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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!
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for the detailed instructions (written, video and doodle!) I have a couple of questions if you have any thoughts on them.
1. For the glass jar used during the making of SCOBY as well as first fermentation, on top of using the cheese cloth can I put any kind of lid on top of the cloth as well (meaning I’ll still use cheese cloth but throw an extra lid on top)? I just don’t want bugs crawling over the cheese cloth during warm seasons.
2. For the 2 cups of kombucha that are to be reserved for the next batch from the first fermentation, do I just keep the SCOBY in it for as long as I want?
3. For the bottles used for second fermentation, I personally had saved a bunch of store-bought kombucha jars like the GT one with a plastic or metal screw lid. I thought they should work as a good substitute for swing top bottles too as they generally keep air in if I screw them tight?
Thank you Sarah 😊😊😊
Hi Anna!
1. Avoid using a lid. The fermentation needs air flow, which is why we use a cloth (feel free to use a more tightly knit cloth to prevent bugs from getting in).
2. Yes! You can leave that reserved kombucha with the SCOBY for a few weeks until you start your new batch.
3. Those will work! Not as well as flip top, but well enough 😀
I’m on my first fermentation and the yeast strains are very blue green. I’m doing some research and realizing that I may have chosen the wrong store bought kombucha to ferment with. I think I used Synergy Sacred Life. If so, do you think it will be okay?
Hi Sara! You should ideally use plain, unflavored kombucha to start your fermentation. Here are my suggestions on where to buy unflavored kombucha! Using flavored kombucha, like synergy sacred life, can increase the chances of mold.
Thank you Sarah! I know what happened now. I used the unflavored one for the SCOBY which turned out perfect. But for my first fermentation, I bought what I thought was unflavored kombucha called Sacred Life. The yeast strains are seriously green and I was panicking because I can’t even find pics that look like my brew. What should I do? Is all lost? Can the SCOBY be saved?
I think it can be salvaged! Just start a new F1 with that SCOBY and use double the amount of *unflavored* starter kombucha to get it nice and acidic, which will help to prevent mold.
Hi I love your concise and detailed kombucha instructions! I have been reluctant to try making kombucha as I am in Florida but not a Florida native and I’m always worried about weird organisms and chemicals floating around in the (near) constant recirculated air conditioning that might get in the kombucha. Also things seem to ferment really fast here and if temps are above 75 is that okay? I guess gently pasteurizing the finished product would lose the fizz (and the probiotics?) but still be yummy?
75 (and up to about 82 ish) should be okay for brewing! And I think your kombucha will be able to fight whatever odd organism may slip in through the AC. Give it a go, I think you’ll love it!
Okay, so I finished my first batch of homemade kombucha and it was incredible. The directions you have here on this page and on Brew Buch are great for someone who overthinks everything (like myself😂) The FAQ’s, troubleshooting, and overall simplicity of this recipe make it super easy to do yourself. 100/10! I actually just finished putting my second batch into F2, although I was disappointed with the taste of the tea this time around (mainly because I was very busy and accidentally left it in F1 for 2 extra days, creating a very vinegary taste… but, I bottled it with sweet juice anyways.) I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. I was also wondering if I could just use sweet tea without starter tea to feed my SCOBY? Will the tea already in the SCOBY jar act as a starter? Thanks for everything!
So happy to hear it’s working for you, Aidan! Be sure to add that starter tea, which acidifies the brew and prevents mold 😀
Hello, thanks for the great directions. I am going to try making my own kombucha.
Do you think I could use the cleaned bottles from the store bought kombusha with the screw on caps for bottling?
Yes those will work! Though flip top fermentation bottles will give you the best carbonation.
I have been gifted a mother scoby in fresh brewed sweet tea.
I’m new to the kombucha world and just wondering what to do from here.
Do I start a new batch? My “starter tea” isn’t fermented yet. How long do I wait..? etc.
Just looking for some direction!! lol
Wait until the starter tea has a potent vinegar smell and tastes like kombucha! Then it’ll be ready to use for F1 😀
Thank you for this amazing and thorough guide! I have a few questions and would so appreciate your guidance! I started my scoby 3 weeks ago and have two jars. Both have a thin scoby forming on top but one is very cloudy, looks like fruit tea. I’m wondering if it’s cloudy because I didn’t specifically sanitize the jar, hence why I made a second one where I did. I plan to toss this one because it doesn’t seem safe but is it cloudy b/c of bacteria growth?
If I am not ready to brew tea for another few weeks, will scoby be ok hanging in this starter until I can brew? Maybe another 3 weeks.
Once I make my first batch of tea and put scoby in it, I toss out this original starter tea, then save about two cups from the first fermentation for the next batch but what if I’m not ready to make a next batch? I guess my question is How do I create scoby hotel for my scoby to live in? If I create a hotel, would I just use two cups from the hotel as my starter tea, then refill the hotel with fresh tea to feed my scoby while it lives in the hotel?
I hope all of this makes sense.
Thank you so much!
Hi Fanny! The cloudiness could indeed be from bacteria. Better to toss it and be safe, especially if you have a good back up!
SCOBY will be okay hanging out for a few weeks 🙂
And here’s all of our info on how to make a SCOBY hotel!
Thank you! I should have searched for scoby hotel on your website before asking- I figured you’d have instructions! Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe Sarah! I’m looking forward to trying it
Hello,
I reserved 2 cups of kombucha from the 1F with SCOBY in it, covered with coffee filter on a dark shelf. Do I need to make a fresh batch of sweet tea to add to it? Or just let it be until I need to make more kombucha and use the reserved as starter? Love your website!
Thank you!!
Emma
You can do either – start a new batch now, or let that starter tea sit for a bit until you’re ready to make a fresh batch (I would start a new batch within a week or so, but here’s how to take longer breaks from brewing).
This is a great blog. I have an old Mother scoby that has been in my fridge since my daughter was into making kombucha three years ago. It has not been touched. Do you think it is safe to start to use again?
Hi Marlene! I would get a fresh starter just to be safe. Happy to have you here! 😀
Hello, my scoby is formed and looks great, and I just started my first fermentation. When I move to the second fermentation and leave the scoby in the 2 cups of kombucha, does it need to be refrigerated or do I just leave it in the dark cupboard? Thanks!!!
Just leave it in the dark cupboard! 😀