Do you love kombucha, and want to make it at home? The first step is growing a SCOBY. Here's how to Make a Kombucha Scoby from scratch!
Do you want to learn how to make kombucha or hard kombucha?
To make kombucha, you must have a SCOBY.
What is a SCOBY?
What's a scoby? Scoby stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.
It's important. It's weird. It's freaky. It's ALIVE!
This strange gel-like disk is what keeps your kombucha safe to drink, and helps the tea develop its unique and delicious flavor. It floats in the tea while it ferments, and keeps the tea healthy.
The scoby is similar to a vinegar mother (the thing you see floating around in some bottles of apple cider vinegar), and will grow and reproduce as you continue fermenting your kombucha.
Can I Buy a SCOBY?
Yes!
You can order a SCOBY online, at some health food stores, a kombucha-growing friend most likely has extras, or you can grow your own!
Want more fermenting ideas? Try making fruit vinegar, milk kefir, water kefir, fermented garlic, homemade sauerkraut and red cabbage sauerkraut.
How to Make a Kombucha SCOBY
To grow a SCOBY, you'll need some plain, unflavored kombucha.
You should be able to find it at your regular grocery store. It'll be refrigerated and is usually near the produce section.
If your normal grocery store only carries flavored kombucha, try looking at health food stores, at Whole Foods or at Trader Joes.
Next, you'll need plain (preferably organic) black tea, and a little sugar.
I like to use loose leaf black tea.
The other thing you'll need is patience. Growing a SCOBY will take 3-4 weeks.
How Do I Get More Kombucha SCOBY? Why Is My SCOBY Getting Bigger?
As you ferment your kombucha, your scoby will thicken.
Once it doubles or triples in size, you'll be able to peel it in half, and voila! Now you have two SCOBY!
You may also find yourself with partially formed, baby SCOBY that are too small to use on their own.
I usually put these in with an adult SCOBY during the fermenting process, until they've grown to at least ¼ inch thick, but these could also be discarded.
How Do I Keep My SCOBY Alive?
Also remember that your SCOBY is alive, and it needs a healthy environment to stay healthy.
Avoid using flavored teas, and don't leave the SCOBY in your tea after you add fruit or spices for flavoring.
If your SCOBY gets dark all over, it may have met its demise.
You can either try fermenting one more batch, and see if it ferments your tea, or toss it and use a new SCOBY for your next batch.
What Can I Do with Extra Kombucha Scoby?
- Share with friends!
- SCOBY hotel: Store them in a jar filled with plain, unflavored kombucha in the fridge as backups.
- Ferment non-alcoholic, store-bought apple cider
- Add to smoothies
- Add to your compost pile, or mix in with potting soil
- Make Jun Tea
- Turn them into Dog Treats
- Make Fruit Leather
- Make Face Masks
How to Make a Kombucha SCOBY
Equipment
- large pot to boil water / steep tea
- Large Glass Jar (2 quarts minimum), or Multiple Smaller Jars
- paper towels or napkins (avoid using cheesecloth if you have a problem with fruit-flies)
- rubber bands
Ingredients
- 7 cups water
- ½ cup granulated white sugar (do not substitute raw sugar)
- 4 bags black tea (or 1 TB loose black tea)
- 1 cup store-bought raw kombucha (unflavored, unpasteurized)
Equipment Needed:
- large pot to boil water / steep tea
- 2 quart glass jar OR 2 1-quart glass jars
- paper towel or napkin (avoid using cheesecloth if you have a problem with fruit-flies)
- rubber band
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil. Turn off heat and add tea leaves and sugar.Allow tea to steep until sugar has dissolved and water has cooled to room temperature. Remove the tea bags (or strain out loose tea). Do not proceed to the next step until the tea has completely cooled, or you risk killing the good bacteria in the kombucha.
- Add store-bought kombucha and stir. Pour into the glass jar (or divide among 2 glass jars). Cover the jar(s) with a napkin or paper towel, and secure with the rubber band.
- Set the jar(s) out of direct sunlight (sunlight can keep the tea from fermenting), at room temperature (around 70ºF), and avoid bumping or jostling the jar(s).The scoby will take 1 - 4 weeks to form. Check on it often-- you should see the tea begin to bubble and ferment after a few days, and then a small translucent disk will appear. Eventually, that layer will thicken and become opaque. When it is about ¼" thick, you're ready to make kombucha!
Notes
- This is normal: A new, transparent scoby disk appearing on the top of the kombucha batch; stringy pieces of scoby floating in the drink (like with a vinegar mother); the scoby floating on top, on the side, on the bottom– It doesn’t matter where it is, it’s working.
- This is not normal: The SCOBY is black. The tea has mold or smells rotten. Throw away your SCOBY and tea and start over.
- Use filtered water
- Use organic sugar
- Use organic tea
- Use loose-leaf tea, or tea in unbleached tea bags
- Switch brands of store-bought kombucha, and make sure to avoid using pasteurized kombucha as a starter (check the label)
Vinney says
Dear Champagne Tastes. If i don't have raw kombucha, i would like to learn to grow scoby from scratch. Can you share the recipe how to grow scoby without a starter?
Thanks in advance
Regards, Vinney
Alisha Trenalone says
Hi Vinney, thanks for getting in touch. It would certainly be an interesting thing to try, but so far we haven't tested the process for making SCOBY without starter tea. It seems like there are some good options out there for doing that, though!
-Alisha at Champagne Tastes
Dana says
This may be a silly question but when I make my Scoby for the first time, after it forms, may I drink the tea used to grow the Scoby?
Alisha Trenalone says
Hi Dana! Technically you could choose to do that, but it’s fermented for long enough that it probably will be kind of vinegary and not as flavorful as regular kombucha.
-Alisha at Champagne Tastes