How to grow kombucha at home yourself

In this article we will look in detail at how to grow kombucha from scratch at home and how to get guaranteed results from growing it yourself.

Kombucha is a product that in recent years has been gaining popularity again among adherents of a healthy lifestyle and those who want to improve their health. It is a layered elastic plate that forms on the surface of sweet tea leaves.

Now you can purchase zooglea (this is the scientific name of the mushroom) in online health food stores and other resources. But if you don’t want to spend money on a purchase, you can make it yourself.

Self-cultivation

The future drink is always based on 2 ingredients: tea and sugar - they are found in almost every home, so diluting a special infusion for mushrooms is quick and easy. How to grow kombucha yourself from scratch at home?

Kombucha: recipe

Let's figure out how to grow kombucha step by step.

1. First of all, you should prepare a large, clean container. The ideal option is a 3-liter jar. It has sufficient volume and is also transparent. You can also take another glass container. Surprisingly, kombucha has the ability to grow over the entire permissible area and take any shape. Those. if you start kombucha from scratch in a regular cylindrical jar, it will take a round shape, and if your container is square, then the mushroom will take the same shape. There are even known cases when they tried to put zooglea into a small aquarium that was not used for its intended purpose, and it grew over the entire surface of the liquid contents.
2. Now you need to prepare the dressing. How to make it? First you need to take good loose leaf tea - 2-3 tablespoons. Then boil about 1 liter of clean water. Pour boiling water over the tea to get an infusion of medium strength.
3. Add 80-100 g of regular sugar to already brewed tea. Stir until completely dissolved.
4. Wait until the tea leaves have cooled to room temperature and pour it into a 3-liter jar.

Important! Dishes for kombucha should be made of transparent glass.

Now you know how to brew kombucha tea. But let's consider a few more important questions:

When the tea and sugar are poured into the jar, it should be placed in a suitable place. How to choose it correctly?

1. The optimal temperature for kombucha is room temperature (23-26 degrees). If you leave the container at a lower temperature, the ripening process will proceed more slowly.
2. Direct sunlight should not fall on the jar (for example, you should not place the container on the windowsill).
3. The place should not be too dark (do not put the jar in a closed cabinet).

It is ideal if the kombucha jar is on the dining table or table top.

Important! The neck of the container with the tea solution should be covered with several layers of gauze or a thin cotton towel. This will prevent dust and insects from getting inside. Flies especially love to flock to the sweet drink.

Now you know how to prepare a solution for kombucha. What will happen next?

Kombucha ripening

After about a week, a thin film will begin to form on the surface of the liquid - this is how kombucha is born. Now you should be patient, because zooglea will “gain mass” only after 6-8 weeks. By this time, a thin leaf of a young mushroom will be floating in the jar.

To make ripening faster, you can add a little apple cider vinegar to the tea (no more than 1/10 of the total volume).

If you follow the recipe and prepare everything correctly, then after 1.5-2 months the film will become strong and will be clearly visible on the surface (1-2 mm high), and the aroma of the drink will acquire a pleasant sourish tint. During this period, you can see with your own eyes how kombucha is made: first, small swellings and bulges will appear on the thin film - the structure will be uneven, and then everything will merge into one smooth, dense substance.

Important! The longer the mushroom is infused, the more concentrated the drink will be.

Why divide kombucha?

The division of a mushroom is a necessary process if it is properly cared for. It seems that the jellyfish grows, makes a tasty and healthy drink: tea kvass, does not get sick, why separate it? There are two reasons for this:

1. The tea jellyfish can grow to such a size that it will hardly fit in the jar. It will become difficult to wash and care for. In this case, the medusomycete (this is the scientific name) needs to be separated and distributed among several containers.
2. It can be exfoliated specifically for the purpose of reproduction. If the owner wants to share the useful jellyfish with someone or put it up for sale to earn extra income.

In any case, sooner or later the tea jellyfish will need to divide, otherwise it will grow to unimaginable limits. It is known that in laboratory conditions scientists were able to breed medusomycetes weighing up to 100 kg.

Drinking tea kvass

Once you have managed to prepare a 3-liter drink from scratch, it can be consumed. Usually tea kvass is drunk undiluted. It is poured into a glass or glass directly from the jar, but the gauze is not removed from the neck.

Kombucha containers with tap

For ease of use, you can purchase a special jar with a dispenser. It can be found in hardware stores or in specialized online stores. (For example, here cookhouse.ru/store/product/W0000181876).

