How To Make Kombucha.
The health of our gut is crucial for our overall health.
With some of the leading causes of death in the United States being attributed to chronic inflammation and poor diet if you’re ignoring the health of your gut you’re ignoring a key factor of health. If you’ve read our previous post on gut health you probably remember this key point below.
“Chronic inflammation is the primary driver of diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and kidney disease. These are 5 of the top 10 leading causes of death in America and accounted for 51.7% of death in America in 2020.
One of the biggest drivers of chronic inflammation is our diet. The Standard American Diet contains high amount of processed meats, processed sugars, and processed grains. We know this diet leads to higher rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimers, diabetes, and kidney disease.
When we add more fruits, vegetables, and fiber rich foods to our diet our gut's health improves and we see decreases in signs of inflammation and disease. When we add fermented foods to our diet our gut's health becomes more diverse and we also see lower levels of signs of inflammation and disease.
Increasing the amount of fiber through increasing the amount of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains we eat has the potential to not only decrease systemic inflammation but also change the trajectory of the course of diseases over an individual's life. Increasing the amount of fermented foods one eats may play a crucial role in adding needed diversity to the gut microbiome and decreasing chronic inflammation, one of, if not the primary driver of death and disease in the United States.
While there is a lot more research to be done on the gut and fermented foods and adding fiber to the diet we know adding more fiber rich foods to the gut is good for our health and we know adding fermented foods to our diet is good for our health, to what extent though is still up for debate.”
If you want to read more about the importance of gut health click here to read.
In this post instead of focusing on the importance of gut health I’m going to share with you how I make Kombucha.
First. What is kombucha?
Kombucha or mushroom tea is a fermented, slightly bubbly, sweetened tea drink that contains different types of bacteria that have been show to be beneficial for our gut health.
Before you go any further if you haven’t had kombucha before I highly suggest heading to the store and grabbing a small bottle to try in order to make sure you like it. While making kombucha isn’t necessarily hard I’ve yet to get my recipe as tasty as the store bought kind but the savings in price is worth it and I’m hoping in these next few weeks I can produce some just as tasty.
So how do you make kombucha?
Making kombucha is a two part process that includes primary fermentation and secondary fermentation. The primary fermentation starts the fermentation process and allows the bacteria to start to multiply and eat the sugars in the tea resulting in fermentation. The secondary fermentation is where we move the 1st batch into a separate bottle or bottles to allow for further fermentation as well as carbonation.
Primary fermentation.
First you’re going to need a large jug/container that will eventually hold the mother/scoby, the big piece of fungus that ferments the sugar tea combination.
You’ll also need a starter culture for your tea(the scoby), bags of organic black, or green tea, sugar, and filtered water.
List of Ingredients with links.
1 Gallon Glass Jar/Jug - I use a glass jar that has a spout at the bottom. This allows for an easier transition into bottles for the secondary fermentation but by no means is it necessary. You can find a large glass jug on Amazon by simply searching Kombucha Brew Jar. Link
Organic Sugar - most recipes I’ve seen call for organic sugar. I don’t use it but it’s “preferred” by people on the internets.
Kombucha Scoby - this is the most important part. No scoby, no kombucha. There are dozens of choices available online. Link.
Airtight Bottles - these are needed for the secondary fermentation. I use old glass kombucha bottles from store bought kombucha. If you go this route make sure you rinse them very well.
Organic Tea - You can use green tea, black tea, oolong tea, etc. I’ve only used green or black though and they both turn out great but have very different flavors.
Filtered Water - Filtered water is important because water out of the tap contains chlorine and many other things that will kill or slow down the growth of the healthy microbes your kombucha its producing.
PH Strips - As a doctor I feel like I need to add these in. I don’t use PH strips but PH strips are what you should use to make sure your Kombucha is safe and healthy and not too acidic. Some places say to measure your ph at the beginning and that it should be under 4.5 and at the end of the process be closer to 2.5-3.5.
You’ve got all your ingredients now its time to get started.
Boil one gallon of water.
Once its boiling take it off the heat and steep your tea bags in the water for 5-10 minutes. You’ll have to do the math on how many tea bags you need depending on the size of your tea bags.
Add 1 cup of sugar to the tea and mix in until it is completely dissolved.
Wait. Allow the tea sugar mixture to cool to room temperature. This is key! If you put your scoby (next step) into hot water you risk killing your scoby and ruining your chances of making a delicious kombucha.
After you’ve waited for the tea/sugar mixture to cool pour it into your glass jar.
Add your scoby to the jar.
Cover your jar with a breathable cloth or coffee filter.
Place your jar in a place where it won’t be disturbed, out of direct sunlight for 7-21 days. The fermentation process and how long it takes for the tea to start to become kombucha will depend on the temperature of the room.
After 7 days taste your kombucha. It should have a slightly sweet flavor. If it’s overly sweet or taste similar to when you put it in cover the jar back up. Moving forward try the kombucha every day to every other day until it has a slightly sweet flavor. Once the kombucha achieves a slightly sweet flavor we move to, SECONDARY FERMENTATION.
Secondary Fermentation
Secondary fermentation is the fun part. By fun part I mean the part where you get to experiment with different flavors and the level of carbonation you want for your kombucha. During this phase you’ll be placing the kombucha into bottles or a big bottle for the kombucha to continue to ferment and start getting bubbly.
Here we go.
Choose your bottles. Choosing the bottle that you are going to be transferring the kombucha into is really important. The bottles need to be airtight in order for the carbonation not to escape. I use glass bottles from store bought kombucha but there are tons of different options for different sealable glass bottles online. I use multiple smaller bottles per batch so I can experiment with more than one flavor at a time.
You’ve chosen your bottle. Now choose your fruit, sugar, or juice that you’ll be adding to your bottles before adding the kombucha. The amount of fruit, sugar, or spices that you add doesn’t have to be a specific amount but a good rule of thumb to follow for 1-16 oz bottle is: 1/4 - 1 tsp sugar and/or 2oz fruit juice.
Add your fruit juice to your bottles.
Pour your kombucha into the bottles not letting your scoby escape our of your big jar and leave 1-2 cups of kombucha in your main jar with the scoby. (This will be the start of your next batch).
When pouring your kombucha into the bottles make sure to leave 1-3” of space between the liquid and the cap.
Cap your bottles and place them out of direct sunlight and allow them to ferment for 1-10 days.
Burb your bottles. Every 1-2 days open the lids of your bottles briefly to allows some gas to escape. This will save you from possible exploding bottles. Also this allows you to taste test and see if you like where your kombucha is at from a bubbly standpoint.
You’ve tasted your kombucha and you’re happy with it. Now what? Put it in the fridge and enjoy. The kombucha will continue to slowly ferment but refrigeration will sharply decrease the rate of fermentation.
There you go you’ve made kombucha and have a scoby and 2 cups of kombucha left over in your big container to start the process over again. I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and good luck with your kombucha brewing project.