First Try at Making Kombucha - Kit From The Kombucha Shop 

Main difference between men and women is that when a woman says, "Smell this," it usually smells nice.

Star Trek: Next Generation reference #1 "Will".. i got it lol 😁

kombucha brewer here, just as information for viewers, there's alot of misunderstanding about kombucha. These kits are nice, but over kill and slightly taking advantage of people's ignorance. Kombucha is SCOBY. So you can start a new batch using any live/raw bottle of kombucha. The pancake thing, is called a pellicle. And it is a byproduct of fermentation just like CO2 is. There is no reason to have one, much less reason to buy one. Its the "poop" of the bacteria. For newbies reading this, please don't go spend money on a pellicle, all you need is the liquid. Further, you never need to buy anything more than once. You start a new batch by reserving some liquid and using it to inoculate fresh tea. With a healthy culture a new pellicle should form every time. Each time it forms you can just throw it away. There is no reason to collect bacteria poop in jar and call it something fancy like "SCOBY hotel". There's alot of videos out there where they don't really understand what's going on, and as a result these misunderstanding just get perpetuated and people end up doing weird things they dont really need to do. Check out r/kombucha on reddit to find out more!

I used to have fish tanks with those temperature strips. It's like a mood ring in a strip.

i love the Electric boiling lava lamp of water!

Love seeing a couple with a healthy relationship!

Was waiting for this video. I got into kombucha because my wife thrust a jar into my hand and said “A friend gave me this. Make me some kombucha.” I started mine in a wide mouth with a lid and airlock. I’m not sure if that’s advised but 9 days later it was right where I wanted it. Pulled out two cups of starter tea with my SCOBY and put it to the side. I degassed it because I was worried that it had too much co2. Probably didn’t need to. Added Knudsens Tart Cherry juice (1 cup) and Delallo Lime juice (1/2 cup). Bottled and conditioned for two days then put them in the fridge. First impressions is that I want more carbonation and the combo of the acetic acid from the tea, tart cherry and lime may have pushed the acidity too much over the line. Also I may have extracted too much tannins from the tea when I brewed it. That being said, I am on my last bottle so it’s drinkable. Next session is gonna be Strawberry Lemonade Booch I think. Also I named my SCOBY Jelly Furtado

Welcome back TRBOS! For the lettering on a fermentor, a Cricut could create whatever you would want.

I'm very happy you finally got into Kombucha. It's a great health drink, and the commercially products sold in stores just don't compare to home made. I mix mine with dark fruit juice and Moonshine for a fabulous cocktail.

We will be doing our first this weekend. My oldest (15yo) son wanted to brew his own, so that's one thing he's get'n. The starter kit. Cool you guys just posted this.

Make a cardstock stencil and use a good outdoor spray paint to make the table on the side of the fermenters. Then a good robust clear coat over the painted areas and now all your fermenters have a table on them. It really is a great idea and I’ll probably also do it now too.

Oh my gosh, I'm famous! Thanks for the kudos! My secondary doesn't get carbonated until about day 5. I stopped using fruit after having several bottles burst on me. Always good quality juice...unless I'm making ginger lemon kombucha. It's the only exception. I'm making a few batches of ginger lemon soon, now that I have all these lemons from the Lemon Mead. I grew my original scoby after my kombucha mentor told me how to do it. That was in 2016. I can't remember exactly how long it took, maybe 2 months, not sure now. You two are so much fun, and I am deeply grateful for you teaching me how to make natural mead. Thank you Derica, thank you Brian!

Glad to see you guys getting into 'bucha. It was my gateway into brewing& a very forgiving process. The lid is handy if you want to hibernate your scoby for a while between brews (or store excess scobies), just leave it in a sealed jar in a bit of starter tea. I tend to add the flavour into each bottle, it means I have pour into a glass through a sieve but it allows me to try a variety of flavours each batch. For me Ginger, hibiscus, star anise are each winners and the best surprise combo was orange & basil when I let the kids get in on the experimenting, lavender - too much like soap.

Brian is NOT rude; not even a little rude. You two are a relationship goal. (You guys are like my husband and me and that makes me happy.)

The pipette should either be named the micro-baster and given its own animation, or it should be thrown away and never spoken of again.

No shame in starting with a kit. That's how I got into kombucha brewing.

You should TOTALLY get your jars custom printed with your logo!

Oh, a little update on my chocolate cherry vanilla mead. My brother and his girlfriend stopped by. He was drinking a Coor's Light, the horse whiz of beer. So I said I had something one glass could do him in. He boldly stated, "We'll see about that.". So I poured a wine glass full of it. He drank it. He whispered something to his girlfriend, and she said, "Already? You only had one glass." He wound up taking a little nap after that. Unrelated, I know. But humorous.

