Grow a Mother and Brew Your Own Kombucha!!

 

Kombucha is wonderful!  It tastes like a sparkling wine or a fruit seltzer, isn’t too sweet, and always makes me feel energized after I drink a glass.  Kombucha is also full of wonderful health benefits and is an especially  powerful source of probiotics.  This amazing drink is full of B vitamins and even helps your liver detoxify, so it is wise to start slowly when introducing it into your diet.  Some people claim it cured their cancer and others say you can beat major health issues after drinking it regularly for a year.

The price of kombucha at the local health food store, however, kept me from drinking it very often.  Where I live, the average price for a serving size bottle of kombucha is $4.00.  Knowing you are getting lots of powerful probiotics makes it feel like a supplement, but $4.00 a bottle is too much for me to spend regularly.  I’m cheap like thatJ

So I set out to see if I could brew it myself at home.  It took me a year to figure it out but I finally am brewing two gallons a week, for less than a half dollar a gallon!  And it’s not hard once you know what to do, and what not to do.  First, what didn’t work...

I tried rehydrating three different dehydrated scobys I purchased from an online company. The first two never took off and the third one developed mold.  I learned later that scobys are very difficult to grow from a dehydrated mother and that kombucha should be brewed outside of the kitchen because of the mold spores in the air from things like onions sitting in a bowl on your counter or houseplants.  I was trying to brew my kombucha right by a bowl of onions and my potted herbs on the kitchen counter—so the mold problem isn’t a surprise.  I was really wary of getting a scoby off Craigslist or from the local health food store bulletin board.  My mother drilled into me lots of handwashing with hot water in the kitchen and I was afraid of bringing someone else’s germs into my house. 

One day at Trader Joe’s, one of the ladies working there told me you could grow your own mother (scoby) from a store bought bottle of kombucha.  So I googled and came up with wonderful directions here: 

http://www.paprikahead.com/2009/07/how-to-brew-your-own-kombucha-from.html

The benefit of this method is that the scobys used by these big brewing companies are strong and healthy so the product you will get at home should also be strong and health.  I used GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha in the original  flavor to grow my mother.  The resulting kombucha tastes just like the store bought bottle, though sometimes we add a splash of juice in as well.

The fermenting time took much longer than the directions said it would initially.  I waited two weeks before the tea smelled like kombucha and there was no film growing on the top.  I fed the culture anyway and hoped for the best.  The first cycle I didn’t even grow a mother but the tea fermented and we drank some and saved a cup of the tea to use as another starter and I tried again.  I followed the directions with my newly created starter and finally grew a mother (scoby). 

At first, as it was beginning to grow, it looked like specks of white mold all over the top of the tea and I almost threw it away.  But then those specks got larger and grew into dots, and ultimately the many large dots grew together to form a scoby covering the top of the tea.  (Google “Kombucha mold pictures” so you will know what kombucha mold looks like.  It is normal to have white or brown strings or mounds but if you see anything black, colored or furry you need to throw it away and start over).

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:  Make sure everything you use, including your hands are very clean!  Once you add the kombucha starter, you can’t let anything metal touch it.  No silverware spoons dipped in to taste, or big spoons to stir.  No metal strainers.  No metal lids of canning jars.  Scobys and metal do not work together. 

I watched and waited for it to grow the necessary thickness described in the directions, and then the scoby was finally mature enough to brew a gallon of kombucha.  I followed her directions to brew kombucha and it worked perfectly!  Here are some pictures of the process and some tips:

1. Starting early in the morning, boil 12 cups of water in a big pot.  I use a Le Creuset dutch oven.

2. When the water starts to boil, add one cup of organic sugar.  Let it return to a boil and make sure the sugar is dissolved.

3. Take the pot off the burner and add 4 tea bags to the sugar water solution.  I use Organic Oolong Tea.  I have not ventured from this choice because I read that this is one of the better choices and some teas have oils that promote mold growth.  I just went with a safe tea with great health benefits.

4. Wait for the tea to reach room temperature.  This takes hours which is why I recommend starting early in the morning.  You can kill the scoby if you add tea that is warm so this step is important.  If you have any bugs in your kitchen, I’d recommend putting a towel over the top of the bowl, once the steaming has stopped, to keep anything from flying into your tea.

5. Add the tea to a clean, gallon jar.  I got mine for $5.00 at Walmart.  I use a plastic funnel to make sure I don't spill tea everywhere but my husband did the pouring for this picture and he is much braver than I am:)  Then add two cups of starter and your scoby to the jar.  Cover the opening of the jar with a coffee filter secured with a rubber band.

    

6.  Place your jar in a place where it will stay warm (around 76 to 85 degrees should be good) but is also a dark area, away from direct light.  You want to keep it away from food and plants too.  I put mine in our family room, up high, in our media cabinet. 

7. I start checking the kombucha at a week, just smelling it to see if it seems fermented and making sure the new scoby is growing.  Usually the new scoby grows on top of the mother.  I have found that after 10 days the tea is at just the right level of fermentation.  It shouldn't be sweet but it shouldn't be vinegary either.  By tasting a store bought, original flavored kombucha, you will know the taste you are aiming for in this process.

After the brewing is finished, you can pull the two scobys apart and brew two gallons next time, instead of just one.  Or you can freak your friend out by bringing it to her in a jar with two cups of starter as a housewarming gift.  Probably few friends will appreciate this type of gift but you might have some really cool friends open to a new adventure!

For information about the amazing health benefits of Kombucha see: http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/