Kombucha: Making Your Own Scoby
Part One Of Three
What Is Kombucha?
Kombucha is a fermented black tea, or a black and green tea combination. It is brewed strong with cane sugar and then has an item called a scoby added. The tea, sugar, and scoby work together to begin the fermentation process. The time brewed and the final flavor is up to the home brewmaster. Many find that kombucha is an acquired taste, yet others find it is the long-lost drink of their soul. The taste is described by many if not most as tart, vinegary, or similar to apple cider. The taste is tangy and fizzy. If you do the second ferments with flavors and fruits and seal the smaller bottles tight, it becomes very fizzy. At times it will remind you of soda pop. The second ferment below is only twenty-four hours. I usually leave the second fermenting for two to four days. I think this will be done tomorrow on day two, based on the fizzy going on. I brewed the kombucha from August first till August seventh. I estimate it to be in the refrigerator by the ninth.
Realizing The Cost
So now you have found the drink of your soul. You are buying and drinking it on a regular basis. Then you start to add up the cost. Then you start to do research and realize it is just Black tea, sometimes with green tea, and sugar and a scoby.
What is kombucha really? It is a fermented tea. The fermentation creates a probiotic-rich drink that can help you establish a healthy gut balance. The foods that we eat today in the (SAD) ... Standard American Diet has robbed our guts and bodies of their natural biomes. Kombucha can help rebuild balanced gut flora based on the probiotics that establish themselves in the brewing of kombucha. Probiotics, amino acids, the B vitamin spectrum, and many more beneficial things are present in Kombucha. Unlike Kiefer, a very healthy probiotic drink made from milk, without grains, you are not making Kiefer. You must literally get the grains from somewhere because you can not make them. Kombucha Scoby's can be made. You can not make kombucha without a scoby. You must literally buy, beg from a friend, or make your own scoby.
Scoby? What is a scoby?
Scoby is actually an acronym. It means the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. A Scientific mouthful explanation is best served by Quoting Wikipedia.
Quote:
End quote. Scientific mouthful Right?
As the picture from the Wikipedia quote and the three pictures from my scobies above illustrate, a SCOBY is as the wiki says: "a gelatinous, cellulose-based biofilm." It is a film that floats on the top of the sweet tea most often. Although, sometimes the mass does sink. Often people mistakenly call the scoby a mushroom. This is wrong, as a mushroom is a fungus. The scoby is a combination of bacteria and yeasts. It is rightly called a mother. When you start your first batch of Kombucha you will use your scoby. Your scoby is now the mother of all your future batches of kombucha. Eventually, you can give the babies to your friends. Babies! What Babies?
Making Babies!
Each time you brew a batch of kombucha, the scoby will form a new scoby. Depending on the length of time you brew your kombucha will depend on the thickness of your baby scobies. Every single time you brew kombucha, your babies will be of different sizes and your kombucha will taste different. Now it is a matter of getting your hands on a scoby. Later you will have too many scobies and will end up making a Scoby Hotel. More on that in part three kombucha second ferments.
There are several ways to get a scoby. Find a friend and get one of their babies. Buy one. Make one.
There is also a very good book by Hannah Krum from Kombucha Kamp. She calls herself The Kombucha Mamma. She wrote a book of all her knowledge. I found it very helpful in the beginning when I started making kombucha myself. I go to it now to troubleshoot when I have problems.
The Big Book Of Kombucha
The Big Book Of Kombucha
You can always get a kit. We bought one for our Mama for Mother's Day. I loaned her my Big Book Of Kombucha and she made her first batch of kombucha. Here is the kit we bought her.
Kombucha Brewing Kit
Making your own scoby.
In a way, it seems scary to begin concocting experiments in your kitchen. With Kombucha you must always use GLASS. Never make your kombucha, store Kombucha, scobies, or starter tea in plastic. Always use glass to make. store and bottle up your Kombucha. Kombucha can leach chemicals from the plastic and be harmful to you. Fermentation is safe simply because of the ph balance created by the brine. In the case of kombucha, it is the scoby and the starter tea of already finished kombucha that creates a low ph and safe environment. Also, maintaining a temp not lower than sixty-nine degrees, Depending on your house the temperature is going to fluctuate. If you maintain lower than sixty-nine degrees more than a few days you can develop mold. The mold is probably not going to happen. The mold that is worrisome is black and green mold. Not white film mold. A white film mold on top is ok.
I had a white film on my very first attempt to grow my own scoby and I tossed it out. After reading the big book of kombucha I realized I did not have to toss it and it was actually safe. Newbies right! If you have a black and green mold toss it out scoby and all and start over. If you have black mold you will know, The odds are actually slim that it will get too cold in your house. Most homes are not that cold on a regular basis for a long enough time for mold to occur. Even in the winter, most homes are not that cold. If your home is that cool find a place that is warmer. On top of the refrigerator is sometimes good as it produces heat to run. Find a place that runs warmer. That is the place you want to make science happen! If it turns out that your home is that cool, they do make heaters designed to brew kombucha.
This is why I made my own scoby versus buying one. I was new at it, was unsure, and did not want to spend money I might have to toss, It is simply the cost of a bottle of originally flavored kombucha. No flavors, no additives. Every post I read and probably every single one you will read recommends, GTS, Original organic raw kombucha. It is easy to find in just about every store these days. It is also a trusted source.
Making The Tea.
Start with a jar around the size of one quart. Remember always use GLASS to make and store your finished kombucha. Bring one quart of water to boil. Add three organic tea bags or three tablespoons of loose tea. Organic is not necessary but is probably just good practice. I use organic loose leaf tea from Arbor Teas.
It is a matter of preference. I love the flavor. I am a big hot tea drinker. Once the water is boiling add the tea bags and 1 cup sugar. One cup of sugar may seem like a lot, but the raw live strands need food for three to four weeks it takes to grow a decent-sized scoby mother. Let the tea brew for around twenty minutes. After twenty minutes remove the tea bags and allow the tea to come to room temperature. GTS kombucha is a raw and live bacteria with strings and strands of a mother floating in the tea. It is the raw culture in the bottle of kombucha that is going to let you grow a scoby over time. It can not be too hot when you add the bottle of kombucha or you will kill the raw culture that is going to grow your mother scoby.
Making A Mother
Now that your tea is at room temperature, pour the bottle of kombucha into the quart jar. The picture below looks bigger but is a quart jar. Add the cooled tea and sugar mixture. Stop at the shoulder of the jar. Just before it narrows toward the top. You do not want it all the way to the top as your scoby needs room to grow. The last thing you want is your scoby to poke out of the jar if it grows happily high. Discard any tea you have leftover. Cover this with a paper towel or kitchen towel on the top. Hold it down with a rubber band. The tea, sugar, and bottle of kombucha need to breathe. Covering with a paper towel or kitchen towel securely will stop any bugs from getting in. Place your jar in a quiet place and forget about it for three to four weeks. It needs to be in a place where it will maintain a temperature of 70-85 degrees. Remember the warmer the area the faster it may brew. After this time you will discover that you have a scoby that has grown on the top of your sweet tea mixture. After three weeks you can see it evaporates down from the lip. Now the Magic can begin.
Now you can brew Kombucha. Stay tuned for part two Making Kombucha!
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