Kombucha! page

[Unicorn]

So I just tried some and really like it! But want to make it at home. What are your recipes/tips?

[applecore]

It's extremely easy and much cheaper than spending nearly $4 a bottle... you basically need to get your hands on a kombucha "mushroom" either by finding someone in your area who already brews it (each batch creates a "baby"), or by creating one from a bottle of the store bought stuff (takes like a month). To make a batch you basically brew a gallon of tea with 1 1/2 cups sugar, and leave it in a dark pantry in a glass jar with the kombucha mushroom - covered - for at least two weeks. The longer you leave it, the more sugar it "eats" so it depends on how sweet/vinegar-y you like it (I generally do two weeks max otherwise it gets too potent for my taste). If you aren't into science experiments or aren't a fan of, ehh, fungus pancakes, this will probably creep you out though, just FYI. I think it's pretty cool

[Fatkid]

Here is everything you n eed to know to make Kombucha on the cheap...

Starting your own Kombucha mother

for the record I haven't started this yet but am getting to Kombucha experiments myself

[applecore]

The directions at that link are accurate, albeit a little haphazard, but it would work. Here are excellent posts from my friend's blog:

How to create the "mushroom" (it's technically called a SCOBY).

How to brew the tea.

[recursion]

Does it smell as it ferments? That's really my only concern.

[bodhimama]

It doesn't smell as it ferments.

I wrote a step by step on brewing:

How to Brew Kombucha at Home

[ottercat]

I used to have a continuous brew culture. Once it gets going it's pretty easy to care for, you just draw off a few bottles a week and top it off with fresh tea. Apparently it needs to ferment for 30+ days to get all the good stuff, but a straight 30+ day culture will taste like vinegar. I got my SCOBY from HappyHerbalist.com and it was definitely the best tasting booch (that culture "caught a mold" so i got some scoby's off of Ebay and they weren't quite as tasty). I would avoid starting a culture from GT Dave's because they tweaked their cultures to produce less alcohol, homemade is tastier anyway.