I’m a lazy culturer. I killed my last kombucha mother, I neglected it, and it molded in the bottom of a mostly-empty jar of kombucha on my counter (yum). Still, I craved the probiotics and sweet-sour taste of the drink, so occasionally I bought GT’s brand from Safeway.
Typically, I don’t advocate buying store kombucha because it has less probiotic benefits and costs way way more than homemade, but as a treat it’s not a bad choice.
Since I killed my SCOBY, I decided to try letting about half a cup of kombucha sit as Food Renegade posted about 2 years ago, just in the bottom of the bottle, for a week in the cupboard covered with a paper towel held on with a hair tie. I wasn’t lying when I said I was a lazy culturer.
If it didn’t work, I would bite the bullet and purchase a starter SCOBY, but I was willing to take my chances first.
Well, it did work! Here is what I did to make my Kombucha SCOBY from store kombucha.
How to make a Kombucha SCOBY from Store Bought Kombucha
1. Choose kombucha without chia, but with quite a few culture-y strands in it, indicating it has quite a bit of live culture in it.
2. Pour most of the kombucha off, and enjoy :) Leave about 3 inches of kombucha in the bottom of the jar.
3. Cover with a paper towel or other clean cloth, and secure with a rubber band.
4. Allow this little bit of kombucha to sit in a cupboard at room temperature, or on the countertop, for 1-2 weeks.
5. Check periodically for a thick layer on the top, that’s the mother (mother is another name for the SCOBY).
6. Start a batch of kombucha using both the liquid and thee new mother from your bottle!
Didn’t get a SCOBY? No worries! You can order one and it’ll be shipped fresh (not dehydrated) and ready to use!
FAQ about making a DIY Kombucha Starter:
Do you have to use sugar?
A: No! This is a common missconception, I have used raw honey to make kombucha for years.
Does this DIY SCOBY work for continuous brew?
A: Yes! This SCOBY will work for any kombucha recipe.
How is a kombucha mother different from a SCOBY or mushroom?
A: They’re all the same! Those (mother, mushroom, SCOBY) are all different names for the thick symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast that ferments sweet tea into the probiotic drink kombucha.
How do I get my kombucha to be fizzy like the one from the store?
A: You just need to add another source of sugar (I use fruit) and then culture your homemade kombucha in an air-tight container to build up the fizz. I explain here. This is called the Second Ferment.
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I love this post. I currently have a continuous brew kombucha setup that has been sitting for months! I have been too scared to look and see what it’s doing. I am sure it is moldy and gross. I made kombucha two or three times after I got the setup and never liked it as much as I like store bought. I was disappointed after my mile-high expectations. I hope to try again soon, and this post is a good nudge in that direction. I am so glad to know I am not the only one to let my kombucha rot on the counter! Thank you. :)
I love homemade, it’s less sweet than store bought though, did you try diluting with juice?
Depending on your home’s conditions, temperature, etc., it could be fine to use as kombucha vinegar, amazing &quick starter tea or just feed it more if the level isnt too high and its free of mold. I thought mine was for sure doomed, but I just made a delicious batch of pineapple flavored liquid happiness/gold and it fizzed up and was ready to drink in about 8-10 days (second ferment included!) Hope you’re as lucky as we were :D
I made my own scoby, too. Of course some websites will tell you that homemade scobys will never be strong enough to actually get a brew going, but I now have scobys coming out of my ears, and they are all thick and fabulous! I am currently in the process of trying to get my ACV “mother” strong enough so I can make/brew my own ACV as well.
Hi,
Re: ACV mother. At risk of sounding foolish, why do you need to have an ACV mother to get ACV?
I have made my own ACV by juicing fresh apples, straining the juice just like making apple cider (I only make soft cider) but rather than adding anything else to get the cider process going, I put the juice aside in a jar, covered with cheesecloth. Every so often I stir the juice with a wooden spoon to further oxygenate it and over time I have very good ACV. Like with other ferments, time to full strength ACV will vary mainly depending on temperature.
I had the exact same experience. Fell out of the habit of changing my poor scoby’s habitat. Nasty white and black mold. :( Glad to see I can make a new mommy when I’m ready to get back into it! THANKS for this post. :D
Hi Cara,
I am such a huge fan of making things myself so I did this and it seemingly worked fine for several months, but I eventually started to have skin reactions to my precious kombucha. I thought maybe it was the histamines so I laid off for a while but noticed I didn’t react to other fermented foods. Then I saw this:
http://www.kombuchakamp.com/2011/10/growing-a-kombucha-culture-pitfalls-and-problems-since-the-reformulation.html
I decided to experiment with this so I threw out my homemade SCOBY and started over with a culture I bought from the author of the above link and haven’t had problems since I switched about a year a go. I am SO relieved that I can enjoy my kombucha now, but bummed that my do-it -yourself attitude backfired this time. I would think that a SCOBY could still be made from homemade kombucha if a friend didn’t have extra SCOBYs but had some kombucha to spare, but sadly I wouldn’t recommend making them from storebought SCOBYs.
Hannah from Kombucha Kamp is awesome! No doubt hers are more reliable than this method, some people might like the experiment though :)
Love this, Cara! I made my own SCOBY too from a bottle of raw GT’s and it’s been producing baby after baby (as well as batch after batch of delicious healthy Kombucha) for years now. Thanks for sharing! Love all the wisdom and inspiration you share here. Blessings, Kelly :)
I’ve just recently tried kombucha and really like GT’s (it’s the only one I’ve ever had), but don’t like the price. I’ve been thinking about trying this on my own. Question…is the bottom right picture above a picture of your scoby? It looks almost like a perfect rectangle. Thanks!!!
It’s a circle, the same diameter as the bottle :)
Okay newbbie to the Komhucha world and I got a question. I buy a starter kit from health foods store make the tea add the kit and I get a beautiful batch but as I start another brew add cup of kombucha let sweet tea get room temp add scoby and within a week my second batch I get mold. I am adding sugars, letting tea come to room temp, adding scoby, using a sterilized glass container, covering with flour sack secured with rubber band, setting it in same location as first starter batch. What in the heavens am I doing wrong? Ps: I have tried this three times all with second batch growing mold and first batch doing beautifully.
How and where do I store the SCOBY? I’m very much a beginner with fermenting!
You can store it at room temp in a cup of the kombucha, or I just keep it going continuously.
I’m confused. If one grows a SCOBY from a retail drink (like GTs) the drink has been refrigerated before I bought it. But the recipe page is adamant that you NEVER refrigerate a SCOBY. HELP!
Yes, I tend to bend the rules with culturing. :)
Bought GT and followed the procedure. I see a scoby at the top of the liquid. Went to see the recipe for making the KT and requires a cup of the liquid. I only have 1/3 of a cup. How do I scale down the recipe so I am able to do the KT with the amount of starter liquid I have? Any suggestion of what I can do?
I’d just use the 1/3 that you have, I started with about that much and it worked well :) Fermentation is more of an art than a science in my experience :)
Thank you for this I didn’t think it would work, but I now have 5 scobies. I made my first batch which took 4 weeks to make but it was worth it delicious!!!!!!!