Homebrewing is a massively popular pastime, but while it’s more associated with craft beer and microbrewing, there’s another healthier undercurrent of home brewing running parallel with the basement breweries and experimental flavors. This parallel is home brewed kombucha drink. You may have heard of it, you may not, but there are people who believe kombucha is the future. With an array of health benefits of kombucha prevalent in each batch. While you can buy it in stores, many people opt to make it at home, and if you want to do that properly, you’ll need the best kombucha starter kits, which, luckily for you and the whole family, we’ve selected right here.
Kombucha can contribute to lowered cholesterol, provide a rich source of probiotics, and give you more energy, while also improving your athletic performance. Not bad, hey? So, if you’re sick of spending supermarket premiums for every bottle of that sweet booch, if you’re concerned that you’re makeshift brewing kit isn’t up to the standards required to not make you sick or cause some fermentation disaster, then a kombucha starter kit is certainly for you, so let’s see what’s brewing.
The Best Kombucha Starter Kit
1The Kombucha Shop Deluxe Kombucha Starter Kit
Anyone looking for a more complete kombucha brewing kit should look no further than the Deluxe set from The Kombucha Shop. Unlike the GetKombucha set, it contains everything – and we mean everything – you need to both brew and bottle, and even comes with custom supplies to make the post-brew process much easier. This includes a bendable bottle brush that ensures you’ll get those hard-to-reach areas.
But wait, there is so much more. The Kombucha Shop isn’t lying when it says this is a deluxe set. You get 6 bottles crafted with thick glass and a strong, reliable gasket, as well as a stainless steel funnel to make pouring simpler than ever before. The straightforward brewing means you can do it time after time with ease, and the included pH test strips help you find your desired flavor.
Contains everything to brew and bottle
Custom supplies including bendable bottle brush
Stainless steel funnel prevent spillages
Thick glass with strong gasket
- BrandThe Kombucha Shop
- ModelSYNCHKG074550
- Weight11 pounds
Saves money on store-bought kombucha
Deluxe kit provides more comprehensive accessories
Straightforward brewing
Some quality control issues with SCOBY
2Joshua Tree Kombucha Starter Kit SCOBY
If you’re searching out a Make Your Own Kombucha Kit, you’re likely thinking about the product with the best value for money. Well, we love to find good value products that still do the job, and The Joshua Tree Kombucha SCOBY with Starter Tea Kit is an excellent choice.
They develop the kombucha culture using trustworthy and hygienic methods and the best ingredients for a fully organic product, while the brewing instructions are easy to follow, if a little basic, especially for beginners. However, it shouldn’t take long before you’re a kombucha brewing master, especially with all the additional resources and information available online. For the price, it’s a perfectly acceptable first kit for those just getting into the game, and will give them the confidence to graduate to larger sets.
Includes starter liquid, cover, and jar
Simple brewing guide included
Uses wholly organic ingredients
Reliable lid for excellent fermentation
- BrandJoshua Tree Kombucha
- ModelB077JJLV8B
- Weight3.3 pounds
Easy brewing in just five steps
Ideal for beginners and experts
Great value price
You will need to buy sugar, pH testers and similar additional ingredients
3Urban Kitchen Kombucha Starter Kit
Although at first glance this looks like a set that is nothing more than a jar, the Urban Kitchen Kombucha Home Brew Kit contains the essential high-quality pieces of your health-drink puzzle at a reasonable price. It discards the fancy, sometimes over-the-top accessories of larger kits, and instead gives you what you need. This makes it a great re-up choice for more experienced brewers, but also isn’t too overwhelming for novices to get going.
With this kitchen gadget, you get organic and top-quality SCOBY and the starter liquid all while providing a complete and refined look once brewing and fermentation is complete. The large jar allows for continuous brewing, so you’ll never be without your precious kombucha, and comes with guidelines to get started that are easy to understand.
High quality ingredients at a lesser cost
Contains only the essentials for successful brewing
Organic SCOBY and Start Liquid
Provides refined look when completed
- BrandUrban Kitchen
- ModelB07GPZXX5G
- Weight3.93 pounds
Brews one gallon of kombucha
Option to choose single or continuous batch
Easy for novices and first-timers
Extra ingredients would give broader brewing options
4Fermentaholics The Complete Jun Kombucha Starter Kit
Many consider Fermentaholics’ Jun Tea product to be ‘the champagne of kombucha’, and its Complete Jun Kombucha Brewing Start Kit might just be the X that marks the spot in your hunt for crisp tasting, high-quality kombucha. Inside, you’ll get live Jun starter culture, pH testing strips, a reusable tea bag, and that ever-essential storage jar after brewing and fermenting.
All of these accessories make it ideal for beginners (as well as anyone looking to expand their kombucha horizons), and any questions you may have are answered efficiently thanks to Fermentaholics’ comprehensive chest of blog posts for effective troubleshooting. The SCOBY is also healthy, and it isn’t out of the realm of possibility you might grow a little attached to it. Some customers have reported christening it (him? Her?) like it’s part of the family.
