Making Kombucha- the Second Fermentation.

The second fermentation is the fun and creative step where you make the flavor and the carbonation.

Once you made the first part of the kombucha from this blog, and it has fermented for 7-10 days, it's time to bottle and flavor your tea.

For the bottles, I used these. You are creating a lot of pressure in this phase and I really dislike broken glass. These bottles are made to contain the carbonation and stand up to pressure. They are 16 ounces each. The gallon jar from blog 1 make approx 6 to 7 bottles.

Now you choose your flavor. My husband's favorite is when we put 3 to 4 blueberries, and 2 to 3 strawberries in each bottle. You can use fresh or frozen (the frozen has to be brought to room temp). You can use so many flavor profiles. Apples, carrots, lemon juice, mint, ginger, it's and endless list.

Each bottle also needs a bit of sugar for the fermentation process. We like to add one piece of organic candied ginger to each bottle. It gives some ginger taste and the needed sugar.

Once your bottles are ready. Now you get your fermented kombucha. You'll remove the Scoby and store it for next use. We have had luck putting the Scoby and a cup or so of the tea back into the plastic container that our Scoby came from. We have used this over and over. Once the bag can't be used, we will put the Scoby into a ball mason pint jar and store it in the fridge. So remove your Scoby, store it safely in the fridge or a very dark and cool place. Now you fill your bottles.

I fill out to 1 inch below the too of the bottle. This leaves room for carbonation.

This batch we are trying a bottle with lemon juice and fresh mint leaves in one of the bottles.

Wash the outside of your bottles and put them on too if the fridge or a suitably warm dark place. 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal.

Burp each bottle once a day.

It prevents overflow explosion : )

After 3 to 4 days, it's time to enjoy. This is such a relatively simple and delicious fermented drink. Experiment with your favorite flavors and let us know which combos you love!