Independence Homestead

A major part of homestead life is eating nutritiously, and for us that includes drinking kombucha! For the month of August, we’re offering a free kombucha SCOBY or milk kefir grains with any purchase. To that end, here’s our kombucha recipe:

You Will Need:

-Kombucha SCOBY in starter tea (1 cup total)

-10 Teabags

-1 Cup White Sugar

-1 Gal (minus 1 cup) Water & Pot (with Lid) to Heat It

-Long-Handled Spoon

-1 Clean Dish Towel & 1 Rubberband

-1 Large Glass Jar that holds 1 gallon

-1 Small Glass Jar that holds 1-2 cups (use at end of brewing)

Instructions:

1. Boil water in pot. Take pot off the heat, and add teabags. Let steep for 5-10 minutes.
2. Remove tea bags using long-handled spoon. Add 1 cup white sugar. Stir to dissolve.
3. Cover pot, and let cool to room temperature. This will take several hours. If needed, you can speed the process by creating an ice water bath in the sink and setting the pot in there.
4. Once tea is cool, pour into glass jar. Add SCOBY and starter tea.
5. Fold dish towel in half, and cover jar mouth. Rubberband the towel over the jar mouth.
6. Place the jar in a warm place (80ish degrees) away from stove, trash can, or other places where airborne bacteria are likely to occur.
7. Wait 1-2 Weeks. You can sample the kombucha to determine if it’s done to your liking anywhere in this timeframe. Or you can be like me and process it whenever you have a spare moment.
8. Once the kombucha is done, remove the SCOBY and 1 cup of liquid as the starter tea for your next batch to the small glass jar. Store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it to brew another batch.
9. Store the remainder of your kombucha in the fridge and drink! You can store it in the same large glass jar you used to brew, or you can pour it into smaller glass jars if you want to immediately reuse the large glass jar to brew another batch.

Notes/Variations:

-As you brew, your SCOBY will multiply! You can separate these SCOBYs that are created, and use them to brew multiple batches or give to other people.

-To brew faster, split the tea into two smaller jars with a SCOBY in each. With a half gallon of kombucha in a jar, I’ve found it brews in 5-7 days.

-Your tea must be no warmer than room temperature when you add the SCOBY. Be patient and wait for the tea to cool.

-Once you are a pro at brewing kombucha, it’s fun to play around with secondary fermentation! Look into that in the future.

-Mold: in all the kombucha batches we’ve only had one mold issue. That was when we first started, and we had the batch brewing on the counter near the stove. Keep the jar in a cleaner zone, and you should be just fine. Mold is easily identifiable because it’s fuzzy. Any variations in your SCOBY that aren’t fuzzy should be just fine.