I've been making Kombucha for a year or so now - two things for me to tell you are that Green tea (in my opinion) is a much nicer taste than black tea. I also let the fully quantity of water required steep until the tea has got to room temperature. Also, once your scoby is established and have a new one that has developed well, do try Koffucha (Kombucha made with coffee instead of tea) - it can range from being something like a non-alcoholic porter (Guinness!!) to a chocolatey post dinner drink!

Lol lost me at no alcohol....but still watching

I'm on my 5th batch of kombucha using this kit. I just discarded the original scoby for my own grown now. I'm doing different flavors on second fermentation. Ginger lemon, blueberry, strawberry and others. My wife and almost 11 year old son (next weekend) hate it but my 5 year old daughter and I love it. This is an amazing kit and has worked out fantastically.

I've watched this a couple times now as I'm about to brew some booch and wanted double check that I'm ordering everything I need. Its only now that I noticed Dericha's splendiferous Monty Python shirt. By far my favorite and most quoted movie which, once again, only makes like you even more...lol. Thanks for the videos on everything y'all brew.

Thank you for making this video! I just received this Kombucha kit for my birthday and can't wait to start!

I used to Love making kombucha! Now I buy the half gallon jugs from the store and then I can use them for mead or wine 😝

I'm a pickle guy, dry sour kombucha is where I like it. Great vid as usual guys!

"Eww you kissed" - my two year old lol

Thank you Beverly!! I’m glad she shared her home brew and made this possible. I’ve tried several types of kombucha and enjoyed most of them. I’m definitely making some myself. Thanks for making this tutorial. You always make intimidating things seem simple. I’m looking forward to seeing you do homemade sodas as well. Your content is great. Keep it up!

@21:06 Derikca mentioned their relationship. I love their interactions. I can see the respect and care that Brian has for his wife. My husband is the same way. Even to the point of making sure I'm on the inside of the sidewalk when walking down the street. It's called chivalry and it ain't dead💖

Hahahaha! Brian! You are so full of it! Thanks for sharing. I love your videos!

Mind blown. Been learning to brew mead and kombucha and sub'd here for mead... what a treat! Would love some more kombucha videos!

I'll be honest, I got a bit of a bad first impression of kombucha because the first time I ever heard of it was when my stepdad showed me what he was fermenting on the fridge. He swirled it around to show me the huge fungus thing that formed on the top, and it wasn't exactly making my brain shout "you should drink that". I didn't try his homemade stuff, but eventually tried about 3 kinds of store bought, which I did not like at all. I guess if kombucha deserves one more shot, I should make it myself =D EDIT: Derica that shirt is the greatest article of clothing I have ever seen.

Thanks Derica & Brian for taking the time for this❤ It’s become my past time at night to just chuck your videos on. Doesn’t matter if I already think I know the particular knowledge you are covering in a video. Now I feel like I need your take on it all. Plus, very entertaining. ❤❤❤❤❤

Black bucket : BLA-BOS Blue bucket : BLU-BOS

You guys are funny:-)! Another great video. Thank you for the links in order to purchase items.

Loved the video. I've always wanted to make my own kombucha but didn't know how to do it thanks to this video I now know what to do to make kombucha.

You could etch it on your jars yourself! It’s super easy.

Great Video, very comprehensive Kombucha guide. In regard to oxidation of the brew the answer is in the SCOBY: as a Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast it performs both aerobic (acetic acid bacteria) and anaerobic (yeast) fermentation (Sugar -> EtOH -> Vinegar). As vinegar is an aerobic reaction (CH3CH2OH [ethanol] + O2 → CH3COOH [acetic acid] + H2O) adding oxygen to the brew will encourage any trace EtOH to convert. Secondary fermentation will drive up the EtOH concentration a bit, but its not anything to worry about (unless you are limited by some sort of obligation). one other note: saving the 8oz of kombucha with the SCOBY not only protects the SCOBY during storage but it also works to acidify the next batch of brew. The 2 main problems with Kombucha are fruit flies (improper cover) and Mold (pH too high). Fruit flies will flock to the fermenter when the weather warms up so make sure you have a good seal on it, and so long as you keep the pH below 5 you wont grow any other types of bacteria (spoilage organisms and/or pathogens) or mold. Enjoy the hobby, just make sure any juice you add are not loaded with sulfates/preservatives as they will slow the secondary. I like doing any Cranberry based juice with mine, but have also done Lemon Ginger which was really tasty. As I am sure others have said you can use any number of teas so I'm guessing you are already eagerly awaiting doing a Rooibos Kombucha. :D

Just got my Kombucha and jun kombucha kits from the Amazon delivery guy last night. So this was just priceless. 😆

Fun fact: any unpasteurized kombucha that's unflavored (or minimally flavored) can act as a starter! Also it was super cute that the instructions suggested scooting around the pellicle like it's "alive". You could pull that booger out and the culture would be just fine. The bacterial / yeast colony is dispersed through the entire tea at that point, the pellicle is just kind of a spongey home for it.

