Makes 6 8-oz bottles of kombucha and fits in 1 gallon vessel. Scale up or down depending on the size of your vessel.

Supplies
1 gallon glass, ceramic, or oak brewing vessel
Tightly woven cloth cover
Rubber band
Fabric tea bag or tea ball, if using loose-leaf tea
6 8-oz glass or ceramic bottles with tight-fitting lids (avoid metal lids due to corrosion problems with the low pH)
Distilled white vinegar (for sanitation, not ingredient)
Funnel
pH strips (optional)
Thermometer (optional)

Ingredients
1 cup sugar (either refined white sugar or organic evaporated cane juice, no stevia or raw honey/sugar)
6 tsp or bags of tea, at least some of which should be white, green, or black
1 SCOBY
2 cups brewed kombucha from a previous batch (needed to keep mold out)
13 cups purified/filtered/bottled water

Preparation

The day before brewing day

1. Wash the brewing vessel using hot water, non-antimicrobial dish soap, and vinegar. Make sure to wash away any soap residues carefully.
2. Put the water in the brewing vessel and dechlorinate it by leaving it out overnight.

On brewing day

1. Pour 4 cups of the water into a pot and bring to a boil. Just as the water starts to boil, turn off the heat and let cool 1-2 minutes, then start seeping the tea.
2. Add sugar and stir to dissolve, then let the tea cool. If you like your tea strong, leave the tea bag/ball in until the tea has cooled. If you like your tea less strident, steep for only 5-10 minutes, then remove tea bag/ball.
3. Confirm that the temperature of the tea mixture is lower than 80F (body temperature is 100 F, so definitely colder than your finger). (If you add the SCOBY to a hot solution you will kill it.) Pour the sweetened tea into the remaining 10 cups of the purified water.
4. Rinse hands with filtered water or vinegar.
5. Add the starter tea, and then with clean hands, place the SCOBY on top.
6. Cover with tightly woven cloth cover and secure with the rubber band.
7. Set your kombucha in a temperate (72-85 degrees F) location out of direct sunlight with good air flow. (The yeast in the SCOBY needs air circulation.) The vessel should not be in the immediate vicinity of a trash can or plants, either, due to the possibility of mold in the trash or in plant dirt infecting the SCOBY.
8. Do not disturb for 7 days.

7-21 days after brewing day

1. Gently insert a straw beneath the SCOBY and take a sip. If too tart, then reduce your brewing cycle next time. If too sweet, allow to brew for a few more days.
2. Continue to taste every day or so until you reach your optimum flavor preference. The pH should be between 2.5 and 3.5. You want it to be sour/tangy with a touch of sweet remaining. Alternatively, you can brew it longer until it is 100% sour, and then combine it with juice to drink. Just don’t brew it longer than 30 days. Generally, kombucha is “ready” somewhere between 7 and 15 days.

Once you are happy with your kombucha

1. With clean hands, remove the culture and place in clean bowl (no soap! vinegar and hot water!)
2. Ladle or pour 2 cups of liquid from the top of the brew over the cultures. Cover the cultures with the covering cloth and set aside. If SCOBY plus baby are thicker than 2 inches, split them and keep the healthiest looking one for your next brew (or put the extra in a hotel, if both look good.)

(Optional) Flavor/secondary fermentation

• Clean the bottles and caps with dish soap, water and vinegar and rinse well.
• If you are flavoring the kombucha or doing a secondary fermentation, place flavorants/sugar directly into the bottle. If doing a secondary fermentation, take explosion precautions. Ginger, strawberry, and blueberry particularly cause problems. 1/8 tsp sugar is good if you just want more carbonation.
• Bottle the kombucha using a funnel, optionally straining the yeast.
• Pour fermented kombucha on top of the flavors and fill almost to the top, but leave an inch free for the carbonation that will develop.
• Put the caps on tightly and let them ferment at room temperature for 1-3 days. You may wish to burp the bottles to release carbonation and prevent explosions.
• To halt fermentation, move the bottles to the fridge.

Flavor Ideas

• Add a couple of pieces of fresh or frozen fruit. Add any fruit you like: blueberries, blackberries, mangoes, pineapple, peaches, pears, apples, etc. You can add dried fruit as well, but fresh fruit gives a stronger flavor.
• Add a chunk of fresh ginger, for a ginger-ale flavor.
• Add 1-2 Tbsp. of fresh squeezed juice: orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, cranberry, pomegranate….
• Try a few drops of extract: vanilla, almond, orange, lemon….
• Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. of spice: cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, even cocoa powder!
• Add 1/2 to 1 tsp. of dried herbs: lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, rosemary….
• Feel free to combine these flavor ideas: pineapple ginger, almond peach, apple cinnamon, lemon lavender….
• Use your imagination and have fun. The amount of flavoring used depends on the size of your container and your personal taste. You can adjust these amounts up or down, as needed.