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Have you ever wondered how to brew kombucha at home? This easy guide will teach you how to transform tea into kombucha in just a few easy steps! This is the most popular guide to brewing kombucha on the internet and has helped over 10,000 home brewers make kombucha in kitchens around the world. Yours next?
save this recipe!It’s a big day everyone! The day your intestinal microbiota have been begging you for. The day you say goodbye to expensive store-bought kombucha. The day you become a brewmaster!
The goal of this guide is to be your one stop shop for homemade kombucha brewage, from SCOBY-less to fermented perfection. No hopping around the internet or buying unnecessary gear. No fuss. No confusion. Because making homemade kombucha is so simple, and I hope after reading this you’ll give it a whirl! Let’s hop right to it.
Meet The Brewer
Hey friends, I’m Sarah! I’m in love with home-brewing kombucha and have helped thousands of people all over the world make kombucha in their homes! I created an entire website dedicated to brewing kombucha called Brew Buch, and run an online community of over 50,000 brewers called Kickass Kombucha Brewers (I’d love for you to join)! If you have any questions about brewing, please drop a comment at the end of this post – I personally read and respond to them daily!
The process looks like this:
This post will go into detail about each step in the process of making kombucha. For succinct instructions and metric measurements, jump to the printable recipe card at the end of this post. The general order of things goes something like this (you can jump around this tutorial by clicking the links below):
- Make SCOBY (1 to 4 weeks) – to make the “mother”
- First Fermentation (6 to 10 days) – to make the actual kombucha
- Second Fermentation (3 to 10 days) – to carbonate the kombucha
“Excellent recipe. I’ve tried ten or more online for comparison and this one has the best flavor balance. Not at all vinegary and not too sweet. Will be using for my base from now on.” -Katherine
Before we start, here are some general notes that are consistent throughout the whole homemade kombucha process.
- No metal or plastic containers. Metal can react with the acidic kombucha, while plastic can house nasty bacteria.
- Clean is key. A recurring theme in kombucha brewing is that everything must be clean! We’re creating the perfect environment for good bacterial growth, but if a bad bacteria sneaks in it could ruin your batch (and make you pretty sick).
- Temperature plays a big role. Fermentation goes a bit quicker in warmer temperatures and a bit slower in colder.
- No mold zone. If you see any mold growing on your SCOBY or in the tea (which I understand can be difficult to discern from the hideous SCOBY but will generally be green, white, or black), then toss your whole batch.
Step 1: How to make a kombucha SCOBY
The SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) is the mother of the kombucha, providing bacteria and yeast to ferment the sweet tea, protecting the tea from outside contaminants, and providing a loose seal to keep a bit of the carbonation in. Yes, it’s hideous…but it’s the very essence of kombucha! And the best part? You can make one at home! You’ll need:
- Water: Tap water is just fine here!
- White Sugar: Feeds the yeast and bacteria—don’t sub with other sweeteners.
- Black Tea: Provides nutrients for fermentation. Black tea works best for a strong, healthy SCOBY.
- Raw, unflavored kombucha: Contains live cultures that kickstart the SCOBY growth. Look for one with sediment at the bottom!
To make a SCOBY, you’ll brew sweet black tea, let it cool, then mix in raw kombucha. Cover and ferment at room temperature for 1 to 4 weeks until a ¼-inch SCOBY forms. Keep the SCOBY in its tea until you’re ready to brew your first batch! Jump to recipe for printable instructions.
Which brand Is best?
Our tried and tested store-bought brand is the GT’s “Pure”. You can find it in most natural food stores.
Important Notes For Making A SCOBY
- Only black tea. Similarly, the SCOBY doesn’t grow as well with green or fruity teas. By all means, once your SCOBY is big and strong, you can use green tea, but for now, stick with black. The SCOBY doesn’t like decaf tea and will not grow as well if fed it (SCOBY = my spirit animal).
- No honey. Honey can contain botulism bacteria that, when grown exponentially as bacteria and yeast tend to do in kombucha, can be dangerous.
- Don’t mess with it! You won’t see anything but a few bubbles in the first few days. But then one day a thin, translucent layer will form, eventually thickening into a full on SCOBY.
Step 2: The first fermentation
So you’ve got a newbie SCOBY and you’re ready to get this komboo-choo train rollin’. This first fermentation is where you actually make the kombucha. You’ll need:
- Water: Tap is fine!
- White Sugar: Feeds the SCOBY and bacteria during fermentation.
- Black or green tea: Black tea is most common, but green tea adds a lighter flavor.
- Unflavored kombucha: This has the live cultures and acidity needed to start your fermentation.
- SCOBY: Your live culture pellicle.
To do the first fermentation, you’ll brew sweet tea, cool it, and add it to a jar with your SCOBY and starter kombucha. Cover and ferment at room temp for 6–10 days, tasting around day 6. Once it’s slightly tangy and not too sweet, reserve 2 cups as your starter and move the rest to second fermentation. Jump to recipe for printable instructions.
First Fermentation Tips
- In this step, unlike in the making of the SCOBY, you can use other teas besides black. Feel free to experiment with green, white, oolong, or combinations of them. Fruit teas should be mixed with a few black tea bags to ensure the SCOBY mama gets what she needs to thrive.
