Home Brew Kombucha, second fermentation

Now we get into the second fermentation part of how to home brew kombucha. You may want to read the first fermentation part.

Once kombucha tea smells or tastes a bit more vinegary than sweet you can start. How do you know? It’s really more of a trial and error thing. As with most brewing and fermenting, cleanliness is key here in order to not “contaminate” the original Kombucha tea or SCOBY. So do keep the Kombucha jar covered with the cloth and never add anything other than the tea/sugar mixture to it.

Berries in cups for Kombucha brewing — I’ve been liking the chopped up berries lately. They are easy to find and taste great!

What you’ll need to make this a delish final product is “flavoring” for your tea. This comes in several forms. You can buy juices from the store, juice your own or just add chopped up ingredients. I prefer the latter. So get some fruit or other things and experiment! I’ll do a recipes post later, but for now… Start easy, maybe with apple, ginger, mint, berries, etc…

Second Fermentation – The Process:

Make a new batch of tea so you can refill the “Mother” kombucha jar. Let cool to room temperature and…

funnel, knife and ladle for Kombucha brewing — Get yer tools out and start chopping

Cut up, juice, or gather the bottled juices you’ll be using and set aside. You could also use dry ingredients, but will likely have to add more than you think. Never be afraid to play with the quantities, worst that can happen is one bottle tastes bad. I just dumped a goji berry bottle, yesterday. Once everything is chopped add it to the bottles. How much is up to you. I don’t go over 1/6, but mileage may vary.

I recommend the type of bottles that can be resealed. You can get them from your local brewing store, some beer brands, and even TraderJoes! Once you close these, they’ll start to fizz/pressurize. I used to just “burp” the bottles by opening them once in a while. I now highly recommend getting airlocks. Also available from local brew store or online. These create an air lock (who would’ve guessed) that allows air/pressure out but no air/bugs in. Use the airlocks! You’ll thank me later :)

Now ladle the kombucha tea from the jar and funnel into the bottles. Filling them up nearly to the top. Try to leave some starter tea in the jar for the next batch. Cap or add airlocks and, again, let this sit for about one week in a shady place at room temperature. It will, hopefully, be a delicious brew. Be wary if you let it sit for to long and capped it instead of using an airlock, it might get to fizzy and “explode” on you when you first open it.

Have fun, enjoy and let me know how it turns out. I now I will…

Home Brew Kombucha – Second fermentation

Second Fermentation – The Process:

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