Home Brewed Kombucha Kit by Kombucha Brooklyn

I’m a huge fan of Kombucha. Ever since my first sip of the effervescent fermented tea beverage I have craved it almost every day.  The problem for me is it’s pricey- $3 per bottle unless you find it on sale for $2.50- so I “justify” buying it occasionally as it really helps rehydrate me after Bikram yoga (which I practice at least 4 times per week). I can’t, however, justify $12-$15 per week on this stuff because my money doesn’t grow on trees.

But, now I have a new supply of my favorite bubbly beverage- I’m making it myself.  Food52 ran an offer last month on a kombucha home brew kit from Kombucha Brooklyn, so I bought one. I followed the instructions exactly and here’s a glimpse of my first batch.

You can see the original SCOBY- Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast- on the bottom of the jar and the new one that formed floating on the top. It’s like a science experiment… and it’s kind of weird, but I heart my SCOBY.

Kombucha Brooklyn sends you everything you need to start home brewing Kombucha, including your first SCOBY. The kit I bought came with this big jar for fermenting (including the cloth cover for the top), tea, sugar, and a temperature strip so you can be sure you’re fermenting within the optimal temperature range.

I don’t have air conditioning, so I checked on my ‘bucha every day to be sure it wasn’t cooking. After two weeks, I tasted my first batch and loved it. Here’s a photo of how much Kombucha I brewed-  I filled 2 amber bottles (provided by Kombucha Brooklyn) and a little more than 2 cups.

Then I started batch 2 using both the original and the new SCOBY, 1.5 cups of my first batch of bucha, and the tea and sugar mixture.

The box of supplies has directions on it which are easy to follow, and Kombucha Brooklyn has a great website with flavoring ideas, questions and answers, and a shop for more bucha brewing supplies. I’m a big fan now and think you should check them out. They supply a tea blend and cane sugar, which I’m going to use at least for my first three batches.  I’ll have to decide whether or not to continue buying my tea mail-order after that, but for now, it’s a great starter kit.

I decided to leave my first batch unflavored, so stay tuned for batch #2, because I’ll definitely get a little more creative with that. Happy brewing!