Simple Kombucha continuous brew recipe

Very simple Kombucha (чайный гриб) continuous brew recipe 

I wrote an earlier blog post on kombucha SCOBY and described what a scoby is compared to the pellicle and starter liquid.  That post started to get a little long so I decided to stop there and write a separate post on the kombucha recipe we use.  

There are plenty of kombucha recipes on the internet.  They pretty much all work because it is actually hard to go wrong brewing kombucha when you use both pellicle and starter liquid. 

I am not suggesting that the way I brew kombucha is the best way to do it, or even a good way to do it, I am only saying it is simple and it works for me.  This blog post is partly a way for me to record this in case I ever forget how to do this in the future.

Continuous brew чайный гриб

I tend to do continuous brew rather than messing around with batches and bottling and using fridge space.  Continuous brew works for me, it never goes wrong, I don't see how it could go wrong, and it takes very little time and effort.  

Some people much prefer batch brewing.  I hear about these going wrong from time to time.  Apparently the issues with batch brewing are simple enough to avoid.  I can't offer any advice on batch brewing or flavouring kombucha because I don't do that.  

Continuous brew and batch brew are both good methods, which one to use is more about personal preference than anything else.  The scoby doesn't care if you do continuous brew or batch brew, you could try both and see what you prefer.  

Kombucha ready to drink

Kombucha looks like beer or apple cider

I have a large glass jar with a tap.  This jar contains one or more pellicles and some finished kombucha/starter liquid.  

I drew two lines on the jar, one at 4 liters, the other at 6 liters.  I fill it up to the 6L line, we drink it as wanted and I refill it once it drops to the 4L line.  It is simple, and a little inconsistent, but can never fail unless there is some mechanical failure such as the jar gets smashed or the tap falls out.  

I don't put the lid on the jar as the scoby needs some air.  Instead I tend to keep a cloth on top of the jar, this keeps out insects and dust.  I used to hold the cloth on with a rubber band, but stopped bothering with that a few years ago and the cloth just sitting on top still does the trick.  

Continuous brew чайный гриб recipe

Once we drink enough that the liquid drops to the 4L line I fill it with sweet tea that has cooled.  Never use hot tea as this will kill (or at least damage) the scoby. 

1. I boil 2L of water, add 1/2 cup white sugar, and 2 or 3 tea bags.  I mostly use regular black tea bags, but sometimes also include a bag of green tea.  
2. I let this steep for about 5 to 15 minutes, then remove the tea bags.  
3. I let this cool to room temperature.  
4. Once cooled I pour this sweet tea in my jar, and it is ready to drink in a few days (or immediately if you prefer it sweeter).  

Let me stress that I always allow it to cool before adding it to my jar, never add this when still hot or it will kill the scoby.  

Some people use more sugar while others use less sugar, some people use more tea bags others use less tea bags.  Sometimes I use some black tea and include some green tea, other times I only use black tea.  I use tea bags so I don't have to strain out any leaves, using loose leaf tea would also be fine as long as you can strain out the leaves.  

If I go away for a while I just fill it up and it is fine when I return.  I don't have a lid on my jar so there is no risk of building too much pressure.  The contents of the jar are too acidic for most pathogens to survive, so there is no danger there.  A pantry moth or something could get in and I would have to deal with that, but that hasn't happened here yet.

Continuous brew kombucha simply works, you can't really go wrong as long as you let the tea cool before adding to the jar and the scoby is strong. 

Continuous brew kombucha, I keep a cloth on top 

My jar already has a pellicle, and 4L or so of starter, so it brews quickly and is ready to drink in next to no time.  I hear of other people having to wait two weeks before their brew is ready, they tend to use significantly less starter liquid than I do.  

Sometimes when we are drinking a lot of kombucha this drops a bit below the 4L line before I have a chance to refill it, that doesn't really matter.  Other times I refill before it reaches the line, again this doesn't really matter.  Over summer it brews a lot faster, over winter it brews far slower.  This is not a precise science.  

Most recipes suggest adding a pellicle and 10% starter liquid to 90% tea, this works fine but is a lot slower than how I do it.  I use about 66% starter liquid and about 33% sweet tea, and it brews very fast.  We tend to drink some kombucha most days, so want to fill my jar and have it ready to drink as soon as possible.  Sometimes my kids drink it as soon as I filled it, I prefer to wait a few days as I like the sharper taste.

