How do I start out?

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nwaite

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Could some one give me a walk though or point me to a good site on some step by step for a first timer please. I brew wine so im guessing I have some of the stuff needed to start. Any info would help . Thank you :)
 
I mean does anyone have any info/tips on making Kombucha?

I brewed my first batch last night. I filled a large pot with slightly more than 3 quarts of water. I dosed it with part of a crushed campden tablet to get rid of any chloramine in my water. I brought it to a boil, then removed it from the heat and added 5 tea bags of organic black tea and let them steep for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I removed the tea bags and added 1 cup of german rock sugar (I was advised not to use plain ol' table sugar, but I don't know how critical that is. I happended to have the GRS on hand so I used that.) After stirring for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar I put the covered pot into a water bath to cool it down to room temp. After it cooled I poured it into a 1 gallon glass pickle jar that I had sanitized with StarSan, added the scoby and covered the mouth of the jar with doubled paper towel fastened with a rubber band. I put the jar in an upstairs bedroom out of direct sunlight and called it a night.

There is a ton if info on the net as well as videos.

Good luck with your brewing.
 
Thank you for all the good info and links guy! Cant wait to get this going so the family and I can enjoy some good home brew kombucha :)
 
Here's how I have been brewing kombucha since the 80s...

Bring about a gallon of water to a rolling boil. Add a proud 1½ cups of sugar, and continue boiling until the sugar is dissolved. Don't boil longer than necessary, as this depletes the oxygen in the water. Add a dozen tea bags and steep for 30 minutes. Remove the tea bags and let the sweetened tea cool to room temperature. Pour the tea into a large glass or ceramic crock and add at least a cup of brewed kombucha, plus a pellicle that you will have already obtained - either from a KT brewer or from past brewing. Cover with a clean cloth and secured it with a rubber band or string. Set the crock in a cabinet or other warm spot where it won't be disturbed. In about ten days you'll have a gallon of kombucha tea, ready to be drunk or bottled for secondary fermentation. If you want, you can add bits of fruit or ginger or herbs to the bottles. Don't put additives in the primary fermentation, however.

These instructions aren't exact, they're just guidelines. You can experiment with different kinds of tea - just make sure it's tea and not herbal tea. A dozen tea bags to a gallon is a good rule of thumb, but it's not cast in bronze. Both green and black tea will make good KT, and of course you can blend them. You can also use some of the exotic teas like kukicha or pu'ehr. Cheap white sugar works well, but you can use turbinado or even honey or molasses. Don't use non-sugar sweeteners like stevia, because it's the sugar that is the food for the SCOBY or pellicle - the colony of organisms that converts the tea to kombucha.

Once you have the tea in bottles, you can add things like fruits or herbs if you like. I'd get familiar with brewing straight KT first, however. When you add fruit, you are adding more sugar, which will reactivate the yeasts and can result in explosive carbonation. Aging the bottled KT will result in some amazing flavors as well. I've aged KT for up to 2 years although I think as a health beverage, it's better to drink it fairly fresh. Swing-top beer bottles work best, but you can use the polycarbonate bottles that designer water and some juices are packaged in.

Brewing your own KT is simple and doesn't require a lot of specialized equipment. It's healthy and refreshing, and helps to detox the body. It also adds important probiotics to your system.
 
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