How to Brew Your Own Booch Pt. 2 – Blueberry Lavender Recipe

Alright guys, last month I showed you how to grow your own scoby and brew your first batch of kombucha (Here’s that post in case you missed it). Most people don’t enjoy plain jane booch, though. So, this month I’m showing you how to add flavor and fizz to your brew!! This is one of my favorite parts of brewing kombucha. It’s so fun to create and try different flavors! To make walking you through the steps easier, I’m referencing how I make my current favorite booch: blueberry and lavender kombucha. It’s so delish and has all the spring vibes. I’ve made it twice in a row now and it’s just the best! That’s it… end of story 😊 I pretty much gave you the scoop on kombucha in my first post, so lets just get right into it!

Things you’ll need:

• Flip top glass bottles
• Plastic funnel and strainer
• Plastic ladle
• 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender
• 4 tbsp blueberry jam – I used Crofters Blueberry Jam
• 1 quart- ish kombucha (fermented for at least 1 week)

Instructions:

1. Make sure your bottle is clean and thoroughly rinsed. You don’t want any soap residue left behind as most dish soaps are anti-bacterial which your booch won’t be a fan of.
2. Using funnel, pour lavender and jam into bottle. You may need to mix a little kombucha with your jam to make it watery enough to go down the funnel (Note: the added sugar here is what makes kombucha fizzy. Jam already has plenty of sugar in it, but when using fresh fruits or if omitting fruit completely, add about 1 tbsp of organic cane sugar as well).
3. With clean hands, reach into the vessel you brewed your kombucha in and grab your scoby. Place the scoby in a clean bowl with  a ½ cup of the kombucha (if you don’t already have more sweet tea ready to go for your next batch, make a cup or two of sweet tea using 1 – 2 teabags and a little sugar to keep your scoby satisfied for a week or so).
4. Pour or ladle the kombucha into the flip top bottle, making sure to leave and inch or two of headspace (this is also important! You do not want to fill the bottle to the brim) and seal the bottle shut.
5. Place your scoby back in your brewing vessel, along with the ½ cup of kombucha and however much sweet tea you have prepared.
6. Set aside flip top bottle and wait 2 days. Do not place in direct sunlight. You can also leave it sitting for longer than 2 days, but keep in mind that the kombucha is not just melding with the flavoring you’ve put in, its still fermenting so the longer you leave it, the more vinegary it will taste. I’ve found that 2 days is enough to get some fizz and flavor without making the booch too strong.
7. After 2 days your ready to strain your kombucha. Open your flip top bottle VERY CAREFULLY!! Guys, I cannot emphasize this enough. Every batch you brew will be different so some will be less fizzy and some might be screaming to get out of the bottle. I never just completely take the lid off to begin. With the bottles I have, you can unlatch the lid while still holding it down and carefully crack it open from the side. If nothing happens you can continue cracking it open little by little until the lid is completely off. If your booch strarts to fizz and rise up, its ok. Just close back up the lid, wait for the fizz to go down a bit and repeat the process until you can open your bottle.
8. Pour the kombucha through your strainer into a glass or plastic bowl. Discard the solids. If there are some floaties stuck in your bottle, you can also rinse that out with some water. Pour flavored booch back into flip top bottle using funnel and strainer (I like to strain it twice). Seal the bottle.
9. At this point your all done and have 1 of 2 options. You can leave your booch on the counter in which case it will continue to ferment and become even more fizzy (you might even get a tiny scoby growing on top) or refrigerate it. Refrigeration slows down the fermentation process so you more than likely won’t notice any change in flavor. I like to leave my booch on the counter for 1 day after I’ve strained it to let it build up a tad more fizz and then I pop it in the fridge 😊

Keep in mind that this recipe is for 1 quart so you’ll need to adjust measurements for a smaller or larger brews and please know that if this flavor doesn’t sound particularly good to you, you can just use this as a reference and create your own flavor! The steps are the same with any ingredients. Just to give you some ideas, you can use fresh fruit, herbs, dried fruit, juice, etc… the options are endless!! And just in case you still aren’t sure what flavor to try first, here are a few other flavors that I love:

• Apple Cider (just make or buy some cider and add it you your booch)
• Ginger
• Strawberry and Basil

Alright my friends, I hope this was super helpful and sparked some ideas for you!! Don’t forget to tag me if you give this a shot and I wanna know, what’s your favorite kombucha flavor (store bought or home brewed)??

xoxo

Amber