Instructions courtesy of Chaco Canyon's Anise Hotchkiss.

The exact how of Kombucha making does depend on you to some degree. But basic instructions, with my asides, are as follows.

1. Boil enough water to fill 1/2 gallon or gallon size GLASS jars. Leave some room at the top because you have to add start and the culture.

2. Add one cup of sugar to a gallon (1/2 cup to 1/2Gallon). (You can do less or more but I would start with that until you get in the swing of things.) And pour in the hot water. I prefer organic sugar. You can use regular white sugar or evaporated can syrup.

3. Add the tea- I like to do four+ bags of tea or 3 heaping tablespoons of loose leaf per gallon. I really like my kombucha to have a distinctive tea flavor. Also in regards to types of tea- the only hard fast rule is don't use tea that has oils in it (ie Earl Grey). That being said I have used herbal teas that have ingredients that may have a little oil and it's still worked. My trick is use one or two bags (or one heaping teaspoon or more) of green, white, or black tea as a "base" and then add whatever- fruit teas, jasmine, herb teas. I have come up with some wonderful flavors. I have also made Rooibus kombucha with only Rooibus tea. It is a lovely tea. You can also infuse your teas with fruit or fruit juice after it's finished fermenting.

4. Let this cool, remove the tea bags, and add the starter (the liquid kombucha) and the culture. Place a cloth over top and secure with elastic, string or whatever you can find.

5. Let it ferment. I do about two weeks, give or take. Some people do 30 days, but my experience with it is that it makes it really vinegary. Some people like the extra vinegar taste. The temperature and the size of the container has an effect as well. The larger the container and batch, the longer it takes.

I start tasting my kombucha around 10 days, and I just keep tasting it until it is the flavour I like. Sometimes I have batch that just insists on taking longer and I have had it go to 20 days. But this can be an indication of a old culture. If it takes that long, sometimes I take out the old culture and add another one and I add a little more starter. The main thing is, check it and taste it- if it tastes good to you, it's done. If it doesn't it's not.

6. When it is ready take the culture out and set aside. You can immediately put it in bottles and this will be tasty kombucha. Save the last cup or more of the kombucha to be you starter for the next batch.

OR

You can also add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of sugar per gallon to the full batch, mix it in and put it in bottles. (You still need to save a cup for starter). This method is supposed to help get more fizz in your finished kombucha. If you do this don't open the bottles for a few days to a week so it can get fizzy. I recommend you start playing with this after you have gotten comfortable with kombucha making.

7. You don't have to refrigerate the bottles. I do in the summer because it is more refreshing. In the winter I leave it out. The only difference is, when left out is it will get vinegary over time (but slowly), and it will create little baby cultures.

Dos and Don'ts

1. Never let your kombucha culture touch metal. You can use metal when brewing the teas but as soon as you put starter and a culture in it, no metal (ie. metal tongs to pull out the culture). Metal kills the culture.

2. Cap your bottled kombucha with plastic, cork or those rubber caps that you can clamp down with metal hinges. If you use mason lids or metal lids, the kombucha will corrode the metal and cause it to taste metallic. Yech. Happened to me many times.

3. Cover your fermenting kombucha with cloth not a lid. And strap it down with string or elastic.

4. Always let your tea cool after brewing, if you put in your culture and starter when it is still hot, it could kill it.

5. Throw away old cultures after a while. They don't work as well when they get old. Because the cultures keep doubling I stash some of the good ones away in the fridge in case I need one.

6. Let your kombucha ferment somewhere where it won't be disturbed much.

7. Don't use brown sugar or honey until you have really got in the swing of things.

8. I like to wash my cultures after I "harvest" the tea. It doesn't do anything to them and keeps the next batch from getting filled with floaties.

9. When just starting out, keep it simple. Get the hang of it and then start experimenting. And let yourself makes mistakes. I have experimented many times and made lots of yummy kombucha way more often than I make bad kombucha.