It usually has more bubbles

While my method may not be the best way to brew kombucha, the fact that I can keep a continuous brew going like this for a few years is testament to the fact that this method is working.  Perhaps there are better methods, but this works for me, and it is so simple. 

If you have a kombucha recipe that is different, and it works for you, please keep using it.  If you try one recipe and don't love it, then change it and try something different.  One of the best parts of kombucha is nothing is precise, and you really can't fail.  

If you are new to brewing kombucha, it is difficult for anything to go wrong if you brew using both pellicle and starter liquid.  Some people discard the pellicle from every batch, which works for them, but when first learning how to do this it is best to include the pellicle as well as the starter liquid.

чайный гриб has been brewed by people at home since at least the 1800s, it is simple and inexpensive.  I have never used a heat mat, I don't have a thermometer, nothing is overly precise and nothing ever goes wrong.  At worst I leave it too long before drinking and it tastes a little too sour for my liking.  

If you want to try brewing kombucha at home, you could try using unflavoured kombucha from the shops.  This will likely have a significantly lower number of strains and you can't be certain it has not been pasturised (killing many of the bacteria and yeasts) prior to sale.  You are better off finding someone who brews kombucha and buying a scoby (not just a pellicle) from them.  If you can't find any locally, and you are located in Australia, my contact details can be found on my for sale page.  

Hedou micro dwarf bok choy

Hedou micro dwarf bok choy (Brassica rapa) is one of the smallest, and fastest growing, varieties of bok choy.  It is sometimes called an extra dwarf, or micro dwarf variety, and is far smaller than baby bok choy.

I recorded the number of days this takes to grow a few times, this little one takes about a month from planting the seed to harvesting full size plants, and takes about 10 weeks from planting the seed until the next seeds are ready for harvest.  

Hedou micro bok choy

Last winter I had a container of soil that I planned to grow something in during the warmer months.  I didn't think of using this for anything else until mid winter, and there was not a huge amount of time before I wanted to plant something else in there.  

Rather than leaving it empty over winter, I grew some hedou bok choy in there.  This had ample space for root growth, and could fit a lot of plants.  

Once they flowered and died I was able to plant some perennial buckwheat in the container.  This meant I got to eat some of these bok choy, I refreshed my seed stocks, and didn't have to tie up useable space growing this as the container would have otherwise just been empty.  This was a great use of (otherwise unused) space.

Micro bok choy

All varieties of Brassica rapa cross pollinate readily.  I didn't want to cross this with other bok choy or tokyo bekana.  For this reason I grow some Hedou bok extra dwarf choy in my garden, but don't let it go to seed.  

To ensure I keep my line pure, I grew some Hedou micro dwarf Bok Choy in my greenhouse and only collect seed from these plants.  Seed set is lower in the greenhouse as few pollinators live in there, and many are captured by my sundews.  The lack of pollinators also means the chances of cross pollination are incredibly low.  

Hedou micro bok choy

These plants grew very fast.  Some were culled/eaten, others were allowed to flower and set seed.

Even though my line is not crossed with any other variety, there is a chance to add some selective pressure.  I tend to cull heavily and only allow individuals to flower if they possess all the traits I want to see.

Even though these plants are tiny, I want strong vigorous plants.  Anything that appeared weak was culled.  I don't want weak genetics in my line. 

I grow everything organically so want my plants to have natural resistance to pests.  You will notice holes in many of the leaves, this is unavoidable.  Anything that was affected by a lot of pests was culled.  

Hedou bok choy grows taller when in flower, perhaps 40cm tall, some plants are taller than others.  The flowers are typical yellow brassica flowers.  

Some plants produce very few flowers, these were culled as I want my line to be fertile and simple to save seed from. 

Bok Choy Flowers

Hedou bok choy flowering

The plants allowed to flower and set seed all posses the traits I want to see in this line.  In this way I am keeping the line pure, and I am selecting for desirable traits.  

