DIY kombucha is an easy project that will save you lots of money. The first thing you need is a scoby which is the gelatinous mat of bacteria, yeast, and cellulose that ferments sugary tea to become kombucha. You can often find a person who makes kombucha who will give you a scoby. Ask around, it’s more common than you think. People who make kombucha get a new scoby every week so they always have a surplus. And if you make kombucha you are probably cheap enough or sensitive enough that you hate to throw away the extras. You’ll save some tender-hearted wanna be homesteader a lot of guilt and heartache if you take a scoby off their hands. Call it a rescue scoby.
To make your own you will have to buy a bottle of kombucha. Commercial kombucha should still have active microorganisms you can use to make your scoby. Here’s how:
Let the bottle of kombucha sit in the refrigerator undisturbed so all the sediment and goodness settles to the bottom. In the meantime, make a half batch of the tea in my kombucha recipe: boil 1 quart or so of water, steep 4 black tea bags for 8 minutes, then dissolve ½ cup of sugar into the tea. Pour it into a 2 quart mason jar and top it off with cool water.
When the mixture is room temperature, gently grab your commercial kombucha (the last you’ll ever buy) from the fridge. Don’t disturb the sediment! Decant all but the last inch into a glass and drink it. Pour that last precious inch into your jar - your scoby incubator. Cover the jar with a paper towel held in place with the metal ring or rubber band.
You will see the scoby developing on the top of the liquid over the next week. It will look like thickening slime with a few bubbles. In two weeks or so you will have a translucent mat that covers the top of the liquid. That’s your scoby! When it's thick enough to handle, start a new batch of tea to start a real batch of kombucha with my recipe. You can drink scoby-making tea. It won’t be as strong or bubbly as your next batch but why throw it away.
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