How to Brew Kombucha

Homemade kombucha starts with a SCOBY, sweet tea, and patience. Brew the first ferment for 7 to 10 days until it tastes tangy, then bottle it with fruit or juice for a second ferment that builds natural carbonation.

I’ve been brewing kombucha since before I started this site, long enough that I keep two SCOBYs going now in case one batch goes sideways. My kombucha site, Brew Buch, exists because people kept asking the same troubleshooting questions in the comments here, so if your batch smells like vinegar or your SCOBY looks strange, I’ve almost certainly seen it before.

Brewing kombucha at home comes down to patience and a few non-negotiables: clean equipment, the right ratio of starter tea, and resisting the urge to peek on day three. I’ve run this recipe through dozens of batches to land on a fermentation that’s reliably tangy without tipping into straight vinegar.

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.

What is Homemade Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented tea drink made by adding a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) to sweetened tea and letting it ferment for one to three weeks.

During fermentation, the SCOBY consumes most of the sugar and produces a naturally fizzy, tangy drink with a small amount of alcohol (typically less than 0.5%, similar to ripe fruit juice). The result is a lightly effervescent beverage that tastes somewhere between sparkling apple cider and tart lemonade, depending on how long it ferments and what flavorings you add.

Homemade kombucha goes through two stages. The first fermentation produces the base kombucha. The second fermentation, done in sealed bottles with added fruit or juice, builds the carbonation and adds flavor. Both are simple once you know what you’re doing!

What You Will Love About This Kombucha Recipe

I’ve been brewing kombucha at home for years, and this guide has now helped over 100,000 home brewers do the same. Here’s why it works and why readers keep coming back to it:

• Written for complete beginners with no brewing experience required
• Covers everything from growing your own SCOBY to second fermentation and flavor variations in one place
• Fully customizable! Once you have the base down, the flavor combinations are endless

How to Brew Kombucha:

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):

1. Make SCOBY (1 to 4 weeks) – to make the “mother”
2. First Fermentation (6 to 10 days) – to make the actual kombucha
3. Second Fermentation (3 to 10 days) – to carbonate the kombucha

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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)
• A breathable cloth cover. A clean cotton cloth, coffee filter, or paper towel secured with a rubber band keeps dust and insects out while allowing airflow. The SCOBY needs oxygen during first fermentation.
• A long-handled wooden or plastic spoon. Avoid metal utensils in contact with the SCOBY or kombucha.
• A fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. For straining before bottling.

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.

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.

SCOBY Care

A healthy SCOBY is pale, rubbery, and floats somewhere between the top and bottom of the jar. Brown stringy bits hanging off the bottom are yeast strands, not mold, and are completely normal. Mold shows up as fuzzy spots on the surface, usually blue, black, or white, and if you see it, the whole batch needs to be tossed.

Store your SCOBY in a “SCOBY hotel,” a jar with a cup or two of finished kombucha, whenever you’re not brewing. Keep it out of direct sunlight and covered with a breathable cloth, never a tight lid.

Step 2: The first fermentation

Steep the tea, dissolve in the sugar, and let it cool completely to room temperature before adding your SCOBY and starter liquid. Adding either to hot tea can kill the culture. Cover the jar with a breathable cloth secured with a rubber band and let it sit somewhere warm and out of direct light for 7 to 10 days.

Start tasting around day 7 using a straw to sample without disturbing the SCOBY. It should taste tangy with a light sweetness still coming through. The longer it sits, the more vinegar-forward it gets.

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!)

Tea-to-Sugar Ratio

For every gallon of kombucha, use 8 bags of black or green tea (or about 2 tablespoons loose leaf) and 1 cup of sugar. The sugar isn’t for sweetness in the final drink, it’s food for the SCOBY, and most of it gets consumed by the end of the first ferment.

Step 3: The Second Fermentation

Once the first ferment tastes right, remove the SCOBY and set it aside in its hotel. Pour the kombucha into bottles, leaving about an inch of headspace, and add your flavoring of choice, fruit, juice, or herbs work well. Seal the bottles and let them sit at room temperature for 2 to 3 days to build carbonation, then move them to the fridge to stop fermentation.

Open bottles slowly over a sink the first time you try a new flavor. A strong second ferment can build more pressure than you’d expect. 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.

Kombucha Recipe Storage and Shelf Life

Finished kombucha (after second fermentation) keeps in the fridge for 1 to 3 months in sealed swing-top bottles. Cold temperature slows fermentation significantly, so the flavor stays stable and carbonation is preserved.

At room temperature, kombucha continues to ferment, becoming more acidic and less sweet over time. Leave bottles out only during the second fermentation process, and refrigerate as soon as they reach your desired carbonation level.

A few storage tips worth knowing:

• Always store finished kombucha in glass, not plastic. Plastic can absorb flavors and may not hold carbonation as well.
• Burp your bottles every day or two during second fermentation to release built-up pressure and prevent over-carbonation.
• If you need to pause brewing, store your SCOBY in a glass jar with starter liquid in the fridge. It can stay dormant for several weeks this way.
• The SCOBY itself will keep indefinitely as long as it stays in liquid and the environment stays clean.

Kombucha FAQs

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