Before I got into home-brewing kombucha I drank bottles from the store all the time. It wasn’t until a friend told me about how much better home brewing booch is than buying it that I started to look into how to do it. Unfortunately, there were no articles online that would tell me the benefits of home brewing kombucha!
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably in a similar situation that I was a few years ago: you've heard about home brewing kombucha but aren't yet convinced it’s a good idea. Well in this post I’m going to share with you 5 reasons why I make kombucha at home and why you should too! Let’s get started!
1. Home Brewing Allows You To Make Kombucha How You Want It
Kombucha is a weird drink. Each brew is made with a living culture of bacteria and yeast called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). The SCOBY is combined with sweet tea, eats the sugar and nutrients in it, and ferments them into alcohol, acids, and carbon dioxide to make kombucha.
Because every SCOBY is a unique living creature, and every kombucha brand uses different processes to make their booch, the final taste and ingredients in one bottle of store bought kombucha can be completely different than a different brand.
Different kombucha companies and even different batches of kombucha from the same company will use varying types and amounts of ingredients, have shorter or longer fermentation times, have different types and amounts of bacteria and yeast in their SCOBYs, different sized SCOBYs, and be brewed at different temperatures.
With so many ways to brew kombucha and all of these things so easily varied between batches, it’s difficult to know what’s even in the store bought bottle of kombucha you're drinking.
The great thing about brewing kombucha yourself is that you know exactly what you're drinking. You know whether or not there are probiotics, added sugar, or certain healthy herbs. Instead of trusting the words of a big corporation that has lied about what's in their product before.
Plus when you make your own booch you get to adjust the levels and amounts of every ingredient to make it just how you like it. If you want a sweeter taste, less caffeine, no carbonation, or a stronger vinegary kick, you can do those things. It's all up to you!
2. Home Brewing Kombucha Can Save You a Lot of Money
One of the biggest reasons I initially got into home brewing kombucha is how much cheaper it is to brew kombucha than buy it.
It’s no secret that kombucha at the store is expensive. Because it's a perishable product, has to be stored in glass bottles, and has a complicated brewing process, a single bottle of kombucha is going to cost you at least $4. So if you’re drinking it regularly it can get expensive.
The great thing about home brewing is that you can brew gallons of kombucha for a fraction of the cost of buying it.
If you don’t have some of the equipment like a large glass jar or brewing bottles then you’ll have to invest in those, and you’ll have to buy a SCOBY, but after these one time purchases all you have to spend money on every time you brew is sugar, tea, and some kind of flavoring. All of which are super cheap.
Looking at the numbers, a bottle of store bought kombucha on average costs $4. While home brewed kombucha, after the initial investment of up to $40 for equipment, can be brewed for a recurring cost of only $0.50-$1.00 a bottle.
So if you want to drink 1 bottle of kombucha a week for a year, buying it at the store is going to cost you $208. While making it yourself, after the initial investment in equipment, will cost you less than $35. That’s a savings of 173 bucks!
And the more often you drink kombucha, the more money you save. So if you drink a bottle of kombucha every day for a year, buying it from the store is going to cost you around $1460, while brewing it yourself, after the initial investment, will cost you less than $260. That’s $1200 saved! m
If you want to learn more about how much it’s going to cost you to home brew kombucha, check out my article What is the Price of Kombucha? Store Bought and Home Brewed here
3. You Get to Choose the Flavoring of Home Brewed Kombucha
One of the most fun parts and greatest advantages of making kombucha yourself is choosing the flavoring you use. When you buy kombucha at the store you’re limited by the flavor options, but when you brew it yourself you can flavor it with pretty much whatever you want.
Experimenting with new flavor combos is super fun because you have no idea if they’re gonna work out or not. And when you find one that’s tasty you can make it over and over again and give some to your friends to try.
Some of the cool kombucha flavor combos I’ve made that I really like are:
Tangerine Cirano Pepper
Ginger Turmeric
Pineapple Cinnamon
Blueberry Vanilla
Strawberry Honey
Peach Ginger
4. Brewing Kombucha is Easy
Although kombucha can seem like a complicated drink and be intimidating to make at first, brewing it is actually a really simple process, especially once you get the first time out of the way.
Not convinced brewing booch is easy? Well all you really need to do to make kombucha is brew sweet tea, combine it in a jar with the SCOBY, wait 2 weeks, pour that kombucha into bottles with flavoring in them, and then wait another 3-4 days. Sure there are some nuances to it but my point is that making kombucha is a lot more simple than most people think.
Kombucha being easy to make is an advantage because if it were as hard or complicated to make as brewing beer or making wine, I probably would have never gotten into it. Kombucha's quick learning curve and low barrier to entry gave me enough confidence to get started, and it should do the same for you!
5. Brewing Kombucha is Fun!
Last but definitely not least, you should home brew kombucha because it’s a fun hobby!
Like most people, I’m too busy for a time consuming hobby that takes up my weekends, but still want something extra to do and work on. Kombucha is perfect for this because while you have to get it started and check up on it every few days, most of the time spent brewing kombucha is just waiting around for it to ferment.
I love drinking something tasty that I know I made, but one of the most fun parts of brewing kombucha for me is showing it to my friends and family when they visit.
I show them the SCOBY and they think it's really weird and gross, but once I serve them a glass of booch they usually really like it and want to know more. And even if they don’t like the kombucha they're still super curious about it. So at the very least its a conversation starter!
Final Thoughts
If you drink kombucha regularly and haven’t gotten into home brewing yet, I encourage you to try it out. The equipment’s cheap enough that if you end up not liking it you can just go back to buying kombucha with only having spent 20-40 bucks.
If you’re still not sure if you should home brew or not, feel free to check out the rest of my website to learn more about it.
And if you have decided to start home brewing, be sure to read my How to Make Kombucha in 5 Easy Steps - The Ultimate Home Brewing Guide here to learn everything you need to know about home brewing kombucha, especially if it's your first time.
Best of luck and happy brewing!