- Once the SCOBY gets to be about an inch thick, peel off a few layers to create a second SCOBY (you can share the love and gift this to a friend!)
Step 3: The Second Fermentation
The final step and negotiably the best part of the process! The second fermentation is where the real magic happens. It’s where you can play around with sweet, fruity kombucha flavors that will not only make your homemade kombucha taste better than store-bought, but will carbonate the kombucha! You’ll need:
- Homemade kombucha from the first fermentation
- Sweetener (fruit, honey, or sugar). Here are a few ideas per 1 cup kombucha:
- 1 to 2 Tbsp mashed fruit or fruit juice
- 1 to 2 tsp honey
- a piece of candied ginger
Strain the kombucha and bottle it with your chosen sweetener, leaving some headspace. Let it ferment at room temperature for 3 to 10 days to build fizz, then strain out fruit if needed and refrigerate to chill and stop fermentation. Jump to recipe for printable instructions.
Second fermentation tips
- The more sugar/fruit you add, the faster the kombucha will ferment and become carbonated.
- Your jars can explode if the pressure becomes too high! For your first few batches while you’re still getting the hang of how kombucha reacts to your environment, bottle a portion of it in a plastic bottle. This will act as a gauge for how the others are doing. When the plastic bottle is rock solid, the rest are probably done. “Burp” them by opening each to release some pressure, then place them in the refrigerator to slow fermentation.
The Simple Guide to Kickass Kombucha
Equipment
- Glass Jar (1 gallon or larger)
- Clean Cloth (like a dish cloth or paper towels)
Ingredients
Making a SCOBY
- 7 cups water, 1.6 L
- 4 bags black tea, or 1 Tbsp loose tea
- ½ cup white sugar, 100 g
- 1 cup unflavored kombucha, this should be unpasteurized, unflavored store-bought kombucha, 235 mL
First Fermentation
- 14 cups water, 3.5 quarts, 3.3 L
- 8 bags black or green tea, or 2 Tbsp loose leaf
- 1 cup white sugar, 200 g
- 2 cups unflavored kombucha, from a previous batch or store-bought kombucha, 470 mL
- 1 SCOBY
Second Fermentation
- Kombucha, from the first fermentation
- Sweetener or flavor
Instructions
Making Kombucha SCOBY
- Make Tea: Bring 7 cups water to a boil in a clean pot. Remove from heat and add 4 bags black tea. Allow tea to steep for about 15 minutes. Remove tea and stir in ½ cup white sugar. Let tea cool to room temperature.Alternatively, boil only 2 cups of water and add the remaining 5 cups of cold water once the tea has steeped and sugar has been added. This will quicken the process.
- Add Starter: Add 1 cup unflavored kombucha then pour everything into a large glass jar.
- Ferment: Cover with a clean cloth and secure with a rubber band. Set somewhere dark and room temperature (70-75°F, 21-24°C) for 1 to 4 weeks, until a ¼ inch (½ cm) SCOBY has formed.
First Fermentation
- Make Tea: Bring 14 cups water to a boil in a clean pot. Remove from heat and add 8 bags black or green tea. Allow tea to steep for about 15 minutes. Remove tea and stir in 1 cup white sugar. Let tea cool to room temperature.Alternatively to quicken this up, boil only 4 cups of water and add the remaining 10 cups of cold water once tea has steeped and sugar has been added.
- Combine With Starter + SCOBY: If your SCOBY is still in the jar you made it in, use a clean spoon to push it down into the tea, then pour out all but 2 cups of the tea that’s in that jar (you can bottle the remaining tea to keep as a strong starter kombucha). Pour in your freshly made cooled tea.
- Ferment: Cover with a clean cloth and secure with a rubber band. Set somewhere dark and room temperature (70-75°F, 21-24°C) for anywhere from 6 to 10 days. Begin tasting the tea at about 6 days. It should be mildly sweet and slightly vinegary when finished.The longer the tea ferments, the more sugar molecules will be eaten up, the less sweet it will be. This process will go faster if it is warm in your house.
- And Repeat: Reserve 2 cups from this batch to use as starter kombucha for your next batch (just leave it in the jar with the SCOBY). The rest can move into the second fermentation!
Second Fermentation
- Flavor: Add your desired flavors to each bottle, then funnel kombucha into bottles, leaving about 1 inch at the top. Seal each shut.
- Ferment: Let ferment somewhere dark and room temperature for 3 to 10 days.This process will go faster if it is warm in your house. Carefully open bottles to prevent volcanoes. You can do this over a bowl with a baggie over the top just in case!
- Serve: If desired, strain out flavorings before serving. Place bottles in the fridge to slow the carbonation process and to chill before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!Supplies Needed for Making Kombucha
- Large Glass Jug: It should hold at least 1 gallon (buy on Amazon or in most homeware stores)
- Fermentation Bottles: These bottles have a tight seal specifically designed to keep the carbonation in (hellooo fizz!) (buy flip-top bottles here or collect and reuse GT’s bottles)
About the gear
Above is a list of the supplies needed to make kombucha. These are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase. I’ve only included products I know and trust, and have included multiple buying options for each. I personally use and love the products from Kombucha.com. For 10% off their online store, comment below and I’ll get our secret code to you!
