Creating a Suburban Homestead: How to Make Homemade Kombucha Part 1: Making Scoby

Kombucha is a fermented tea that contains probiotics. In this blog post, I'll describe how to make part one of Kombucha .... the Scoby. Scoby stands for: Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. The Scoby feeds off the caffeine and the organic sugars resulting in beneficial probiotics.

Scoby purchased from Kombucha Kamp

After the Scoby is complete, you can use it to create Kombucha tea. You can find this tea in health food stores for about $3 to $4 for 16 oz. Making your own at home will save you money considering you only have to make the Scoby once. Each time you use the Scoby to create the Kombucha it will yield a "baby" Scoby. From there, you are just using one Scoby, 8 teabags, water and sugar to yield one gallon of Kombucha.

Scoby supplies/ingredients:

1 glass container at least 1/2 gallon-sized

Cheese cloth and a rubber band

Strainer if using loose tea

Sauce pan

1 liter of water

3 black teabags or the equivalent in loose tea

1/3 cup sugar

1 bottle of Raw Kombucha

Step 1: Make tea. Pour 1 liter of water into a sauce pan. Heat water until boiling and turn off heat. Add the tea bags/tea. Let steep for the amount of time indicated on the tea's package. Remove tea bags or strain and then stir in sugar.

Step 2: Pour tea into glass container. Once the tea is completely cool, stir in one bottle of Kombucha.

Step 3: Cover the lid with cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band. Store in a cool, dark place for at least 5 weeks or until you see a thick film form at the top.

Note: The ideal temperature for creating Scoby is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We place our Kombucha on a heating pad since we don't keep our house that warm.