Seed saving is simple.  As they were pollinated in my greenhouse they would have pollinated one another and little to no crossing with other varieties could have occurred.  I allow the plants to grow and then die naturally.  Then I allow the seed pods to dry on the plant.  Eventually I collected the seeds to plant later.  

I certainly don't get a lot of seed when they are in the greenhouse due to the low numbers of pollinators, but the seed produced is pure and not contaminated with other varieties.  I try to hand pollinate some flowers, but I can't do as good a job as insects.

I sometimes sell seed of Hedou bok choy, as well as other vegetables, if you are interested they are listed on my for sale page. 

Kombucha (чайный гриб) SCOBY

For a few years we made чайный гриб (pronounced as chai-knee grib).  This translates to tea mushroom.  The beverage itself is sometimes known as grib “mushroom”.  I have read on the internet that it is also affectionately called gribok “little mushroom”, but have never heard anyone use this term.  Most people in Australia call this drink kombucha. 

Kombucha is sweet tea that has been fermented using SCOBY.  If you make kombucha at home it is cheap and surprisingly simple to do.  Many people flavour it with various things, while some of these are nice I prefer to drink it as is without flavouring.  

SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.  Various studies have been done to count the number of species present in the scoby, while these numbers range dramatically depending on the scoby tested (and keeping in mind that each scoby will gain and/or lose species as time passes), kombucha often contains around 200 species with 20 bacteria and 16 yeast being the most dominant. 

People often like to think that symbiosis means all the organisms working together in balanced harmony to benefit each other.  The truth is far less romantic.  Symbiosis only means different organisms living together for a period of time, symbiosis does not have to be mutually beneficial, or even beneficial at all.  

In kombucha, all the organisms are competing for survival, some of them benefit from this arrangement, others less so, some even entrap and almost 'farm' others.  These organisms competing for survival make the environment too harsh for non-beneficial organisms, while adding health benefits to the drink.  It is a fascinating subject that is poorly researched, and no two scoby's are exactly the same.  

kombucha jellyfish

For some inexplicable reason there is a growing number of people who like to argue (looking at you Reddit) over what exactly is the 'SCOBY' in kombucha.  It seems like semantics to me.  They will also aggressively demand that scoby is written all in capitals because it is an acronym, they are correct on that point, but I find it harder to read when all in capitals so tend to use lower case. 

Kombucha pellicle

When making kombucha at home it often has a pellicle.  The pellicle is a flat thing that looks a bit like a pancake, or a jellyfish, (or a placenta).  Some people refer to the pellicle as the scoby, while others aggressively attack them for using this term as it is not strictly accurate.  

The pellicle is made of cellulose that is built by bacteria.  The scoby lives in and on and under the pellicle, you could not separate them if you tried.  The pellicle helps to protect the scoby, and helps the scoby survive if conditions are not ideal.  Kombucha pellicles have been tested in the international space station to see how it protects against radiation etc - it is a fascinating subject.  We don't fully understand how the pellicle works, or exactly what it does, but we know it has a role for the microorganisms interacting with each other.  While the pellicle is not the scoby, I don't see much harm in calling the pellicle the scoby, to me it seems like semantics.  

While certainly not ideal, it is possible to brew kombucha by simply adding the pellicle to sweetened tea.  This is possible, and I have done it, but things could go wrong.  The main problem is the liquid will generally not be acidic enough to prevent other microorganisms from growing.  Another issue is most of the scoby are in/on the pellicle rather than mixed through the liquid.  If starting kombucha with only using the pellicle, by the time enough of the scoby are in the liquid and the pH is low enough there are also many other microorganisms who have started to grow.  For this reason you should always include at least some starter tea when brewing kombucha.  Most people add about 10% starter to 90% sweet tea but I include a lot more.  You could only use the pellicle and add something acidic to lower the pH, but it is easier and better to just include some starter tea.  

Kombucha

Kombucha starter tea

Some people refer to the kombucha liquid that you drink as the SCOBY.  Again, this is not technically true.  The liquid is tea and waste products after it has been partly digested by bacteria and yeast (it sounds gross, but it is good for you).  The scoby lives in this liquid, and feeds off this liquid, and you could not separate them if you tried.  While the liquid is also not the scoby, I don't see any harm in people referring to the liquid as the scoby, again it seems like semantics.  

