Kombucha Tea Home Brew How To

Gallons of golden and fruity Kombucha

I got a chuckle out of myself, being so trusting….”Mom, do you want a kombucha baby from one of my teachers?”…..”Yea, sure…find out how to make it too….”  Since when do you just make weird drinks from strange- looking gelatinous patties with no written instructions, let it sit out for a week or two or six and then just drink it?  And give it to your kids?

Well it’s not the first time…the other time was the so-called kefir granules…and I did slip that strange tangy, slightly-off (but not too far), fermented milk into some recipes….It sure wasn’t kefir that you get in a sanitized plastic bottle at the natural foods store, but it did go into a few smoothies….

Ah well, I always said that I needed more adventure in my life! This is one kind of internal adventure. No, I don’t need co-dependent drama in my life, and I’ve already done the mountain climbing and spelunking… I’ll leave it up to my discerning taste buds, my instinctual nose and my loyal gastrointestinal flora to take me to the edges of safety and sanity!  At least for this year.

A beautiful morning, and Golden Herbal & Elderberry Kombucha ready for drinking

On this lovely Friday morning, the brewing Kombucha was getting rather vinegary smelling in the kitchen and I had a free hour to decant and tidy up this recent brew. With some sparkling sunshine igniting the kitchen it was definitely a morning to enjoy some kitchen-wizardry.

Here’s the history on Kombucha tea: it comes from the Russian people, the Chinese & the Japanese. It is purported to be thousands of years old and has a lore of healing people and keeping them alive for a long time.  There is not a single source or reliable source of information.  A cursory internet search reveals many people quoting other people, quoting other people.

Here’s the biology of kombucha:  the drink is a tea of water and acids that are beneficial to our human biology. The acids are synthesized by a live colony of bacteria and yeast (a zoogleal mat!)  which feast on the added sugar and the natural tannic acids in the teas.  During the brewing time, and after as well, they turn these sugar and acid molecules into another form which includes glucaric acids[i], other acids, and vitamins, generating probiotics and enzymes in the process.

From outside the jar you will see that the baby patty will float, list, and perhaps sink.  All is okay. The colony is reproducing and the offspring float to the surface, where with a bit of air, begin to assemble into a second generation zoogleal mat.  The advancingof the mat is accompanied by a vinegar like smell, which will tell that adventurous nose that all is well once again.  There is a lack of conclusive research into the biology of kombucha, particularly since the patty that you or I may have is different from the ones in China or Russia.

The Zoogleal Mat thrives in the tea, reproduces yeast & bacteria which float to the surface and continue to reproduce with a bit of air, forming a second generation mat.

Here’s the health claims:
The Glucaric acid which is created by the zoogleal mat, helps remove waste products from the liver. The liver is known to store waste products and can become congested.  If you can keep your liver running smoothly, you will have better health since the liver is responsible for over 500 functions in the body.[ii] I personally respond well to a tall glass of kombucha when feeling ill.  When taken in an undiluted form—I brew mine for a long time and it becomes strong—I feel the firey acids at work in my stomach. Whether I benefit from the high acidity killing off pathogens, or the alkalizing of my blood, or the added acids and enzymes and probiotics….I’ll never know for sure.  It works fine for me.  I don’t drink it all the time or even every day.  I do find it cooling during the summer and very thirst quenching.

Here’s the interesting, adventurous, part: If you recall from the sauerkraut biology, the bacteria create vitamins and other compounds and make them more available to our digestive process.  Kombucha has the same “spontaneous generation magic.” (to our ignorant eyes)   Imagine being in the middle of winter, not having any fresh vegetables or fruits—therefore lacking vitamin C and other benefits of fresh food—such as enzymes and probiotics.  Enter the kombucha drink—which pretty much has an indefinite shelf life, has created vitamins, enzymes, and probiotics by just being fed pennies worth of tea and sugar.  The English would have had much better teeth if they could have adopted this use of tea and sugar!(sorry guys)  Just keep the colony, (bacteria and fungi, not English) from drying out, and keep the kombucha jar reasonably free from contaminants.  And, if you are following my stories on raw milk, yogurt, and the sauerkraut, you may recall that these live foods have acid producing bacteria that literally eats errant bacteria  & fungus that can contaminate them plus their acids create and inhospitable acidic environment.  Double whammy against pathogens.   Usually contamination occurs from airborne sources (a million per cubic foot are normally floating around!)[iii], or from utensils or the sneeze or the talking-spit-effect…but amazingly enough, these bacteria usually neutralize these contaminants.

The Big Mac of strange brewing: a very very robust patty, aged 5 weeks, fed by the extra nutrients in the elderberries.

And now, a word from the scientists….If you are not as adventurous as I am, you may appreciate the cautions from Paul Staments, who runs Fungi Perfecti, a very reputable mushroom company from my old stomping grounds in the mycological capital of America—Olympia Washington.  Read his article from 1995 http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html.  His main concern against home-brew is for people who are immunocompromised and may unknowingly ingest contaminated kombucha tea and become poisoned.  His concerns are valid, so of course I add–be wary.  I personally have never had an adverse reaction to my own tea, and have never had a batch which appears to have contamination from mold.  I am strict about cleanliness in the kitchen and encourage you to do the same.  However, I feel rather healthy and resilient.

Here's the lighter colored kombucha baby disc being pulled away from the earlier generation, --the darker brown disc-patty-thing

Here’s the kombucha how-to:

Adopt a kombucha “baby” from someone. This may be the hardest part, so start asking around.  You probably have one friend like me who has a strange food hobby. Next ask at you natural food stores. After that go to your local metaphysical book store or of course, if you have an herb shop or similar goddess-inhabited-place of mercantile, you will find a connection there. There’s no reason to pay anyone for these patties because this drink represents food freedom! And every time a batch is brewed, the kombucha patty produces a baby, and the kitchen gods & goddesses have too many on their hands and want to give them away!

