be fizzy, semi-sweet, and similar to apple cider in appearance. Allowing it to brew longer
(8-14 days) produces a sharper vinegar taste and contains a higher amount of beneficial medicinal
properties. Now you can simply bottle any extra tea into clean glass containers.
Note for diabetics: For diabetics and people with intolerance to sugar they will want to
allow the longer brewing process of 8 to 14 days to make sure all the sugars have been
broken down. If the vinegar taste is to strong you may add the kombucha tea to any
fruit juice or beverage of your choice.

Brewing Kombucha Tea...
Storing Your Fermented Tea Culture:

After the tea has fermented, you may either drink the tea directly or bottle any extra tea you may have. If you do not bottle the
extra tea it will continue to ferment and turn very vinegar in taste and will not be pleasent to drink. To bottle your tea you'll need
clean glass bottles and caps (no unprotected metal caps). Beer bottles from a beer and wine making supply house works well for
bottling your finished tea.
Strain the cultured tea through a cheese cloth to remove the slimy culture pieces and any dead yeast or bacteria (the brown 'stuff'
that sinks to the bottom) filling the bottles completely to the top. When bottling you may also add a raisin or slice of ginger to
create more fizz if desired. Leaving air space in the bottle will allow the cultures to continue fermenting. After filling, cap the
bottles tightly and store in the refrigerator. This will allow the tea to keep better than if stored at room temperature.
You can store you bottled kombucha tea in the fridge for about a month or two.

Brewing kombucha tea: instructions & referance guide for brewing kombucha tea cultures

Brewing kombucha tea is an easy process which only cost a few cents a day yet provides you with a great pro-biotic health tonic