Fermenting at Home Without a Starter Kit

How to easily ferment without an overpriced starter kit!

There are several online vendors that sell kombucha fermentation kits and kombucha starter sets for a lot of money. However, you don't need much for kombucha fermentation at home. Here's how easily you can grow a kombucha mushroom from our raw Raw Original!

These are the utensils you need to grow your own Scoby:

• 1 large glass jar with a wide opening – well rinsed without dish soap!
• Tea – Black tea (without flavorings/artificial additives)
• Organic cane sugar
• Water – filtered, if possible
• Unpasteurized kombucha (e.g., Kombucha Original)
• 1 breathable, clean cloth
• 1 rubber band
• 1 room with a temperature between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius

Here's how you can grow your Scoby from a Raw Original Kombucha:

• Boil tea with cane sugar for 8 to 10 minutes (8 g tea per liter / 60 g organic cane sugar per liter).
• Pour the tea-sugar mixture into the glass jar and let it cool for an extended period.
• Cover the jar with the cloth and secure it with a rubber band!
• Now the sugar should be completely dissolved.
• Now, add the unpasteurized kombucha in a 1:10 ratio.
• Then, re-secure the cloth to the jar and place the jar in a safe spot.
• Depending on conditions, it can take 7 to 21 days for the kombucha mushroom to form entirely on its own.

Initially, it will look like small foam bubbles are forming on the surface of the liquid. These will become denser over time until the kombucha mushroom slowly becomes visible. Patience pays off!

Below, we explain how to properly brew your first kombucha without a starter kit. Have fun fermenting!

Before you can brew your kombucha, you need (per liter):

• 1 glass jar with at least 1.5 liters volume and a large opening (well rinsed without dish soap).
• 8 g black tea or green tea
• 100 g sugar
• 1 liter water (preferably filtered)
• Starter liquid or ready-made very acidic raw kombucha with a neutral taste as starter liquid.
• 1 breathable cloth

Of course, you now need the kombucha mushroom you previously cultivated. It doesn't have to be perfectly round and may have some irregularities. It will continue to grow and thrive during fermentation. You can learn how to care for it here.

Brewing your first kombucha yourself – Let's go!

• First, bring 1 liter of water to a boil in a large pot. Then, add 8 g of black tea and let it steep for 12 to 15 minutes (while the water is gently simmering).
• Afterward, strain the tea and then add 100 g of sugar. The sugar must be stirred until it has completely dissolved in the tea.
• It is very important now to let the sugared tea cool down to at least 25 degrees Celsius room temperature in a glass jar. The sensitive Scoby must not be immersed in hot water. The living bacteria and yeasts, as well as proteins, can be destroyed this way.
• Now add 100 ml of the starter liquid to the tea mixture.
• Then, gently add the previously carefully rinsed Scoby into the jar.
• You can now cover the opening of the glass jar with the cloth and secure it with a rubber band.

Now the Scoby has about a week to process the ingredients of the tea, essentially "eating them up". If it lies at the bottom of the jar, the Scoby will grow slightly larger and usually form more Scoby "offshoots". Often the Scoby floats, and over time, a thicker kombucha mushroom forms at the top edge of the glass.

• Once the kombucha mushroom has reached the correct fermentation level after about 7 days (depending on preferences and taste, we recommend a pH value between 2.9 and 3.1), you can carefully remove the Scoby from the kombucha liquid and rinse it with lukewarm water to remove tea residues.
• You can store the Scoby in some bottled kombucha liquid (new starter liquid) for the next fermentation.
• Before bottling the kombucha, we recommend filtering the liquid through a very fine sieve or alternatively through a layer of paper towel. However, this is not a prerequisite to enjoy it.
• Subsequently, the kombucha should be given about 2 days for secondary fermentation in a sealed bottle at room temperature. This is when the natural carbonation can form.

Now you've done it and brewed your first kombucha, completely without a starter kit. You can find more articles and recipes for secondary fermentation on our KOMBUCHERY blog.