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Brewing My Own Kombucha Part II – The Second Fermentation: flavors, bubbles and tips

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Welcome back to Part II of my kombucha post!  Today I’m sharing details on how I flavored my kombucha, my experience with a second fermentation which adds the effervescence, as well as a few tips I learned throughout the process.

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If you just landed here and you’re looking for Part I where I discuss kombucha brewing resources, choosing a SCOBY, and the first fermentation, head over this way to start then join me back here once you get a base understanding.

Let’s just skip the chit-chat and jump right into where we left off yesterday.

Flavoring Your Kombucha

First thing, remove your SCOBY and place it in a clean, sanitized container. Then remove 8 ounces of your brewed tea (or enough to cover your SCOBY) and add the starter tea to the SCOBY container. This will be your starter tea for next time.  You may also have a second SCOBY that formed on top of the first, it’s likely small and thin. It’s okay to combine the two SCOBYs until the second is larger.

Kombucha first fermentation

First fermentation prepping for flavors and second fermentation

Next, pour the remaining kombucha into clean, sanitized mason jars leaving about 1 inch of air at the mouth. This is important because you will need a small amount of space to create the effervesence.

When it comes to flavoring, it’s totally up to you and what you prefer. I like ginger and lemon flavored kombucha as well as raspberry and blueberry so those are the flavors I chose to use in my tea.  When flavoring with fruit, you should use fresh juice. I did this by defrosting frozen blueberries and raspberries and squeezing the juice (discarding the pulp). Same thing with the lemon.

For Blueberry Lemon: add 2 tablespoons blueberry juice and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to 1 jar and cap tightly with a lid

For Raspberry Ginger: add 2 tablespoons raspberry juice and 3 slices of peeled ginger to 1 jar and cap tightly with a lid

For Lemon Ginger Zinger: add 3 peeled ginger slices and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to 1 jar and cap tightly with a lid

Kombucha SCOBY

Healthy SCOBY + baby SCOBY after second full brewing cycle

Add Some Bubbles

For bubbly kombucha, you need to let the tea brew a second time, this is called a second fermentation. Just place the capped tea back into your dark, quite place and let it sit one about week.

After a week, put your kombucha in the fridge and this will stop the fermentation process. Let it chill and you’re ready to drink it!  If you taste it and want more bubbles in the future, try letting it sit up to 10 days before refrigerating.

Kombucha Flavored

Drink Up!

I found my kombucha was a bit cloudier than the kind I typically buy at the store — and THAT’S OKAY! It’s totally dependent on the SCOBY, what you add to it, how long you let it ferment.

I also found my kombucha was stronger than store-bought.  Because of this, I recommend drinking only a half-cup at a time until your body adjusts. Remember, kombucha is full of probiotics and healthy bacteria but that doesn’t mean your body can instantly digest all of it.  Your kombucha should last for up to a month if sealed and refrigerated.

When you’re ready to brew again, start the process all over.  If you want to wait a while, learn how to keep your SCOBY happy until you’re ready to start your next fermentation.

Kombucha_Book

A Few Tips

  • When determining your first fermentation time, take into consideration whether or not you’ll do a second ferment. If you do, remember your kombucha will continue to brew during the second fermentation — meaning it will become more vinegary.
    • My recommendation is to lessen the time of your first fermentation to counteract the additional time during your second fermentation.
  • Your kombucha and SCOBY may look a little weird. It’s okay, you’re going to see stuff happening to your SCOBY — it’s made of bacteria and yeast, it’s a living organism.  You will likely see the mother of the SCOBY (brown stringy stuff), don’t be alarmed — it’s totally okay!
  • When you open your kombucha to drink it, you may have a few baby SCOBYs floating around in the jar. Just skim them off the top and toss them (at least that’s what I did). They formed during the second fermentation and it’s 100% expected.  If you put peeled ginger into your kombucha, also discard that.
  • If your kombucha was too sweet, try adjusting the initial sugar amount added during the first brew — but remember the SCOBY is made of yeast and yeast need sugar to grow so too little sugar can kill your SCOBY.
    • Or try adjusting your fermentation time, the longer it ferments the less sweet your tea will be!
  • After each fermentation, your SCOBY will have a buddy growing along side it (sometimes even a few) once they reach the size of your original SCOBY, it’s a good idea to separate the two or give the spare to a friend. You wouldn’t want your SCOBYs competing for resources!

Have you ever made kombucha? Do you have any special tips to add?

Brewing My Own Kombucha Part I – Resources and First Fermentation

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Kombucha tea is something I love and drink regularly. Probably 3 or more bottles per week and at ~$4 per bottle, that gets pretty pricey!  I had read making kombucha is quite easy and really only requires a bit of patience so I was intrigued and inspired to make my own.

