Kombucha

Raw kombucha

Adapted from youbrewkombucha.com

Ingredient	1G (3.8L)	0.5G (1.9L)
Water (Boil)	4 cups	2 cups
Water (Cold)	8 cups	4 cups
Black Tea	4 tbsp	2 tbsp
Sugar (cane)	0.75 cup	0.375 cup
Kombucha starter	2 cups	1.5 cup

1. Boil water,¹ add sugar and tea powder, let it come to boil, switch off and leave it for 15 min (set a timer). This allows the tea to be tannin-y, which is good for the scoby to break down.
2. Decant the fermented kombucha and save 2 cups + the scoby.
3. Make flavored kombucha by adding fruit juice combinations (my goto list below) - about 1/4 of a 1 pint (~500 ml) kombucha bottle and 3/4 fermented kombucha. Allow the fermented kombucha to ferment for 3-7 days. ²
   (For me, 1G of fermented kombucha gives about 8-9 pint bottles of flavored kombucha)
4. Clean the gallon jar, add 8 cups of water. If 15 min is done (generally is), add the tea in after filtering the tea powder. Test the water temperature - it should be lukewarm - and add in the saved 2 cups + scoby. Add a label to remember when to decant next
   (my preferred duration is a month)

Fermented Kombucha

Bottled kombucha + fresh tea for primary fermenting

Flavor combinations

My tried flavor combinations:

• Guava chilli kombucha: guava juice + chilli syrup (home made) + raw kombucha.
• Ginger lemon kombucha: lemon juice + ginger syrup (home made) + raw kombucha
• Cranberry ginger kombucha: cranberry juice + ginger syrup (home made) + raw kombucha

Ginger syrup

I adapted this recipe. Here is my current recipe:

Ingredient	Weight	Volume (?)
Grated ginger	200 gms	~1.5 cups
Sugar	300 gms	~1.5 cups
Water	500 gms	~2.5 cups

1. Grate ginger
2. Add ginger + sugar to water,¹ bring water to boil
3. Let it simmer for 15 min
4. Bottle the clear liquid after everything cools.
5. Save the grated ginger + some liquid in a jar. Add some hot water to ensure the water covers the ginger. Use it for making some nice ginger tea.³

bottled ginger syrup

Chilli syrup

Adapted from here and is similar to ginger syrup.

Footnotes

1. I generally boil the water in a kettle and add it directly to shorten the process. ↩ ↩²

2. This depends on the average temperature. I typically let it ferment for a week because I like my kombucha to be fizzy. I check it every 2-3 days just to make sure the pressure inside the bottle does not get too high. ↩

3. I hate discarding the grated ginger as it still has sufficient flavor. I reuse the used ginger + water for making ginger tea - it works really well. ↩