Sounds horrible doesn’t it?
Well it gets better; The Kombucha’s SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) or as the Kombucha brewing hobbyist calls it “The mother” will actually birth additional bacteria cultures. Each of these bacteria cultures can be used to create their own individual Kombucha batches. The whole process is actually quite simple, especially when compared to making beer. You simply mix you tea and sugar together into about a gallon of water, add the SCOBY to the room temperature water and wait a couple weeks for it to ferment.
I do not own a “mother” culture so I cannot just start brewing Kombucha. Instead I need to start growing the first culture which will in turn be used to brew future Kombucha batches. You can opt to buy a pre-grown culture online or from some shady guys garage, but making your own is very easy to do.
Ingredients —
- -Unpasteurized- Kombucha Drink (I bought mine from Community Natural Foods). It must be unpasteurized otherwise you cannot grow your own SCOBY!
- 5-6 tea bags (I used 2 green, 3 blacks, organic is recommended but to hell with that)
- 1 cup of sugar
- Room temperature spring water (I am using RO water for this. Tap water is not recommended)
Procedure —
1) In a pot boil 2-3 litres of water and remove from heat.
2) Add and stir sugar until dissolved.
3) Add tea and let steep for 15 minutes.
4) Remove tea and add tea/sugar mix to a sanitized jar. Allow to cool to room temperture.
5) Add Kombucha drink to the jar. Fill with water until about 2 inches of space is left from the top.
6) Cover with paper towel or a coffee filter to prevent dust from getting into the jar while its fermenting.
7) Wait for fungus to grow!
Its kind of like a science experiment from junior high school.