Find a beautiful one gallon jar. Lid is not necessary. Garage sales, neighbor’s basement, some restaurants still get glass jars full of olives, red peppers etc….so again, ask around. If you can’t get one, you can improvise. The key here is to find a vessel which has an opening of 3 to 6 inches.  Where the tea in the jar meets the air is where the new patty will form, and you will likely find it easier for this baby to be a manageable size.  And you’ll have to put the patty in, and take the patties out later, which may require your hand to go inside the jar. Take a look at all the pictures and you’ll see how this makes sense. I have used a huge bowl, and this allowed me to watch the colonization process unfold, but the baby produced was thin, had holes and was too large to handle.

The Standard recipe:

Gallon Jar & Yes... I use mainstream tea bags sometimes. These are the ice-tea size.

• 6 heaping tablespoons of black tea or equivalent tea bags
• One cup white sugar
• Boiling water
• Sanitized gallon jar
• Paper towel & rubber band
• Kombucha “baby” patty with about ¼ cup or more of the kombucha liquid that it came with.

1. Boil water—half a gallon will do to start. We’ll top it off later.
2. Make the tea in the gallon jar with the tea bags, or in an alternate vessel if loose tea.
3. Let steep for 20 min-45 minutes. We’re making a strong tea.
4. Remove tea bags, or strain the hot tea into the gallon jar.
5. While tea is hot, add the cup of sugar, and stir to dissolve.
6. Boil additional water and let both the tea and this additional water cool to room temperature. This could take a few hours, so go do something else. Do not put it outside in cold weather (crack!)
7. Once room temperature, add the additional boiled water to about three inches below the rim.
8. Place the kombucha patty on the surface of the water. It will list, and may sink. No worries. She is fine.  Add at least ¼ cup of the tea that came with the patty, as a “starter.”  This is probably full enough.
9. Place a paper towel over the lid and rubberband it on.
10. Put the gallon jar in a temperature stable area, not in direct sunlight or over a heater.  On a cabinet or in the corner of the countertop is good.
11. Let brew for at least one week. Two weeks to a four weeks has proven to be ideal for our palate.  Stable temperature means around 70 degrees F.  Cooler temps slow the process; warmer temps speed up the process. Adjust your timing to fit your environment.

Decanting the Kombucha:  Gather together:

Pouring Golden Komucha

• Clean pitchers & jars to equal about 3 quarts.
• Fine mesh strainer
• Glass or other container to store patties

1. Have a clean pitcher or other jars ready.
2. Using a fine mesh strainer, carefully pour the tea into the pitcher or jar.
3. When near the bottom, pause to remove the patty with clean hands.  Enlist the help of small boned female or child of either gender if necessary.  Warning: It will be like the Halloween-eyeball-peeled grapes—feel-it-with- your-eyes-closed trick.
4. Leave sediment on bottom.
5. Put the two patties which are attached into a clean container and pour some of the tea over them, to cover the top and keep them moist.  Put the container in the refrigerator. Shelf life? Forever?

Slightly slimy, but firm--looks and feels healthy, but strange...

Hopefully your kombucha has the look of an India Pale Ale—golden and clear.  It may cloud up when you put in into the refrigerator. If you are an ice-tea-making person, you know that this happens to iced tea.

Elderberries added to standard tea recipe.

Here are the variations on the standard Kombucha recipe that I have tried:

• Use green tea or any variety of tea you have on hand.  Especially tea that you just want to use up if you don’t like it.  Flavored tea will add some flavors to the final product.
• Use herbs instead of tea. Choose herbs with tannins—those that make your mouth or tongue pucker a little—such as red raspberry leaves, or gingko leaves. Add some other herbs for interest.
• Add dried elderberries or hawthorn berries—about ¼ cup.
• Add fresh fruit—I boiled (to kill bacteria) and strained some wine berries and added them—about ¾ cup.
• Add sliced fresh ginger—about 1/8 cup or about 1 ½ inches of an average root.

India Pale Kombucha

Serving suggestion for Kombucha

Serve it cold for an especially refreshing experience. Allow to warm up a bit also.   Do not heat up—kombucha is a live food with probiotics and heating will kill these gut-friendly flora.

Add fruit juice concentrate to desired level of sweetness.

Mix equal parts apple cider or other juice with kombucha tea.

Some other interesting observations:

• Left to brew for weeks, it continues to get strong, almost concentrated.   Add water to dilute.
• If fruit juice or concentrate is added, this live food will continue to digest the sugar and render the tea even more acidic and less sweet.  This can occur even in the refrigerator, and at an accelerated pace if left in room temperature.
• Contamination will be seen as mold colonies floating on the surface of the tea, or growing on the inside of the jar near the top.  If in doubt, throw it out.
• About the fizz, the carbonation.  When the store-bought type of kombucha is opened, there is a great amount of carbon dioxide  released. At home, without a secured lid, the gases leave unhindered.  If you tighten a lid on your finished product some gas will accumulate and you can have that little bit of fun too.

Elderberry & Herbal Kombucha Babies side by side. Notice the berry baby is very thick. I believe it's from the added nturients of the berries. The new "baby" is formed on the top of the tea where there is air. The "mother" patty is submerged in the tea and is reproducing. The berries (on left patty) can be seen in-between the patties since they floated to the surface.

---

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha

[ii] http://www.hsc.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_liver/liver.cfm

[iii] Staments, Paul http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html.

Advertisement