Brewing Kombucha
What you will need:
1 SCOBY culture (how to grow)
6 oolong or black tea bags
1 gallon glass jar
1 cup sugar
1 glass kombucha tea (store bought or liquid from growing scoby 12-16oz.)
Start by boiling some water in a pot for making the tea, I usually do about 32 oz. but this does not have to be an exact amount. After the water is boiling for 5 min or so, turn off the heat and add the 6 tea bags. Give the tea a normal steeping time of say 5-15 min depending on preference. Then remove the tea bags and add your 1 cup of sugar. Its important to note that the tea should still be hot enough to dissolve all the sugar, this is usually easy since water holds its temperature for a long time.
Now we have a super sweet tea mixture that we can pour into our gallon jar. Its ok if the tea is still hot, just be sure that the sugar is fully dissolved. Then add water to fill the gallon jar to about 2/3 full. If you use cold water, the cooling effect is better and this prevents having to wait longer for the next step.
Once the 2/3 full mixture in your jar is room temperature or colder, you can pour in the store bought kombucha tea, then add the SCOBY. If you do this while the tea is too hot, it will hurt the culture and most say kill it (though I wonder who has really tried).
Top off the jar leaving about 3/4 an inch space between the liquid level and the top. This will be enough room for the new culture to grow, the surface are of the liquid will also be the size of your new SCOBY that will grow.
Cover the jar with cheese cloth or a towel so the brew can breathe, and so we keep any unwanted bugs from getting to that kombucha food.
Then place the whole jar in a dry dark place like a cupboard or closet where it can be undisturbed. Wait about 14 days and then you will have your beautiful batch!