This is PERFECT! I love Kombucha and have been dying to make my own! Can’t wait to use your guide and get going! 🙂
Let me know how it goes!! If you love the store-bought you’re going to fall in love with home brewing. It’s so tasty and rewarding and the possibilities are endless!
Do you have a way I can print off the instructions? I work better that way 😀
I can’t wait to try this.
Hey Kim! This post was too long for my usual recipe formatter (which has a printing option), but I’m totally with you on needing things printed for cooking! I’ll email you a PDF I put together just now with all the text from the post, and in the coming weeks I’ll try to get a nice PDF with pictures posted on here for those looking to print this out.
Edit: For anyone looking for the printable PDF, please enter your email in the box at the bottom of the post! This is how you can get the printable now.
Thank you so much!!
Hi Stephanie! If you scroll to the almost-end of the post, just above my cartoon depiction of the whole process, you’ll see a form to enter your email. Just enter your name and email there and I’ll send it out to ya! 🙂
Thank you, would love a printable version.
Hi Kara, just enter your email in the box at the end of the post where it says “printable version” and a PDF will be sent to you! ?
Thank you,
I too would love a printable copy of the recipe
Hi Susan, if you enter your email in the box at the end of the post where it says Get Printable a PDF will be sent to you 🙂
I love Kombucha. I will definitely try this. Thanks!
Hi Sarah I need your help I followed your instructions have a beautiful Scoby just completed the first fermentation day seven tastes good but I cannot understand what to do next do I strain all the liquid (al but two cups to keep my Scoby alive) into my bottles now add my honey and that is it? Doesnt see, like a lot of liquid … But my Scoby is beautiful…s
Hi Kate! Okay so you have your SCOBY and you’ve gone through the first fermentation, so you’re close! You just need to do the second fermentation now to make the kombucha fizzy. So you’re correct, you reserve 2 cups of that for your next batch, then strain the rest, pour into bottles, add your sweetener, and ferment for just a few days until fizzy. It should end in about 14 cups of finished kombucha 🙂
Hey Sarah! Thank you! Completed the 2nd fermentation! OMG refrigerated a bottled and tried it today…super fizzy and delicious I love it. No more store bought for me. Started another batch. Delicious. I refrigerated my bottles as per store bought kombucha is this correct? Thank you Sarah
Hi Kate! Yay for completed kombucha!! Yep once your ‘bucha is carbonated, keep it in the bottle and just store in the refrigerator. This will dramatically slow the carbonation so that it keeps that perfect fizzy level for a while 🙂
This is so interesting. To be honest, I’ve been scared of trying until now, but this makes it seem really simple. Off to the shops!
I was scared for the longest time! People seem to think it can go terribly wrong but after quite a few batches I’ve found that it’s pretty fool proof, so long as you keep it clean and consistent! 🙂 I hope you’ll give it a go!
Hahaha. This is great. Didn’t realize it was a “process”. I had my first kombucha last week actually and really liked it.
Haha yes, it’s a process in that it takes a fair amount of time. But each time you actually have to work on it you only spend a few minutes in the actually-making-it phase. If you liked the store-bought I think you’d really like it home-brewed! It’s certainly not everyone’s taste.
Love the detailed instructions! I’ve been thinking about making kombucha and you make it look so simple!
Oh it is SO simple! You won’t even need instructions after your second batch. I hope you’ll try it out!
Wow this really looks like an awesome project! I never heard of Kombucha before! Now trying to convince my wife I need to make this too haha!
Thanks for sharing!
It’s so much fun!! It’s such minimal effort (compared to many of my projects) and in the end you feel like you’ve just accomplished the feat of all feats, it’s great. Definitely try out a few store-bought versions first so you know what taste to aim for, and after that it’s all up to your imagination!
What a great post! I am just getting into fermentation and will certainly refer back to your post, I just need to start!
This was my first experimentation with fermentation and it’s so great. Kitchen magic, really. But definitely just start! 4-6 weeks from now you could be sipping your own homemade kombucha 🙂
Fermentation is so fascinating. I’ve never tackled kombucha (though I’ve done sourdough and kimchi). Now I know where to start. Thanks!
Isn’t it? I was going to have a whole “fermentation week” and do sourdough and kimchi as well…until I realized that each of these is very deserving of its own week. So much to learn and talk about when it comes to fermentation! If you made those then this will be cake for you. Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions 🙂
Thanks Whitney! You should give it a try! Each batch of ‘bucha is as unique as the person who makes it 🙂
Wow, what an awesome and totally comprehensive guide. I love making kombucha, but I’ve never done it without a SCOBY. I am totally going to try your method. Beautiful work!
Thanks Sabrina! Let me know how it goes 🙂 A lot of websites I was finding said you needed to acquire a SCOBY from a friend or buy one dehydrated online (eek!), but that’s just so unnecessary!
Thanks, Marissa! You should definitely give it a go! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions or troubles 🙂