Tuesday Tell a Vision Edition; Bad Ass Buddha Product-Sean’s Official Kombucha Recipe

Hello every One, and welcome to the Tuesday Tell a Vision Edition and a somewhat Special Edition if One is interested in brewing their own Kombucha. Thank King or Queen You for being here, Your Presence is always a Gift to My House.

The jar with the ‘Afro’ is the finished Product-Sean of a newly refurbished SCOBY hotel.

Today I’m going to teach every One how to make Kombucha and how to Create and maintain a SCOBY hotel. ‘SCOBY’ = Symbiotic Culture of Bacterial Yeast. Sometimes ‘culture’ is ‘colony’ – same thing.

The Perfect Kombucha Recipe

What You Will need (1 Gallon):

• 16 black tea bags
• 4 Liters of filtered water (optional)
• 1 Cup of white table sugar
• 2 Cups of Kombucha (starter)
• SCOBY (optional)
• a vessel for brewing 1 liter of tea
• a 1 gallon vessel for storing Kombucha
• a 1 liter vessel for a SCOBY hotel

Brew Master’s Tip: The SCOBY is NOT required if You don’t have one. If You are Lucky enough to have one, follow the recipe’s direct-Sean’s for optimal flavour and fermentation.

The first batch Will produce a SCOBY, and this method Will teach One how to Create a SCOBY hotel to store SCOBY’s so You Will have one for next time! 😀

Distilled or filtered water is not necessary but strongly recommended because tap water contains chemicals specifically designed to kill bacterial cultures. Typically, boiling Will eliminate most impurities but why not start with the best water One can acquire?

Step One: Brew the Tea

Great Kombucha starts with great tea! Now, I’ll confess this recipe is not using pure, organic black tea, I’m just using name brand Tetley’s ‘Bold’. The reason for this is because there are literally hundreds of different black teas One can buy depending on preferences, and the results Will vary accordingly.

This is a consistent recipe that Will guarantee results to get One started, then One can customize the recipe to accommodate for personal preferences once comfortable with the brewing procedure and the chemistry involved.

If One has a kettle with a temperature setting, set to 97 degrees Celsius and pour 1 liter of boiled water over the sixteen teabags in One’s brewing vessel.

If One does not have a temperature setting on their kettle, allow to fully boil, then remove from heat and set a timer for three minutes. Once the timer goes, pour the water over the sixteen teabags in Your brewing vessel.

Let steep for a minimum of three minutes.

Brew Master’s Tip: The longer One steeps, the better in My humble opinion. I let the tea steep until cool enough to handle. The stainless steel mixing bowl helps the tea to cool faster.

Step Two: Add the Sugar

Once the tea has finished steeping, remove the teabags and add one cup of sugar. The hotter the tea, the easier it Will be to dissolve the sugar. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved, then pour into the one gallon brewing vessel.

In the above photo One can see how I steep and strain My tea. I pour the steeped tea into a vessel containing the pre-measured cup of white sugar, put the lid on, and shake until all the sugar is dissolved. Then I pour into My brewing vessel.

The above photo shows the brewing vessel after a second liter of water has been added, re-using the spent tea bags to get as much flavour and nutrients out of the tea as possible. The photo shows a third liter of water steeping in the same sixteen teabags.

Note: In the measuring cup We are preparing a separate quarter batch for Our SCOBY hotel in the jar to its left. (Covered after)

Step Three: Add Starter, SCOBY, and Fill Vessel

It’s important that the steeped tea has cooled sufficiently before adding the starter mix or SCOBY. The heat can allegedly kill the SCOBY. I can’t speak from experience because I’ve never tested the theory, just sounds sensible not to scald the SCOBY.