Actually you just need the starter and the scoby will eventually grow, but having a scoby speeds up the process a little bit. What this means is that instead of buying a kit online or even just buying a scoby online you could just buy some raw plain kombucha from the grocery store for a lot cheaper and it will only increase the time to complete the batch from about 1-3 days. Also, a quick note for those watching at home, although a really tightly woven cheesecloth or one folded over several times can work as a cover, the type of cheesecloth purchased at a grocery store is usually too porous, which can allow fruit flies into your brew, thus contaminating it. An old t-shirt or those large, cup style coffee filters is generally recommended as neither dust nor flies can get through it.

When I make mine I use around 10 little packs of PG Tips Black Tea, Pyramid Tea Bags, 240-Count from amazon

Glad to see y'all try it out, I've thought about it before, just dunno if I'd keep up with it with the scoby and all.

Awesome video guys! I need to give this a go

I used to make kombucha from a variety of teas. One thing I noticed was that if you made kombucha from a dark oolong such as wuyi oolong, the kombucha ends up tasting exactly like grape soda. It was the only booch my husband liked and I loved my weird grape soda. Wuyi oolong is the most available type of oolong to find. Even bigelow has it.

I happen to love kombucha. My favorite is a lemon, ginger, cayenne. Thoroughly enjoying your channel! 👏

I got the same kit! Albeit mine was the basic kit; I didn't feel like spending an extra $20 for tea, sugar, and a pH meter. I already have those. I used Yorkshire tea (a English breakfast blend). In the 2nd ferment stage I flavored one bottle with elder flower syrup (from Ikea), another with ginger paste, one with both, and one control. I lost my lid!

@35:12 i like the TRBOS thing derica does. its unique and part of your schtick. it set's you apart.

Vinegar can go bad. I read about it way back when and don't recall exactly. Alcohol- vinegar-then a 3rd- a 4th- water. With exposure and enough time alcohol, will turn into water.

3:20 I like to smell things too! My brothers used to make fun of me when I was a kid. Now I realize it's a sign of higher intelligence 😉

I'm glad that you guys addressed the "rudeness" of Brian towards Derica. LOL. When I first started watching you guys last year I was at first turned off by what came across as Brian being macho and walking all over Derica. Now that I've been watching you guys regularly for over a year, I've totally picked up that there's no malice. I can see that you two have a great, healthy relationship and there's fun jabbing going in both directions. Keep it up, I love watching your videos!!

Hi I'm a very new viewer. I like how you both show a very healthy relationship. It gives me hope for a future with my current girlfriend. I think I'll try brewing after my semester is finished.

Thank you for another great video!

Hello Derica & Brian. Love ur content as always! I just had an idea about Trbos problem, maybe if you change the actual clip of Trbos to something more like the 71 BEAST It wont bother anyone.. Can be just the red bucket flyng around with Trbos on the background without actually cuting the clip ( that in personal opinion it what bothers me a little ) Dont get me wrong, is just a sugestion :)

Muchas gracias!! Compre mi kit y me sirvió de mucho el video que realizaron, gracias!! Saludos desde Costa Rica .😊

Been making Kombucha for a few years now. It cost me 70 cents a bottle rather than 4 to 5 bucks store bought. Made my own Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast by brewing a gallon of black tea(15 tea bags and 1&1/8th cup of sugar with spring water and a non-flavored bottle of store bought Kombucha). I save my SCOBY's in gallon pickle jars in the same tea mix and renew every few months. The old SCOBY's, I till into my tomato garden soil and the plants thrive and don't die out from early or late blight up here in North Carolina. In Florida you have to grow and till in French dwarf marigolds to kill off the root knot nematodes.

I'm in real time here. The newer scoby gets so much more horrifying, Brian. And I am drinking bourbon while I watch this.

I make kombucha regularly using black tea, raw sugar and scoby. Second fermentation using berry juice. I leave the second fermentation in the fermenter for 3 days, then bottle. Then. Leave for 3 days before placing in fridge. This makes a brew that is not overly carbonated.

