The Complete Guide to Flavoring and Carbonating Kombucha

Click the link below to get a free PDF copy and exclusive video tutorial of my "Trick Out Kombucha Brewing Set Up"

In this video we go over
1. A brief introduction to making kombucha
2. How to grow your own Scoby from a bottle of GT's original.
3. How to properly flavor a whole bunch of creative flavors including: Hibiscus, Hops, Mango Mint, Berry and Ginger, Cucumber Melon, Gin (that's right we did Gin), Carrot, Apple and Cinnamon, and even a Thai inspired bucha. May the fizzy delicious games begin.

Homemade SCOBY Recipe
-2-3 cups of water
-2 black tea bags
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1 bottle of GT's original Kombucha

-Bring water to boil and steep tea for 20 minutes.
-Remove tea bags and add sugar, stir to dissolve
-Let sweet tea come down to room temp before adding kombucha
-Let sit in a warm environment for 1.5 to 3 weeks

Your beginners guide to brewing kombucha!

[BeckyBee]

I grew a scoby from a Publix kombucha during quarantine, his name is Brad, he has many clones and last year I made over 200 gallons of kombucha, all beginning from my original endeavor. I enjoyed this, thanks for sharing.

[AlbanGruget]

11:47 : Winter : Hops
14:22 : Winter : Hibiscus Lemon
15:40 : Spring : blackberry Ginger
16:24 : Spring : Ginger Tumeric
20:26 : Summer : Mango Mint
20:40 : Summer : Cucumber Melon
22:50 : Automn : carrot and apple juice
23:20 : Automn : Gin lemon

[PierrePblais]

there is some really great ideas here.

One thing I find many YouTubers unfortunately don't really talk about when it comes to Kombucha is all the flavoring possibilities that you can explore in your primary fermentation by using different base. The SCOBY does not require tea to do its thing it requires sugar, so any sweet liquid will work, some will work better then other of course, and regular black tea is a great stable base. However I have played around with different tea, like white tea, puer, oolong, also chai blend, earl grey blend, and other quality tea blends I source from a local loose tea provider.

I have also great success making my primary with various herbal tea or herbal blends, One of my favorite that I got from TNGTF is Lemon Verbena kombucha (which you can then flavor with ginger in your 2nd ferment, and is to die for), Catnip is very interesting, almost hoppy in flavor, actually doing hibiscus herbal tea as first ferment instead of doing in the 2nd is also really interesting, Rose petals also good, Skullcap also great, fresh elderflower is another great one from TNGTF (just make sure you pick only the flowers and remove all stems).

I have also done Coffee kombucha, Maple syrup Kombucha (just maple syrup and water, can't get simpler then that), and even raw apple juice. And then when you start cobining all this with 2nd fermentation aromatics... the possibilities really are endless!

Of course one thing to be aware of when you do this is that the SCOBY will store some of the flavors from the liquid, with a lot of the herbal stuff it will be too subtle to notice, but if you try your hand at some more intense liquid like coffee, you might want to keep that scoby separate.

[ThoughXperiment]

I brew my own probiotics drinks, kombucha, geer, pop and wine.
For flavored bubbly kombucha I recommend using different tea mix as the base. I use green tea for citric flavors, black tea for chocolate, coffee, deep flavors, chamomile + horchata for sweet frutal flavors and green tea + ginger for herbal flavors.
When flavoring think as a bartender/chef 🤣😎
My favorites flavors are:
Blackberry + ginger
Strawberry + mint
Passion fruit + vanilla
Cinnamon + clove + anise
Lemon + pimienta + nutmeg
Apple + Cinnamon + Clove
I use a mix between dry and fresh fruits and herbs 😉
Also, you can always add a measure of white ron ir vodka to make your kombucha a little more daring 😅
Fermentation is an addition after you know how it works, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, beer, wine, vinegar, are few of the things I do at home and they are better than the industrial versions

[usandrah]

I have watched hundreds of videos on kombucha to get ideas and inspiration... and this half hour is my absolute favourite by far! I hope they make a part two... Awesome mixture of creativity, technique, passion and goofiness.

[iannotivan]

Word to the wise: I tried doing a melon-cucumber batch last week, had to throw it out because the cucumbers actually turned into pickles while carbonating! lmao

[cindybaisiger]

I made a very festive holiday kambucha using red rooibos tea and flavored it with star anise, cloves, and cinnamon sticks. It's sooo good and gas just the right kick.

[Cameroner]

This ended up being super easy. I screwed up in so many places and still ended up with a great result. Thanks for sharing

[marcofdzcruz]

You guys, this video is amazing. I love the recipes and the atmosphere you created. Keep it up! One quick comment on why ginger and turmeric produce so much carbonation. The rhizomes all have their own set of yeasts, and yeasts are the ones that actually produce C02, so when you add them to the booch, which already has bacteria and yeasts, you produce a lot more carbonation.

[katjacehovin]

My grandmother has been growing her Kombucha since I can remember...but we grow it in hibiscus tea, never in black one:) so the color of the drink is red. We've used it for vinegar too, it's amazing:)

[rahullalchandani]

I'm a beginner and have made two batches so far, falling in love with the process of fermentation and these videos are my new Netflix.

[amorestperpe]

If you're not literally making you're own scoby right now, I don't know what you're doing....

I'm laying on my couch waiting for my scoby to be done in 3 weeks that I started today lol.

[stingraytingvideo]

I've found that a paper coffee filter and an elastic band makes the perfect cover for the first stage.

Also, my favourite combos for flavours are ginger & lemon, and pineapple & ginger, strawberry/raspberry & elderflower ☺️

[magnusbrogren]

Omg that’s a lot of juniper berries!! Just one is a lot of flavour! I’d go for max 2-3 berries and balance it with something sweeter that has some sugar in it, like apple. Thanks for an inspirational video. I especially like the fall carrot cinnamon one :)

[davivadiva]

I love banana dude’s energy. First time here so idk y’alls names.

[writerinrwanda]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, someone gifted me a scoby. I've just made my first flavoured batches: passion fruit, and tree tomato + apple. They are amazing! I'm a total convert.

[stingraytingvideo]

Technically, the SCOBY is actually in the liquid kombucha itself. The pellicle (gelatinous cellulose thing) is not needed to create a batch of kombucha (as they demonstrated in this video when they make a batch from some starter tea) . The pellicle forms on the surface when the SCOBY is trying to regulate the amount of air the liquid is in contact with. No harm in including the pellicle when brewing though since there's a lot of liquid SCOBY in it anyway so it's like a host for the SCOBY. This is why sometimes you get little SCOBY pellicle forming after you bottle it for the second fermentation stage.

[Lightpaintkid]

I am a beer brewer and soon to be kombucha brewer too. Idea, you can dry hop the bottle using a cheese cloth like with beer making. This will allow you to control the bitter flavor depending on how long the hops stay in solution. I would look for aromatic hops, which adds more floral qualities. Also, have you guys heard of a ginger bug? Fresh ginger, sugar and water will ferment and give you a great base to add flavor to, cheers

[roybello]

been brewing for 3 years now anywhere i go, constantly bringing with me my starter and scooby whenever i am onboard ships for 6 months. i cant live without Kombucha, its so good.

[Lady-Lilith]

I have been reusing my big GT Dave's bottles for my own kombucha for a while. It's so great! My fridge has a lot of weird vertical space and not much horizontal space so a big, tall bottle is ideal. I also have a lot of flip top bottles. I've tried a lot of flavors and so far my favorite is just straight up mango juice added to flavor and provides enough sugar for the carbonation to happen in 3 to 4 days at room temp. I get a nice, sweet and tart tea with good fizz.