The cost of such a container with a dispenser is usually up to 1,000 rubles. You can also order a ready-made set on the Leovit company website, which includes a jar with a tap for kombucha and the zooglea itself in the package (www.leomax.ru/goods/nabor-chajnyj-grib-banka-s-dozatorrom-v- complete). The cost of the set is 990 rubles.

Contraindications to drinking kombucha

It is better to avoid kombucha:

1. Patients with diabetes.
2. Those suffering from fungal diseases can only drink well-fermented tea kvass.
3. If you have increased stomach acidity, drink the drink in limited quantities.
4. It is advisable for drivers to consume only fresh infusion of kombucha.
5. It is not recommended to drink tea kvass during or after meals. It is better to do this on an empty stomach or before bed.

Those who are not contraindicated can drink kombucha, but only with mandatory breaks to prevent stomach irritation.

How to feed Kombucha

When the jar already has a ready-to-eat product, you can start consuming it. Depending on the purpose of its use, from 1 to 3-4 glasses of the drink will be consumed per day. And if several family members drink tea kvass, the consumption will be even greater. Therefore, it needs to be “fed” correctly. What does it mean? This means adding a new portion of sweet tea to the jar.

There are several important conditions for how to properly pour kombucha:

1. Under no circumstances should sugar be poured directly onto the mushroom plate - this will cause a burn and the zooglea will die. First you need to brew tea, then add sugar to it, wait until it is completely dissolved, and only then add a new solution to the jar. Also, do not forget to first cool the tea to room temperature; do not pour hot liquid into the jar - the mushroom will spoil.
2. How often should the tea leaves be changed? Depends on the time of year and room temperature. Usually in summer the infusion is changed once every 3-4 days, and in winter - once every 5-6 days or a week. If you change the infusion less often, the drink may overstay and the taste will be too sour.
3. It is also recommended that when changing the tea infusion, rinse the mushroom plate under clean running water at room temperature.
4. A new portion of tea is brewed in the same way as the initial infusion was made.

So, we found out how to make a solution and how to feed kombucha at home. Now it’s worth talking separately about those components on the basis of which you can grow kombucha from scratch: tea and sugar.

How to grow kombucha at home

Housewives who are thinking about how to make kombucha a permanent resident of the house are advised to acquire a glass vessel with a wide neck. You won't find a better three-liter jar here. Wash it with baking soda and rinse well. Procedure:

1. The water for the nutrient liquid is boiled to avoid sediment. Let it cool.
2. Brew black tea and filter the tea leaves.
3. Stir the sugar thoroughly. For 1 liter of boiling water take 2 tsp. tea, 50-100 g granulated sugar.
4. The vessel is filled with liquid to the narrowing part.
5. Cover with gauze to allow air to pass through, put in a secluded corner at room temperature.
6. It is unacceptable for tea leaves or granulated sugar to stick to the body of the kombucha, otherwise rotting will begin.
7. The jar with zooglea is carefully protected from sunlight.

After 7 days, the grown mushroom already reigns on the surface. It's time to pour the kombucha into a separate jar. The drink is also filtered through several layers of gauze, but covered with a lid. Then the vessel is hidden in the refrigerator for storage. The mushroom that continues to produce kvass is protected from mold and washed with warm boiled water once a week. They also worry about the level of liquid in the jar when adding nutritious sweet tea. A drink that has stood to a high concentration of acetic acid is not suitable for consumption.

Breeding kombucha: how to grow it yourself from scratch:

1. How to grow your own kombucha from almost nothing? Prepare the tea leaves (5 tablespoons of black tea per 0.5 liters of boiling water). Allow to cool, filter through a gauze filter into a clean three-liter jar, add granulated sugar - no more than 7 tbsp. l.
2. The mixture is covered with a couple of layers of gauze, placed in a dark place in the kitchen and “forgotten” for a month and a half.
3. The vessel with the infusion will remind you of itself after about 10 days with a pungent vinegar smell, which soon disappears. After another 5-6 days, a mushroom film will appear on the surface. Over time, it will become a multi-layered “jellyfish”.

