Bottling Your Kombucha Brew

I leave Booch to brew for ten days, if you prefer a weaker drink seven days might suit you better. On the tenth day when it's time to bottle the brew, you will need to prepare a new tea brew as per the instructions on starting your brew: put your teabags and sugar in a vessel with the boiling water, stir and leave to steep until cool. This will be your new brew once you've bottled the old one.

When the tea is cool, remove the teabags and you are ready to bottle. 

You will need:

• some empty bottles with air-tight fitting lids
• a plate (to put your Booch on while you transfer the brew) 
• a funnel 

Make sure everything is sterile.

1. Get your Booch. You can see mine (above) has created a whole other mother Booch (floating underneath) during just ten days of brewing. You can also see the original Booch has grown to fill the circumference of the vessel, forming an air-tight seal on the brew below. The brew will be already somewhat carbonated (i.e. fizzy) due to the airtight seal. If your Booch has developed bubbles on top, don't worry, that's just the CO2 gasses trying to escape. It's all good.

2. Remove Booch from vessel. Put the Booch (or Booches if yours have grown more than one) onto the clean plate while you work. Make sure no grubby things get on them while they are exposed sitting on the plate. If you have a mother Booch that has formed a baby Booch underneath during the brewing process, you can either leave it attached to the mother if it's still small, or ever so gently separate them (you will need to tear them apart gently). You should only have one mother Booch per brew as if you have more you can get a too-strong brew which can have adverse side affects for your health. However a baby Booch can be ok if it is still small, you may need to shorten your brew time to less than 7 days so the brew is not too strong. You can either give the extra Booches away to friends or use them to start new brews. If you have extra Booches you don't need and no-one wants to take them, you can bury them in the garden. Here is a great link for info on using your Booches for balancing your pH levels in the garden.

3. Save one cup of the liquid for your next batch.
If you have two brews going you need to save two cups, one from each brew. Also, if you are going to be giving away any of your baby Booches, you will need to put them in a separate clean jar with around one cup of brew each too, for their new brewing homes. 

4. Funnel the brew into bottles. Pour slowly. You may notice a lot of sediment. You can drain that off if you prefer. I like to keep mine in the bottles, and I filter it off when pouring after refrigeration.

5. Flavouring. If you want to flavour your brews, this is when you will do it. Don't do it during the brewing process, as some ingredients contain anti-bacterial properties (e.g. ginger) which can kill or damage the Booch mother. I mainly prefer to drink my Kombucha au naturel, but sometimes I experiment. Today just for fun I added some citrus peel which I had in the pantry. This contains sugar, so it will add to the carbonation process. Other flavourings I have tried have been: orange; apple and cinnamon; fennel and pear (delicious); lemon and ginger; lime. Have fun experimenting but be careful, some ingredients can have an explosive effect! There are some great websites with tips and recipes.

6. Carbonation: If you want a very carbonated (bubbly) drink, make sure you limit the amount of air getting to the drink, so fill your bottles right up, and make sure you have an airtight lid. Flavouring ingredients such as fruits can increase carbonation as the Kombucha will continue to feed off of any available sugars during this secondary fermentation process. This page has some really great information on carbonation. Once your brew is bottled, with any optional flavourings added (or not) and the lid is airtight, put your bottles away in a dark place at room temperature for a few days. Give them a couple of days or so, you will need to check on them if you are experimenting with new flavourings just to avoid any accidents (exploding Booch)!

7. Refrigeration. If you don't care about bubbles and want to skip the carbonation process you can refrigerate your Booch right after bottling. There will already be a little carbonation in the brew from the original fermentation.

8. Drink and enjoy!

Don't forget to start your new brews with the Booch, cup of starter brew and tea you prepared. 

Tips: Write on your bottles the dates and ingredients (if any added). Keep a note in your calendar of your brewing and bottling dates so you can remember the next date to harvest your brew and to monitor the progress!