Homemade Kombucha: Second Ferment

Homemade Kombucha: second ferment is sure to wake up your taste buds! Who doesn’t like a nice cold carbonated beverage that tastes like your favorite fruit? I want to follow up on my last post and show you how you can easily turn your freshly brewed kombucha tea into a tasty and tangy fermented drink.

In my last post I went into detail on how you can make your own Homemade Fizzy Kombucha Tea with just a few ingredients and the equipment that you will need. To learn more about homemade kombucha take a look HERE.

So you’ve already gone through the first step of making kombucha, it smells sweet and a bit tangy. It tastes good but your looking for that sweet fruity flavor as well as the carbonation. Sounds like your ready to bottle this tea and make your second ferment.

What is “Second Ferment”?

This is the process of decanting your freshly brewed kombucha, putting it into a bottle and adding some sort of “sugar”, capping it tightly and letting it sit until it has created carbonation. The yeast that is present in the kombucha will eat the sugar that is in the fruit or juice. Second fermentation can take 24 to 72 hours to carbonate. It could take longer depending on how much kombucha is in the bottle, how much fruit or juice was used or the temperature in the room.

Don’t like the Fizz (carbonation)?

Not everyone likes the carbonation and that’s fine. Once you finish brewing your first ferment you can bottle it and add your flavorings as usual but skip the step of letting it sit out tightly capped.

Like a lot of people do with water, they add the fruit and let it infuse the water to give it some flavor.

Another option is to set it up for the second ferment and leave it in a warm place but only let it sit out for about 12 hours give or take. This may create a very small amount of carbonation but it won’t be a “tickle you nose” type. It will give the kombucha some time to get the flavor of what you added to it making it a bit more sweet then the last option.

What type of container can be used?

• Flip top glass bottles, these are the most popular type because the lid is held on very lightly by the metal clasp.
• Reusing your previously purchased Kombucha bottles.
• Growler bottles ranging from a half gallon to 1 gallon jars
• Mason Jars! If your like me you have dozens of mason jars in your cupboard.
• New plastic bottles are an option but recommended only to be used for one Second Ferment then recycled.

Under Pressure!

I should warn you, because we are creating carbonation in our second ferment bottles, it is creating a lot of pressure against the bottle and lid. Be sure not to leave your bottles out too long during their second ferment because it could result in some bottles exploding.

How to make the Homemade Kombucha: Second Ferment

What you need:

• 6 or 7 bottles (16 ounce)
• Filtered kombucha from your finished first ferment.
• Juice, fruit puree or whole fruit of choice (1/4 cup per bottle)
• A funnel is helpful but not necessary

Bottling the Kombucha:

1. Prepare your bottles: wash and/or sterilize and set aside to dry.
2. Remove the SCOBY from your first ferment kombucha.
3. Stir your kombucha well, this will distribute any yeast and bacteria that may have settled down at the bottom on your container. In turn will make carbonation better for all your bottles.
4. Pour your kombucha through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth. Note: Be sure to set aside at least one cup of your first ferment kombucha to use for your next batch.
5. Add about 1/4 cup of your choice of fruit ingredient to each bottle.
6. Fill completely with the kombucha leaving 1/2 to 1 inch space at the top.
7. Cap tightly so it can build up carbonation.
8. Place on a tray and store in a warm location for 25-72 hours. Note: I use the tray to catch any liquid that may leak out of the bottles during this process.
9. Once they have carbonated place the bottles in the fridge to stop the fermentation process.
10. Open your bottle slowly to release excess carbonation and Enjoy!

Print the Recipe

How to know when your second ferment is ready

A couple ways that I can tell when my ferments are ready is there will be a lot of large bubbles at the top of the bottle. You may also see tiny bubbles floating up from the bottom of the bottle. There also may be some leaking from under the cover down the sides of the bottles.

Tasty Flavor Add-ins:

• Fresh Blueberries or Raspberries
• Frozen mixed fruit
• Elderberry Syrup (1/4 cup per 16 ounces)
• Mango’s
• Bananas

Have you ever made your own Homemade Kombucha?

Let me know in the comments what flavors you have tried. We’re always into trying out different flavors and I’d love to hear your ideas.

Continuous Brews…

Do you absolutely LOVE kombucha and want to always have some on tap? Continuous brews are great for that! I have yet to migrate into that method yet. The current method is working for us at the moment. Though as we continue to enjoy our homemade kombucha and start to drink more with the warmer months I can definitely see us making a continuous brew. I’m sure once I get to that point I’ll update you all with a post about it.

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