I liked the date joke 😆

You guys are really great, thank you...🇻🇺

Tried Kombucha (homemade) in the past and it tasted like vinegar... and smelled like it too. Maybe it wasn’t 100% okay. You’ve intrigued me. If I can clear enough space in my kitchen I’ll give it a go. Thank you!

Honestly I do not stir it up I brew it in a fermenter with a tap on the bottom(a drink dispenser if you will) I just pick off the scobies that are surplus of the top, maybe store them in a jar in the fridge with some combucha And use the tap to fill bottles bypassing the , well… lees i guess, at the bottom It does a perfect second ferment in the bottle without stirring it up without having floaties in it (i have a thing against floating objects in my drinks,😅) With a tapped fermenter you also negate the issue of having to remove or move the scobies every time you want to sample etc I love it when i can make things simpler ;) Btw , i agree on the green tea sentiment You can train a scobie to other stuff by replacing the original tea with green a cup at a time (I even tried with chucking a black tea scobie into green tea with honey It just took longer before it functioned like it should On the sugar, i never added sugar when bottling, just some juice or someth and not even much(i don’t think in ever got to a quarter bottle with additions Id you have a good tasting storebought “raw” combucha You can use it to make new combucha , just make the tea mixture (tea/sugar) And add the combucha (2/3 to 3/4 cup ) and have it do its thing And now my adhd rambling self is going to stop editing and adding to this post 😂

For custom printing get a mini sand blaster. Tape out line with electric tape. Etch it yourself. It's cheap and fun and you did it yourself so you will appreciate it more. If you have access to a vinyl stencil cutter you can do some really amazing stuff.

Made my first kombucha using this kit not too long ago. Added a mango/orange puree during bottling, was really happy with the results. Can't wait to see what you guys do with it!

I must be behind the times because i had never heard of Kombucha until I started watching this video. Lol

I started my fermentation journey with kombucha. Made mine sweet and had a slight bite to it. Used a few wild teas sassafras was my favorite 😁👍💯

I am going to set out this whole kombucha craze. Anything that has a slimy jelly fish placenta when you have done it right, just has too much potential of going wrong. How would I know if my Scooby goes homicidal or something? Nope, not taking the chance.

Make a stencil and a glass etching kit, see what happens.

Hi guys, great show! Ran into an issue with my latest batch of cranberry wine. Started 1 gal on 2/1 at 1.115 airlock stopped on 2/10. Checked on 2/12, 1.104 I used Lalvin 71B (full pouch) Could the yeast be bad? Last batch of cranberry was very slow but continued to vent for 6 weeks. Can I add more yeast? Thoughts?

The time difference is similar to mead. The longer you brew the tea, the more flavor of the tea is extracted as well as tannins which lead to more flavor and complex nutrients for the scoby to munch on leading to a more nutritious and richer tasting kombucha.

As a long time viewer I personally love the turbos jazz hands, I sadly never saw this video due to distractions in life

Personally, "Riker" would've been a great brew name. Also, I got your 2020 won joke... 😉 I also love Derica's shirt in the 6 day video.

Homemade kambucha is much better than store bought less expensive too.

I absolutely love in the second fermentation adding grape juice. plz try. Add the extra (you will have extras) scobys to your compost or give it to chickens. You two are perfect the way you are. DO NOT CHANGE.

The red bucket of sanitization is Growing on me. Lol Just as long as it not to high pitch, cause that hurts 😊 found you guys 2 weeks ago and loving what you produce!

I add a small amount of fruit (or ginger and lemon) and a touch of honey and perfect second fermentation and no exploding bottles.

Timing for the length of time of brewing will depend on the air temperature. I do it for 14 days and the jar is on my heating boiler to get a steady temperature. I am in the UK . I just go by taste and don’t bother with test strips. I have brewed 81 times .

I highly suggest you guys try the Naked brand of juice called Mighty Mango (they carry it in Publix). It tastes wonderful when blended with a nicely strong fermented bootch. I really love how you guys are already hyper aware of bottle bombs and know what to expect!! LOL (you assumptions are 100% correct from my point of view). I enjoyed using Apple juice and just tart cherry, and as long as you end up creating a super strong starter liquid, certainly experiment with different black teas ( I enjoy Assam and Lapsang Souchong). Fermentation is a beautiful thang!!! Loved the video! Keep 'em coming :) ✌️🐝🐝🐝

1:31 is literally me while making cider from your video

The starter bag looks like how I would imagine a raw ostrich egg in a bag would look

TRBOS is BACK!🙌🏽😎

I also share my home with a sniffer. Which has been to her detriment on several occasions. The lid is your friend when moving the fermenter around, especially when you fill it to the point where it's got a convex meniscus like that. I'm going to start with kombucha soon for the Mrs. I plan to start pulling tasters over several days to see where we prefer it. From what I know about kombucha though is that you can't really say "I like a 6 day kombucha" because the same ingredients can swing wildly from brew to brew because of environmental factors. But at least we'll have an idea of the flavor evolution.

