Lokenstein's

SCOBY recipe

I take my base recipe from this kitchn article about making a SCBOBY. I will still write it here for clarity and safe keeping.

• Bring 7 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from the heat, and stir in 1/2 cup of white sugar until it has disolved, and then 1Tbsp of loose leaf tea. Let the tea steep until the water has cooled down to room temperature.
• Sterilize a jar big enough to contain about 2L of water. The jar should have a removeable lid so that you can replace the lid with a cloth. Usually I sterilize it by washing it well with soap, rincing it carefully, and pouring boiling hot water in it.
• Filter the cold sweet tea and pour it into the jar, before adding 1 cup of unflavored, unpasteurized kombucha. If there's a small scoby in your kombucha, make sure to add it. Stir to combine.
• Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of tightly-woven cloth, secured with a rubber band. Place the jar in a dark, dry cupboard: it needs to be protected from light, drafts, and shouldn't be constantly moved.
• For the first few days, nothing will happen. Then you'll start to see groups of tiny bubbles starting to collect on the surface, before they start forming a film. This film will become your first SCOBY as it thickens into a solid, opaque layer. When the SCOBY is about 0.5cm it's ready to make kombucha! This might take between 1 to 4 weeks.
• The liquid left with the SCOBY is too acidic to drink, but it will be used as starter tea when you actually start making kombucha.

Kombucha recipe

Why change something that works, this is also a recipe from kitchn: How to make kombucha at home Most of it is very similar to the SCOBY recipe, but I re-wrote it to avoid having to jump back and forth between the two.

• Bring 7 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from the heat, and stir in 1/2 cup of white sugar until it has disolved, and then 1Tbsp of loose leaf tea. Let the tea steep until the water has cooled down to room temperature.
• Sterilize a jar big enough to contain about 2L of water. The jar should have a removeable lid so that you can replace the lid with a cloth. Usually I sterilize it by washing it well with soap, rincing it carefully, and pouring boiling hot water in it.
• Filter the cold sweet tea and pour it into the jar, before adding 1 cup of starter tea. Then add the scoby with clean hands into your new jar.
• Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of tightly-woven cloth, secured with a rubber band. Place the jar in a dark, dry cupboard: it needs to be protected from light, drafts, and shouldn't be constantly moved.
• After 7 days, begin tasting the kombucha daily by pouring a little out of the jar and into a cup. When it reaches a pleasant balance of sweetness and tartness, the kombucha is ready to bottle.
• You can prepare a new batch of kombucha just before bottling it. Move the SCOBY to a new jar - and discard the bottom layer if the SCOBY is becoming too thick. Measure out some kombucha to use as starter tea. Then follow this recipe as usual.
• Strain and pour the fermented kombucha into bottles. Leave about a centimeter of room in each bottle. Put the bottled kombucha back in the cupboard for about 1 to 3 days to allow it to carbonate. Until you get a feel for how quickly your kombucha carbonates, it's helpful to keep it in plastic bottles; the kombucha is carbonated when the bottles feel rock solid. Refrigerate to stop fermentation and carbonation, and then consume your kombucha within a month.
• Optional: add flavorings to your kombucha! There are two ways to do this: either add them as you bottle your kombucha, or add them a few days before bottling it, so that you can strain them out and avoid having things in your drink. You can for instance use juice, herbs or fruits.