How to grow kombucha from rose hips:

1. It’s useful to know another secret about kombucha: how to grow it from scratch using rosehip infusion. Kombucha made from it is rich in vitamins. For infusion, measure dried fruits or collected directly from the bush. Brew (0.5 liters of boiling water for 4 tablespoons of rose hips), cover with a lid.
2. After 5 days, pour into a jar, add strong tea leaves (1 tablespoon of black tea per glass of boiling water). Dissolve 5 tbsp. sugar and again leave for one day.
3. Then the strained infusion is covered with dry gauze and put in a dark place. If everything is done correctly, after two weeks the mixture also begins to smell like vinegar. The film of the fungus will become visible to the human eye after 1.5-2 months.
4. The new mushroom is then grown like an ordinary medusomycete. The rosehip decoction is again added to the jar with tea leaves.

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About sugar

We will answer the most popular questions:

About tea

Tea is the basis for making kombucha. The quality of the resulting zooglea and the overall success of the infusion procedure will depend on the quality of the original product. What kind of tea should I pour into kombucha? The main recommendation is to take good loose leaf tea. Growing kombucha from a tea bag is not always possible. If you decide to take the bags, then make sure that the tea leaves inside are free of additives and impurities.

According to the classic old recipe, large-leaf black tea without additives is taken. It is also a very common way to prepare kombucha using green tea. This drink is considered more healthy - it contains more vitamins and caffeine, which means the finished kvass will be better invigorating. How to properly infuse green tea with sugar and kombucha? The answer is simple - just like with black tea.

In some cases, herbal tea can also be used. Collections of herbs and leaves of linden, birch, plantain, strawberries or blackberries are well suited. But preparations with a large amount of essential oils are not suitable (for example, chamomile and sage).

Is it possible to pour kombucha into hibiscus? Yes, you can. The taste of the resulting drink, of course, will be slightly different from classic tea kvass, but there are also lovers of such an exotic infusion.

Is it possible to cut kombucha?

Beginning kombucha growers often have the question: “Is it possible to cut kombucha to its diameter?” The answer is clear - no! The plate can only be carefully divided into layers, and only in those places where it is most easily amenable to this.

Remember, kombucha is a living organism made up of fungi and bacteria. If you use a knife or scissors to reduce its size, it can only be damaged and the medusomycete will get sick and possibly die.

It doesn’t matter for what purpose you need to separate and replant the kombucha, the main thing is to do it carefully, without tearing the plate, but smoothly separating it. Then the new tea jellyfish will bring the same benefit to its owner as its main mother part.

Other components

In addition to tea, the mushroom is also grown for other ingredients.

Rose hip

Rose hips have long been known for their benefits, high content of vitamin C and microelements. It is not surprising that they also began to grow zooglea using his infusion of these berries.

How to grow kombucha from rose hips from scratch?

To do this, you need to take a large handful of dried berries (12-15 pieces) and pour 500-700 ml of boiling water over them. As a container, take a liter thermos with a tight lid. Close the thermos and leave it standing still for a long time. After about 7-8 weeks, a thin film of fungus forms on the surface of the rose hip decoction.

Now you need to prepare a weak tea infusion - 2-3 teaspoons of tea leaves per liter of hot water. Add sugar, stir it and wait until the tea cools to room temperature. Now take a glass container, maybe a jar with a tap, and pour the cooled sweet tea into it. Carefully place the rosehip mushroom on top. Let it brew for 2-3 days. Now the drink can be consumed.

Kombucha with beer

There is also a known recipe for making kombucha from beer and wine vinegar. As a basis for growing zooglea, take 100-150 ml of beer and 2-3 teaspoons of wine vinegar. Instead of vinegar, you can add 3 tablespoons of wine. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the mixture and mix everything.

Place the container with the resulting liquid in a dark, warm place until a thin film of fungus forms on the surface. Then we brew tea in the usual way and place the “beer” zooglea there. How to pour kombucha into a 3-liter container has already been described earlier.

Kombucha with milk

Sometimes kombucha is infused with milk to obtain a special kefir, which is used to treat dysbiosis. To do this, they do not use the mushroom layer itself, but a ready-made infusion. Take a liter of milk and add up to 5 tablespoons of mature tea kvass to it - it will act as a starter. On day 2-3, the milk will turn into slightly acidified kefir, which you can drink.

Lots of benefits, little effort

We looked at how you can grow kombucha yourself at home. As it turned out, this process is not too labor-intensive, it just requires a lot of time waiting for a new young zooglea to grow.

The cost of the finished drink is very low, but the benefits that tea kvass gives to our body are great. This is not only a pleasant, refreshing carbonated drink, it is a source of valuable acids, enzymes and vitamins.

Try growing your own kombucha and start drinking it regularly. It is likely that your trips to the pharmacy for medications will be significantly reduced.