After you brew you Kombucha, you can add some yeast and a bit more sugar+fuity flavors etc and make a "hard kombucha." Most folks don't make it too hard so they're not killing off the probiotics - like 5 to 7% ABV ish. I tried it not too long ago. It's not bad.

The plastic lid is to keep out spiders and other crap in between batches if you are storing! They only sent it because it come with the jar when they bought it.

i just see a couple who love each other. its pretty awesome.

hey guys. Love your videos. Just a heads up. Depending on what ingredients you add, you may need to burp your Kombucha if you leave them outside the refrigerator. Otherwise it could extremely carbonate! Like when you shake a bottle of champagne.

when we brew kombucha we normally have to wait like 2 hours to wait for it to cool down, but we use way more sugar (we like our kombucha strong) (about 2 cups per galon of water) something that we learned : don't let your scoby near the top of your mesh, it is close enough for flies to lie some eggs and the scoby to catch them our golden rule to know our first fermentation is ready: wait until the new scoby is fully developed and about half inch thick once you remove the scoby be sure to stir your kombucha to balance all the sugars and vinegars in the brew something amazing about kombucha is that it boost any flavor you add on secondary fermentation, se we would use about only 2 tablespoons per quart for flavoring like: hibiscus tea, mashed raspberries (our personal favorite) or just a few zest of orange, about 5 whole blueberries, 10 pomegranate grains i think this measures might give you a general idea. for secondary fermentation we would only wait up to one week before putting them in the fridge before opening them we would normally check the pressure every day because it gets pressurized very fast ! so you would want to put it in the fridge to relax all that pressure before opening a bottle well, that's how much we have learned so far Happy brews !!!

I just make the tea the day before, just like for iced tea. I leave the tea bags in till the next day. Strong and sweet, more sweet then for drinking, this also gets the PH down. For a 1 gal batch I boil 1/2.

I should try this. And the sit around all day.

after making kombucha weekly over a year, you will be removing them regularly and storing them in a separate container to provide room in your brewing vessel. the "scoby hotel"(un-used scobys) will get very vinegary which you will periodically add a bit of fresh tea for "feeding", and the vinegar from this can be used in place of apple cider vinegar, even salad dressings!. I make a ginger,hibiscus, spearment flavored syrup to back-sweeten when ready( which for active scobys is 7 days here). BTW, kombucha was also my gateway to wines and meads.

Not related to Kombucha, but how do you feel about a year plus in primary? I just recently bottled a mead made with spicy honey that sat in the primary fermenter for 14 months and it is delicious.

I've been vaguely tempted to get into kombucha for a long time and you guys sold me on it with the followup to this video. I went for the deluxe version of the kit you listed at the bottom. I am wondering, from your experience so far, is 6 enough bottles to drink a bottle a day, or am I going to need more like 12 so I can have some at room temp getting carbonated and some ready to drink in the fridge?

you dont need a scoby to start just cover your jar with a paper towel or cheese cloth to keep bugs out. instead of buying a kit you can just get any store bought kombucha and use that as a starter. you can also try and make jun its a honey version of kombucha.

Great video guys..

If you make another batch immediately you don't need to clean it, I use about half the amount of kambucha to bottle and add more (cooled) tea to the jar. You can store the finished product in the refrigerator for a long time (months) just like aging

You could use an at-home acid etching kit to etch the carboys with the design.

You made me laugh with this small pipette pouring for tasting ;)

I make kombucha using the SCOBY which forms when I make homemade vinegar. The SCOBY from the blackberry vinegar made for a really pleasant slightly blackberry flavor, my favorite! The apple cider vinegar SCOBY produces a slightly apple flavored drink. I've been hesitant to try using the SCOBY from the walnut vinegar for this however; it just sounds too strange, though the vinegar itself is fine.

BBOS - Black Bucket of Sanitization UBOS - blUe Bucket of Sanitization. MTG lettering for the win.

Would you do it for a Scoby snack? No. No i will not.

PBOS here... Pink bucket... Don't judge, wife bought it at Tractor Supply 😛