Kombucha Brewing Ratio: A Reliable Ingredient Scale Guide (2024)

FAQs

Kombucha Brewing Ratio: A Reliable Ingredient Scale Guide? ›

What is the recommended ratio of tea, sugar, water, and starter tea for making kombucha? For a 1-gallon batch of kombucha, you'll need 1 cup of sugar, 6-8 bags of tea, and 12 fl oz of starter tea. The rest should be filled up with clean, filtered water.

If you feed it too much, the culture will be too dilute and the scoby will take longer to form. If you don't feed it at all, cellulose production will also be slow due to lack of nutrients. Our recipe feeds the culture at a ratio of 2:1.

Kombucha contains alcohol. The body breaks down alcohol to get rid of it. Disulfiram decreases the break-down of alcohol. Taking kombucha along with disulfiram can cause a pounding headache, vomiting, flushing, and other unpleasant reactions.

Too much and the yeasts will either a) “flush” and overrun the bacteria, or b) fall completely asleep and do nothing. It may be possible to use as little as ¾ cup or as much as 1.5 cups per gallon and have successful brews.

You don't really have to worry about killing your SCOBY unless the liquid reaches above 100 degrees F. If this happens, you could: Move your vessel to the coolest, darkest spot in your home. It's OK to keep it in a closet and just take it out at night when it's less hot.

When brewing kombucha, the most important rule of thumb is the sweet tea to starter tea ratio. The sweet tea to kombucha starter tea ratio is 9:1 or 90% sweet tea to 10% kombucha starter tea.

The scoby will then go dormant and can be kept for up to 6 months. However, we've already seen scobys that had been forgotten for over a year in a corner of the fridge come back to life without any problem. These little creatures are resilient!

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that four ounces of kombucha can be safely consumed one to three times a day. Overconsumption can lead to headache, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, or ketoacidosis.

Some people may experience digestive upset when drinking kombucha, or from drinking too much. Symptoms such as gas, nausea, and vomiting may occur. These side effects may be more likely in people who drink too much kombucha.

Boosting your gut health

“Good” bacteria are essential for your gut microbiome to thrive — and fermented foods such as kombucha contain probiotics to help keep those levels high. “Kombucha can really help feed and increase that good, healthy gut bacteria, which can help decrease any bad bacteria,” says Zumpano.

When to throw away SCOBY? ›

You will only need to replace your SCOBY if it has developed mold or if it is continuously struggling to ferment.

Cane sugar is the most common type of sugar that is used for brewing Kombucha. Most people use “plain white sugar” – you want to make sure the package says “cane sugar” on it or you are most likely using GMO Beet Sugar. Cane sugar has been used by humans for over 5000 years.

Yeast has a tendency to settle down at the bottom of brew vessels, so if you don't stir and you're pouring your kombucha into bottles, some bottles may have too little yeast (if the bottle contains the un-stirred liquid from the top) and some bottles might have too much yeast (if the bottle contains liquid from the ...

This is fine if they're getting too large or if you'd like to split them up to move some to a SCOBY hotel/share with a friend. You can't hurt your SCOBY by ripping it or cutting it. Its shape doesn't matter since new ones will always take the shape of the surface of whatever container you place it in.

The only way to know if your kombucha scoby is dead is to test it in a new kombucha batch and wait a few weeks. If your sweet tea has not become acidic after 15 days, then you can definitely conclude that your kombucha scoby has died.

Once the SCOBYs are dehydrated, place them in a sealable plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator (not the freezer). Dehydrated SCOBYs will generally survive in the refrigerator for at least 3 months. Once you are ready to begin making kombucha again, follow our instructions on how to rehydrate the SCOBY.

Remember to feed the scobys every few weeks by adding some sweet tea to the jar to provide them with the nutrients they need to stay healthy and continue fermenting. In general, a scoby hotel can be a convenient and effective way to store multiple scobys and keep them healthy and viable for making kombucha.

You want to use 1 cup of starter per gallon of sweet tea. (Some use a ratio of 50% strong starter/ 50% sweet tea. Either is fine.) Add the SCOBY - make sure the SCOBY are fully submerged in the tea!

For each gallon of sweet tea, use 1 large SCOBY (5-6 inches across, ½ – 1 inch thick) and 1-2 cups strong starter liquid.

-How much sugar should I use? Lila's golden ratio is 1 cup of sugar per one gallon of kombucha. You can adjust it depending how much kombucha you are brewing.