Most People just add cold, filtered water to cool the steeped tea, and this is the method I recommend. My method is similar, but I boil and steep ALL the water I use, I just let each liter cool to room temperature before adding the SCOBY and starter Kombucha. I like doing it this Way because the only real Issue I had when starting to make My own Kombucha, was that I didn’t find the tea flavour was strong enough. It seemed to have plenty of fizz and tartness, but it tasted bland. So I really make sure I get the most out of every tea bag. I was also using 3 bags per liter for a total of 12 per gallon, rather than 4 and 16. I would never go back, I would suggest four tea bags is the minimum per liter of water/kombucha.

The measuring cup is NOT at all necessary for the SCOBY, just use one appropriate to the vessel’s diameter and drop it in. I’m only doing it this Way because the top of My brewing vessel is narrow and if the SCOBY gets too thick, it can be very difficult to get it back out! So I cut up My SCOBY’s into cubes and add about half a cup’s worth to the finished batch, along with 2 cups of My previous (raw/unflavoured) Kombucha batch (in the clear 2 liter vessel). Gives a Good indicate Sean of how much the colour of the tea Will change!

Every batch I just remove the SCOBY and cut it into cubes for My SCOBY hotel. A new SCOBY never gets too thick over the course of one brew cycle (in My experiences, anyway).

You’re Done!!!

Yup, just date the mixture and let it brew!

I let My Kombucha brew for a minimum of thirty days now! It Truly seems the longer One lets a batch go, the better (and more tart) it gets. One of the most remarkable things about My Kombucha now is that carbonation is effortless. I don’t need to flavour My Kombucha which requires a second fermentation process (I Will cover in another Post).

When I first started making Kombucha, it was pretty Good right from the start but raw, unflavoured Kombucha was very flat. Only if I added fruit juices and did a second ferment would the Kombucha develop some carbonation.

Now, the batch I Created today Will probably be visibly ‘fizzing’ by tomorrow afternoon. I never seal My Kombucha air tight, always with a breathable cover (I use paper towel), and one batch got fizzing so fabulously, the SCOBY had created a seal, and the pressure that built up underneath forced the SCOBY out the top of My container!!!

It made an obscene, ‘Whoopi cushion’ kind of sound and then just kind of fizzed over like a bottle of soda pop that had been shook before opening. For this reason… Caution if using brewing vessels with tapered tops because the SCOBY does try to form a seal over the top of the Kombucha, and typically You want that to happen. If the top is not tapered, the pressure Will just break the seal enough to let the air escape.

If One is planning to do a second ferment and pressurizing their Kombucha deliberately, make sure to use pressure treated glass or food grade plastic.

Brew Master’s Notes on Materials

Most Kombucha recipes Will tell You not to use any metallic utensils, only wood and glass should be used for making and brewing Kombucha. They Will say this is because plastics can leach chemicals into the Kombucha, and metal Will react with the acidity of the Kombucha.

The reactivity of acid and metals are very real, so this is a critical point to pay attention to. Even ‘Mason jar’ lids are NOT safe for brewing Kombucha, they are made of tin or some other reactive metal that Will smell terrible and turn everything black. Even a drop Will make You want to scrap the entire batch.

Having said that, stainless steel is perfectly fine, as would be any other non-reactive metal. I use food safe plastic because I have extensive industry knowledge of food safety and know that any plastic safe enough to contain vinegar, is safe enough to use for Kombucha. Kombucha Will never be as acidic as pure vinegar, and pure vinegar is extremely acidic, yet perfectly safe in (food grade) plastic. No chemicals are leaching out because no leachable chemicals are in food safe plastic. I prefer using plastic because that Way if anything blows up I’m not getting glass shrapnel in My face.

This Post took longer than I was thing King it would, so I’ll be back with a part two to let You know how to Create and maintain a SCOBY hotel.

*Getting starter Kombucha – I recommend GT’s Raw Kombucha for starter mix but any raw Kombucha with live bacteria culture Will do. Starter mix Will be sufficient for a first batch of Kombucha without a SCOBY and the first batch Will produce a SCOBY for future brews.

Blessings,