It is possible to brew kombucha by simply adding some starter liquid to sweet tea.  I am told the finished kombucha brew tastes different than when the pellicle is also added.  

Fermenting kombucha using only the liquid and no pellicle works well enough because this liquid is too acidic for many harmful microorganisms to thrive, the scoby are mixed through the liquid, and the scoby can multiply quickly and make the environment too harsh for other microorganisms to get a foothold.  

kombucha jellyfish in a jar

For those who disagree with me that the pellicle acts as biofilm and can be used effectively as an inoculum, I thought I would include a link to a paper on this topic and quote some relevant parts.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8371556/#:~:text=Kombucha%20pellicles%20are%20often%20used,part%20of%20the%20kombucha%20consortia.

The below talks about what the pellicle is, the different layers, and the role of entrapped yeasts: 

The kombucha biofilm presents similarities to cellulosic pellicles grown by pure acetic acid bacteria (AAB) in sugared black tea but differs by the presence of yeast, which are involved from the early steps of biofilm formation. Based on observations, the formation model consists in an initial trapping and aggregation of yeasts (possibly in pseudo-mycelium form) in bacterial cellulose. With accumulation of cellulose and cells, a consistent layered pellicle is formed and, from then on, grows in thickness. The top layer at the interface with air is made of parallel cellulose fibrils and hosts yeasts and bacteria, while the bottom surface at the interface with liquid is made of cellulose network colonized by bacteria and where biomass accumulates. Finally, a middle layer located under the top cellulosic layer is filled with biomass and viable bacterial cells that are suspected to be the active agents of pellicle growth. This region is thought to play a nutritional function for bacteria by taking advantage of entrapped yeast metabolism and autolysis, thus revealing an aspect of the microbial interactions in kombucha. This study indicates that the yeast–AAB interactions in kombucha act on the structure and building of the pellicle, which could, in turn, enhance other types of interactions, including the metabolic interplay necessary for optimal kombucha production.

Some people brew kombucha without ever using a pellicle, and throw away every pellicle they see.  While this seems to work for them, for a beginner I would not recommend it.  Brewing kombucha using both starter tea as well as the pellicle is very simple, and it has been demonstrated to produce a healthy result.  Using both pellicle and starter tea is the traditional way to make kombucha, and it is really hard for anything undesirable to start growing.  

For someone who is just starting out brewing kombucha, it is easiest to use both pellicle and starter tea.  The pellicle and the starter liquid both contain live SCOBY, and including both when brewing kombucha is simple and gives a beginner no real way to fail.  Including both the pellicle and the starter tea ensures you will have the maximum diversity of microorganisms, it will have the maximum number of beneficial microbes, and it gives the best chance that they will be interacting in ways you want them to.  

Once you have done a few kombucha brews and have a feel for how things should progress, as well as what looks normal, feel free to discard the pellicle and only brew using the liquid (which is simple), or to only use the pellicle (but only if you are very confident you know what you are doing).  When you are still learning, however, I strongly suggest using both the liquid and the pellicle.  

If you are new to kombucha, and are buying scoby to get started, don't just buy a pellicle.  Make sure you get pellicle and some of the starter liquid.  

Kombucha

Kombucha continuous brew 

There are plenty of kombucha recipes on the internet.  They all work because it is hard to go wrong brewing kombucha when you use both pellicle and starter liquid.  

I tend to do continuous brew rather than messing around with batches and bottling and using fridge space.  Continuous brew works for me, it never goes wrong, and it takes very little time and effort.  

Other people prefer batch brewing.  This works for them, and they are happy with the result.

They are both good methods, they both work well, it is just personal preference.  

Continuous brew чайный гриб

You can see in the photo above I have a large jar that has a tap.  It is simple, and can never fail unless the jar gets smashed or the tap falls out.  

I don't put the lid on the jar as the scoby needs some air.  I tend to keep a cloth on top of the jar, this keeps out insects and dust.  I used to hold the cloth on with a rubber band, but stopped bothering with that a few years ago and it still does the trick.  

This blog post is getting a little long.  Rather than make this post even longer, I wrote another blog post with the kombucha recipe I use.