- Welcome to You Brew Kombucha.
This is your guide to
picking a good brewing vessel
for first fermentation.
(funky music)
When I'm fermenting my kombucha,
during that first fermentation
phase I really prefer to use
one gallon glass jars.
Only because they're really affordable,
they're easy to find, and
they're easy to clean.
I prefer to brew in small
batches only because it gives
me more control over the
final taste and flavor
of my first fermented kombucha.
But some people like
to brew in larger jars,
or even ceramic crocks
that hold more liquid.
If that works for you,
that's perfectly fine.
I find that the larger the
vessel the longer it takes
for the kombucha to fully ferment.
And, I like to ferment on a week,
to week and a half brewing cycle,
so the one gallon jars
really work best for me.
Obviously glass works really well.
Some people like to use
ceramic and that works fine,
as long as it's food-grade.
Don't use plastic or
metal because it could
leach into the kombucha over time.
The one acception to that would be
food-grade stainless steel.
If you have a stainless
steel vessel that you use
for brewing kombucha that's
totally fine, as well.
Remember, kombucha is an acidic drink,
so you want to make sure you use a vessel
that isn't going to corrode over time
and isn't going to react with that acid.
Regardless of what type of
vessel you end up using just make
sure that it's something
that you can easily cover.
You can cover your kombucha vessels with
pretty much anything that's breathable,
but has a fine enough weave to keep any
dust or insects out of
your brewing vessel.
Some people like to use coffee filters.
I actually just used an old cut up
shirt to make this kombucha cover.
You can use really, really,
fine weave cheesecloth.
Just make sure that you're
not using cheesecloth
that has a loose weave where
insects might be able to
kind of burrow in there and
get into your kombucha brew,
because you really
don't want those insects
laying eggs into your scoby.
And just another note about materials
coming into contact with your scoby;
I know I talked a lot about
how you shouldn't use metal,
or plastic as your brewing vessel,
and that's really only because
your kombucha is going to be
fermenting in that brewing vessel
for an extended period of time.
If plastic comes in
contact with your scoby,
say you're using a spoon or a spatula
to stir your brew vessel around,
or if you use a plastic bag to
store your scoby temporarily
if you're sharing it with a
friend or something like that,
that's perfectly fine, just
for small amounts of time.
I would just say, make sure
that your scoby doesn't sit
in a plastic container for
longer than around a day or so,
but any shorter than that
and it's totally fine.
And it's important to note
that if your kombucha or scoby
does come into contact with plastic
just make sure that it doesn't
have any scratches on it.
Food-grade plastic
often has a BPA coating,
but if that plastic is
scratched that coating won't be
present in the scratch itself,
so that uncoated plastic could
leach into your kombucha.
So if you want more information,
make sure you check out the
other videos on my channel,
and you can also go to
YouBrewKombucha.com.
Happy brewing!
(funky music)
