Kombucha Recipe and Instructions

Mothers Know Best – Kombucha
Lisa Leonard
Chief Concoctor
lisaleonard1@ymail.com

Kombucha Recipe
    
 Kombucha Mother(s)
*Sweet Tea (You will need enough to fill your ceramic or glass container ¾ of the way full or so)
 1 cup finished kombucha for ever 1 gallon or so of Sweet Tea

      *For the Sweet Tea
            1 gallon water
            1 cup sugar
            6 teaspoons tea or 6 tea bags (Try making one of the tea bags a flavored or herbal tea.  Experiment!)

       Boil water and stir in sugar to dissolve. 

       Turn off heat, add tea and cover.  Let the whole pot of tea, with the tea bags, cool and keep                     
        covered (Don’t peek!  Keep the other yeasts out.), 6 hours or so or overnight, until room
        temperature. 

When cooled to room temperature pour the sweet tea into clean glass or ceramic container (not metal it will react with the kombucha, and plastic is yucky).  It’s best to start with a container that is only 1” or so bigger in diameter then the mother.  When the mother(s) are at least a ½” thick move up to larger container and so on.

Pour in the finished kombucha. 

Add Mother.  The lightest, newest, top side up, if you can figure out which one that is, if not that’s ok.  Sometimes the mother floats and sometime not.  It’s ok if it doesn’t.

Cover with 6-8 layers of cheesecloth or 2-3 layers of loose weave cotton cloth.  I always put a kitchen towel over the cheese cloth.  This keeps the dust and stuff off the cheese cloth.  I also cover the whole jar, if it’s clear, to keep direct sun off the mother and to keep from grossing out my friends.

Put in a somewhat warm spot, but where you won't forget about it!  The kitchen counter works for me.

It's ok if the mother sinks.  They do a lot of the time.  When there brand new and fresh from a batch of kombucha they tend to float more often.  The batch will grow a new mother (a daughter) on the top that will cover the whole surface.

Check at 10 days or so by dipping a straw in and tasting.   You might like it sweeter.   But if the new mother on top is still real thin, less then a 1/4 inch don't disturb it to get a taste.  You might make the new one sink too, and the batch would have to grow another mother.  The batch will probably take a few days longer now, since it has to make a new mother.  Check a few days later.  It shouldn’t take longer then 25 days, unless it’s been real cold or the mothers just in a bad mood! 
 

When you're ready to start your next batch

Each time you make a batch of kombucha you get a new mother.  That's the one that's on top.  Some times the new mothers will stick together and some times not.  I’m not sure why.

I usually take the mother(s) out of the jar temporarily and put her in a clean, well rinsed bowl with the finished kombucha that's going into the next batch.  Then after I've poured the finished kombucha into another jar(s), I wash, and rinse really well, the fermentation jar.  Or you can have another clean fermentation jar ready to go and move the mother directly into that first. 

Then I fill the clean jar with fresh, room temp, sweet tea, up to the widest part of the jar. Or if it's straight sided container, the sweet tea level should be at least an inch or so from the top, to keep the cloth from getting into the kombucha. Don't forget to add back in about a one cup of finished kombucha for ever gallon of fresh tea.  This gets the acidity level up some to help stop other things from getting a chance to grow first. 

Then I add the mother(s) back in gently, oldest ones first.  Newest, whitest side up is best.  That's the most alive side.  Though if you put her in upside down she will figure it out and grow a new mom anyway, but maybe take just a little longer.  A lot of the times the mother will float, but sometimes not.  It's ok if she sinks.  Sometimes you'll find the mother floating later, when she's good and ready.
 

How to flavor your kombucha

After you have removed the mother(s) from the finished kombucha, the kombucha can be drunk as is, which is great, especially if you used some flavored tea in the sweet tea.

You will need to refrigerate the finished kombucha eventually as it will keep fermenting even without the mother!  I have had a new mother grow on the surface of loosely closed jars of finished kombucha that I’ve left out!  Just enough oxygen could get in the jar for the new mother to form!

If you want to flavor the kombucha you can add in any variety of items, grated ginger, mashed fruit, herbs and/or spices.  Use your imagination!  You may need to add in some sugar or agave nectar depending on how strong the kombucha is or how sour the fruit or veggie’s are.  

After you’ve added the flavor(s) to the kombucha you can pass it through a sieve, to get out the pieces of fruit and stuff, and bottle right away or let it ‘steep’ for a time.  How long depends on how soft the flavor item you use is.  Mashed fruit and veggies can be bottled right away.  Grated ginger, I find, works best when you let it steep it for 6 hours or overnight.  Harder herbs and spices, such as dried rose petals or whole spices, may take up to two days.  Leave the lid to the steeping jar a little loose to let out the pressure and leave in a coolish, darkish place.  When it tastes as strong as you like, pour it into your storage bottles.

Second fermentation

You can do a short second ferment in the bottle if you want a little more fizz.  Simply leave the bottles in cool dark spot for one to two days.  Kombucha with fresh fruit should only be left out overnight as fruit really spurs on the second fermentation.  Then put the bottles in the fridge.  Don’t put the bottles somewhere you might forget about them, and don’t leave them out for more then two days.  The pressure will build up and the bottles could burst.  That would make a huge mess and could hurt someone.  Trust me I had a large bottle of cucumber burst on me and my cupboard still smells of pickles.  (Strange flavor cucumber.  The second ferment goes off really fast, less then a day.  I guess cucumbers are technically a fruit.  At first the taste was delightful but within three days it started to taste like pickle juice.)

Thanks for making it through my long and detailed instructions!

Good luck and have fun!!

Please email me if you have any questions.  lisaleonard1@ymail.com