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Best Kombucha Recipe For Beginners

Learn how to make kombucha from scratch with this beginner friendly guide! With just a few simple ingredients, you can brew your own fizzy, probiotic-rich kombucha at home in about two weeks. This step-by-step tutorial walks you through every stage of the process and shows you what to look for along the way. No fancy equipment required!
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Equipment

INGREDIENTS

F1: Starter Brew
  • 6 c water (filtered)
  • 1/4 + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp black tea* (any type, but I used English breakfast)
  • 1 1/4 c unflavored kombucha (like GT's Pure Kombucha. This is our starter liquid.)
F2: Flavorings
  • 9 tbsp fruit juice** (try different flavors!)

INSTRUCTIONS

Start The Brew
  • Heat the water to just below boiling, about 170 F.
  • Add in the granulated sugar and black tea, and stir everything together.
  • Steep for about 15 minutes, and then remove the black tea.
  • Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature (at least below 90 F) before transferring to your brewing vessel.
  • Mix in the unflavored kombucha (the starter liquid).
Let It Sit: Fermentation 1
  • Cover the mouth of the jar with a kitchen towel, using a rubber band to keep it in place.
  • Let the mixture sit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for at least 1 week. For best results, keep it in a room that generally stays between 65 - 80 F. The warmer the better. If the room is too cold for too long, the brew will be more susceptible to mold.
Check The Brew
  • Every few days, remove the kitchen towel to take a peek at how things are brewing.
    Good signs include a pale or translucent film forming on the surface. This is the start of the pellicle. This forms in all of the right brewing conditions, and it's a sign that your brew is heading in the right direction. You may also notice some brown sediment settling on the bottom of the jar. This is most likely yeast, which is a by-product of the brewing process, and nothing to worry about.
    Bad signs include mold, which will look like white, green, black, or grey fuzzy specks floating on top of the brew. If this happens, you will need to toss the whole thing and start again. See the blog post for reasons why mold may have formed.
  • After 1 week, taste the brew to see if it's ready. It should be mildly sweet, yet tart. For your first brew, I recommend proceeding with the bottling process after 1 week, but in the future you can leave it for a longer period of time to experiment with the tartness.
Bottle The Brew
  • Grab the bottles you'll use for fermentation. Check out the Equipment section above for a link to the exact ones I used.
  • Pour about 3 tbsp fruit juice into each of the fermentation bottles.
  • Pour about 2 c of the brew into each of the fermentation bottles. Leave about 1" space in the neck of each bottle.
    You should have some brew left over, which you can save for your next brew!***
Let It Sit: Fermentation 2
  • Seal the bottles and let them sit, again, at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for about 1 week.
    For best results, keep it in a room that generally stays between 65 - 80 F. The warmer the better.
  • After 1 week, chill the bottles in the fridge before enjoying, and then congrats! You just made kombucha!

Notes

*If you're using loose-leaf black tea, add it to a tea ball first. If there are any loose tea bits floating in the brew, be sure to strain it out with a cheesecloth, otherwise the dried leaves may attract mold.
**For my first brew, I used three different store-bought fruit juices: pineapple, cran-apple, and cherry. Make sure the juice you use is pure, unsweetened, and not from concentrate. Feel free to get creative and use whatever fruit juices and combinations you like! The more you brew, you can experiment with adding more or less fruit juice to suit your taste.
***To make new kombucha from your leftover brew, simply start this recipe over again, but instead of using the pure, unflavored kombucha from the store, replace that ingredient with the fresh kombucha you already brewed (aka starter liquid). This is called the continuous brewing method.
The kombucha forum on reddit was super helpful as I started brewing, I recommend checking it out as you begin to brew!