Crisp flavored and high quality tea
Kit fully tested and approved by FDA
High quality brewing tools included
Storage jar included after brewing and fermenting
- BrandFermentaholics
- ModelB06XVYWXJW
- Weight4.3 pounds
Complete kit for beginners to get them started
Healthy SCOBY
Thorough instructions for simple brewing
Starter kit only provides enough ingredients for one batch
5Craft-A-Brew Starter Complete Kombucha Making Kit
If you’re giving a Kombucha starter kit as a gift, you want it to look appealing. The Craft-A-Brew Starter Complete Kombucha Making Kit is probably the best-looking kit on this list, so it’s the perfect gift to give your health-conscious friends. The multicolored patterns and attractive cartoons give it the feel of a premium product. Of course, the kit gives you everything you need to make your first batch of Kombucha.
It contains a one-gallon glass jar, a step-by-step guide, cane sugar, black tea, a weaved cloth, a rubber band, and a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria & yeast). The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow and the first batch will be ready within two weeks.
High-quality ingredients
Gift-ready box
SCOBY included
One-gallon glass jar included
- BrandCraft-A-Brew
- Weight3.79 pounds
Comes with everything you need
Large and attractive glass jar
Attractive gift box set
Some customers have had problems with the cloth
Kombucha Starter Kit FAQs
Q: How Do I Make Kombucha?
A: Making kombucha tea isn’t as arduous and complicated as it is to brew your own beer. There are very few things that can go wrong when making your own kombucha at home, and it won’t just save you running to the store every day (or having to carry armfuls of bottles at a time), but also save you cash you could spend on cool gear, especially with the holidays coming up, so why not treat yourself, hey?
Your home kombucha kit will come with easy-to-follow instructions on how to make it, but if you want to have a good idea before it arrives at your door - so you can get right down to it, no matter what you were doing beforehand - we’ve put together a useful little guide for making kombucha ad reaping the benefits.
Equipment
Much of the beauty of making your own kombucha is its simplicity, and you’ll only need a few pieces of equipment to get started.
- Glass jar
- Stirring utensil (wooden or plastic)
- A cover (cloth or coffee filter)
- Something to hold the cover in place (rubber band)
Kombucha starter kits should provide you with some of these (and all of them, if you’re lucky) but if they don’t, you must find your own.
Ingredients
It’s not just putting tea in water and waiting, you’ll need other ingredients to have a successful first batch and beyond.
- Water
- White sugar
- Tea bags or loose tea leaves
- Starter tea or distilled white vinegar
- Active SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast)
These ingredients are just to give you a general idea. You don’t need to use a specific tea and there are different kinds of water that can make the batch more successful. The best kombucha starter kits will come with enough ingredients to get you started and try out of different flavors for your first few batches.
Ratios
You probably know enough about brewing or making anything at home to understand that you can’t just throw everything in and hope for the best (well, you can but try it and let us know how successful that was). Instead, you need to work out the correct ratios for the corresponding batch size.
One Quarter Gallon Batch
- 2 tea bags (or 1½ teaspoons of loose tea)
- ¼ cup of sugar
- 2 - 3 cups of water
- ½ cup of distilled vinegar or starter tea (whichever you have)
One Half Gallon Batch
- 4 tea bags (or 1 tablespoon of loose tea)
- ½ cup of sugar
- 6 - 7 cups of water
- 1 cup of distilled vinegar or starter tea (whichever you have)
One Gallon Batch
- 8 tea bags (or 2 tablespoons of loose tea)
- 1 cup of sugar
- 13 - 14 cups of water
- 2 cups of distilled vinegar or starter tea (whichever you have)
It’s unlikely that you’ll want (or be able) to make a batch larger than 1 gallon, but if you have a jar big enough to do that, you’ll need to scale the ingredients, around double the amount of one gallon should suffice.
However, we should warn you that attempting large batches of kombucha - while tempting for saving money and time - can cause uneven fermentation, which will ruin the batch and all your hopes and dreams of being the King of Kombucha, the Booch Baron, the Duke of Distilled Vinegar. Okay, that last one sounds lame, but you get the idea.
For now, it’s best to stick to smaller batches for consistent success and also to prevent your home becoming more kombucha than anything else. The wife and kids may not be as thrilled about it as you are.
Process
- Heat your water (enough to steep the tea in) and pour it into a jar, add sugar and stir until it creates a solution.
- Add the tea bags or tea leaves.
- Cool the mixture down to room temperature (between 68 - 85ºF or 20 - 29°C for our European friends). You can leave the tea in for as long as you like, but the longer you leave it the stronger it will be.
- Take the tea bags or strain and remove tea leaves from the mixture
- Add distilled vinegar (you can replace the vinegar with starter tea from older batches, but because this is your first time, vinegar is a fine substitute).
- Add your active SCOBY.
- Cover the jar with a cloth or coffee filter and secure with a rubber band.
- Place the mixture somewhere room temperature and out of direct sunlight. Leave for 7 to 30 days. The longer you leave it, the more vinegary it will taste.
- Remove your kombucha and pour. Keep the SCOBY and some liquid from the bottom of the jar to use in the next batch.
- Enjoy your kombucha, or if you want to do more to it, you can add flavors, bottle it, and show it off to your buddies.
Remember, brewing kombucha is supposed to be fun, so don’t get too stressed over batches not coming out how you hoped they would the first time. It’s true that is isn’t too hard, but it may take a couple of tries to get your kombucha just how you like it.
Sources
- The Rise in Popularity of High Grade Home Brewing in the USA - Brewing Culture
