Moody's Continuous Kombucha Recipe

This is our home recipe, adapted from many others. If you don't like it, you can find others on the Internet or in books to help. Thanks to Kane for pointing out the option and some of the benefits of continuous brewing to us. We do think if you are going to do Kombucha, continuous brewing is the way to go, traditionally, culinarily, and nutritionally. Many of the most beneficial substances in Kombucha do not develop until after 14 or more days of fermenting have passed, but, after that many days of fermenting, the Kombucha begins to become almost undrinkable in taste, more like vinegar. Continuous brewing offers the best balance of taste and health, and is most likely (I have yet to find a way to confirm this assertion, though I have circumstantial evidence) the way most traditional cultures make this and a few similar drinks.

We use this recipe with 3-1 gallon jars that produce 6 bottles of Kombucha every 24-36 hours, depending on temperature, but we could wait longer if we wanted. You can easily adapt it to decant 32 ounces each day or so and refill a one-gallon jar every day to few days and thus only have to make the starter liquid once every three to six days.

You will need…
A Kombucha mushroom/scoby (my lovely and intelligent wife just pointed out that this word stands for a "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast," how clever!)
Some Kombucha from a previous batch
Loose Organic Green or Black Teas
Water, preferably filtered
Bottles for bottling

1. Making Liquid/Starter

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil (we do this in a 3.5 quart stock pot).
Add 1 and 1/8 cups of sugar and ½ tbsp plus a little extra each of black and green tea.
Make sure that the sugar completely dissolves in the water.
Turn off heat, cover pan, and allow to steep for 20 minutes or so.
Strain off loose tea leaves and pour liquid back into pot.

Add 8 cups cool, filtered water to the pot. Make sure that the liquid is not over 100 degrees or you may kill your mushroom.

In your fermenting vessel, pour 4 cups of the liquid into each jar (if you are only doing one jar, reserve the other 8 cups for the next few days of adding and do the same).

Add 1-2 cups of Kombucha from a previous batch to each jar.
Omit this step on subsequent days; it applies only when starting a brand new batch or jar.

Cover the jar(s) with a towel (we also use rubber bands around the jar mouth to bar fruit flies and other bugs from entrance), but do not seal with a lid. The jars should not be fermented in your kitchen or any other place that has a lot of airborne chemicals/particles, etc… If you have an exceptionally large kitchen, then you may be able to brew in it, but you must be very careful not to contaminate your mushrooms or the Kombucha.

2. On the next day, repeat step 1 above and again on the 3rd day.

3. After the third day, allow the mixture to sit for 3-5 days, depending on temperature. If it is very warm, less time is needed, if colder, more time.

4. After the total of 6 to 8 days has passed, draw off approx. 32 ounces of Kombucha from each jar and bottle it in 16 ounce bottles. We do this by ladeling out 32 ounces of Kombucha into a 1-quart measuring glass, then skillfully pouring this into two smaller glasses. If this doesn't appeal to you, or if you come up with a better method, let us know! We are constantly looking for ways to improve and simplify the things we do.
If you have a fermenting container with a spigot at the bottom, it would simplify things.

At this point, if you desire, you may add a flavoring to your Kombucha. We add a small amount, about 1 tsp, of fresh grated ginger to each bottle then pour in the Kombucha.

Bottle tightly and set the bottle in a warm place to undergo a second fermentation for a few days. We usually likes our to have at least 2-3 days in the bottle to develop sufficient carbonation, but this also depends on overall house temperature.

Warning: The Kombucha may become very carbonated. Make sure that you bottle it in strong class bottles and be prepared with a glass and strainer for when you open a bottle, because they can easily fizz over all over the place and make a large mess!

Replace the liquid you removed with the same recipe as in step 1 above. We usually start the replacement liquid before I go and draw off the six bottles for drinking so that the liquid is done and ready to be added back into the jars soon after I have decanted the bottles for drinking.

Every 24-48 hours, draw off 32 ounces of Kombucha and replace.

Note: We try to keep our jars at approx. 112 ounces so that we are always drawing off a bit less than 1/3 of the total liquid. If we had a bigger fermenting vessel, we would experiment with ratio to see what worked best for our personal tastes, variations in temperature, etc...

Over time, the liquid in the brewing jar and the mushroom will mature, creating a balance of very old and very young Kombucha because of the constant addition of new starter liquid but the removal of only a small portion of total liquid. Your Kombucha will develop both a wonderfully balanced flavor and a wide array of helpful substances – such as those that contribute to detoxification and liver health – that cannot be gained through a single, straight brew.

Make sure that you keep the outside of the fermenting jars clean by wiping them down with a damp towel and then drying them on occasion from the drips and small spills that happen during decanting. If you can get a fermenting vessel with spigot at the bottom of some kind, such as wooden, even better! You can tap a bottle of Kombucha whenever you want with a great deal less effort and more cleanliness than the procedure we follow for doing it in the glass jars.