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I split my kombucha post into two parts as it got a bit lengthy.  Today, in Part I, I’m going to cover a few kombucha resources I consulted and my process for the first fermentation.  In Part II, I’ll cover flavoring the kombucha, adding bubbles (second fermentation), and review a few tips I learned during my few kombucha brewing experiences.

When I started to research how-to guides for making kombucha and recipes to flavor my kombucha, I was left a little confused.  All of the guides I found were pretty vague and being a detail-oriented person, their fuzzy ‘add a little of this and wait some amount of time’ wasn’t quite cutting it so…

I set out to create a detailed kombucha guide to add clarity to the process.
And THIS is that process.

In my pursuit to document the kombucha making process, I initially consulted a few sources to gain a base understanding.  The first was the book .  This book was a great a resource for understanding fermented drinks.

It gave a detailed history of fermented drinks while explaining that humans have been making and enjoying them for 1000s of years. It also eased any apprehension I had about poisoning myself with moldy kombucha, knowing humans have been fermenting drinks for ages just by taste, smell, and intuition.

Kombucha, Kefir, and Beyond also provided a base understanding of the chemistry involved during fermentation.  Brewing fermented drinks, like kombucha, is a bit like brewing beer — there’s a few reactions going on that produce the vinegar-esque flavor, bubbles, and health benefits so understanding these reactions helped me determine what was going on with my kombucha during each phase.

The other resource I found exceptionally helpful was the site Kombucha Kamp. Now, the site looks quite dated and it’s really difficult to navigate but the resources are exceptional.  I especially liked the blog posts about the benefits of kombucha and the troubleshooting section where you can see different photos of SCOBYs (which are quite ugly!). The photos allow you to view other SCOBYs to compare to your own, in case you have concerns about the health of your SCOBY.  Here are a few great sources on the site

Based on my consultation of these sources, I was feeling pretty confident and ready to dive into the brewing process! 

Preparing to Brew

Gather your Supplies:

  • 1 SCOBY
  • 8-ounces starter tea
  • 1-gallon sized container for brewing
  • 8 black tea bags
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 coffee filter + large rubber band (to use as a lid)
  • food-grade thermometer

I purchased my SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) from this Etsy shop that had 100s of great reviews. You get a nice big SCOBY plus starter tea, which is super important.

I decided to use plain old for brewing. Though if you want to use loose leaf tea, you may.

I used a with a coffee filter as a lid (you need to keep air moving while brewing so it can’t be an air-tight top).  I brewed half-gallon batches and  bottled my kombucha in regular with regular canning lids for the second fermentation.

Healthy SCOBY

The Brewing Process

Once you have all your supplies, you are ready to brew.

  1. Bring 8 cups of water to boil in a large pot.
  2. Once boiling, add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and stir until dissolved.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat and insert 8 tea bags.
  4. Allow the tea to steep for 15 minutes and then remove the tea bags and discard.
  5. Let the tea cool to ~75°F or lower. Anything warmer will kill your SCOBY.
  6. Pour the cooled tea into your CLEAN and sanitized brewing container (large mason jar).
  7. Add your starter tea to the brewing container.
  8. Using clean hands or a plastic glove, gently place your SCOBY into the jar.  Your SCOBY may float or sink, it really depends on the SCOBY itself, so don’t worry about it.
  9. Place the coffee filter on top of the jar and secure with the rubber band.
  10. Place the large mason jar in a dark corner of your home where there’s still air flow (so not a cupboard) but also a place where it won’t be disturbed. The ideal brewing temperature for kombucha is between 68°F-75°F. Luckily, for most of us, this is probably the temperature our home is set between most of the time so you should be good to go!  Personally, I set my brew in the back corner of my pantry.
Kombucha SCOBY 2

SCOBY during the first fermentation

Determining Your Brew Time

This is where the vagueness comes in and it’s slightly dependent on your brewing temperature. Your tea will be ready for flavoring and bottling anywhere between 5 and 21 days.  Brewing time is also dependent on personal taste preference. If you like more vinegary kombucha, then you should let it brew longer.  If you like sweeter kombucha, then don’t let it brew as long.

I realize 5-21 days is a big range which is why my suggestion to you is to start sampling your tea at day 5 then every 2-3 days after that. You do this by slipping a clean straw into the kombucha, grabbing a little sample and tasting it.  Do not double dip. Double dipping increases the likelihood of introducing bacteria and ruining your brew.  Once you find a kombucha flavor you’re comfortable with, you know it’s time to add flavor and move on to the second fermentation.

While tasting your tea during the first fermentation, you should remember, it’s not going to taste the like kombucha you’re used to drinking from the store. This kombucha is flat (no bubbles, yet) and it’s unflavored.  All of that comes in the next step!

See you tomorrow with the rest of the details!