The Essential Kitchen Tools You Need To To Make Your Own Kombucha

Brewing your own kombucha has both romantic and practical appeal. A drink with potential benefits like probiotics and immune system boosting vitamins, it feels like a homey and old-school way to take care of your body. And on the practical side you have the fact that premade kombucha brands from the store can be surprisingly expensive, sometimes running $5 or more for a single bottle. That only increases the incentive for you to make it yourself at home and have a running supply of customized booch ready whenever you want. However, the process can be intimidating for newcomers. That's why we reached out to Emma Christensen, a homebrewing expert and author of the upcoming book "Hard Seltzer, Iced Tea, Kombucha, and Cider," to ask what kitchen tools are essential to start making your own kombucha.

Luckily for us Christensen says that "at home, the only special equipment you'll need that you might not already have is some sort of container in which to actually ferment the kombucha." She recommended a gallon glass jar, which is easy to find online. Christensen explains, "Glass is the best material because it won't react with the kombucha as its fermenting," and the see-through material makes it easy to check on your progress. She does warn against plastic or reactive materials like metal, and advises "to purchase a container with a wide opening so that you can easily add and remove the scoby."

While a glass jar is the only thing Emma Christensen thinks is absolutely needed, she did add that you likely have a few things in your kitchen already. You could also grab a few that will be helpful to each step of the kombucha-making process. She told us, "Other helpful things you'll need are a stockpot (for making the initial sweet tea mixture), bottles (for bottling the kombucha you make), and a small funnel (to make it easier to fill your bottles)." While you may not have a bunch of empty bottles laying around, Christensen noted you get them almost anywhere: "When it comes to bottles, you can use any bottle intended to hold carbonated beverages from reused plastic soda bottles to swing-top beer bottles."

Still, as always with something fermenting, there are some kombucha mistakes to avoid here. Christensen warns against "canning jars, water carafes with loose swing-top closures, or anything not meant for pressurized beverages," explaining that "with these, at best your kombucha won't fully carbonate, and at worst the containers could crack or burst." Remember that fermentation is building up pressure inside the bottle, so you need something which can withstand that to avoid disaster. But with the tools that Christensen recommends, you should be well on your way to easily brewing kombucha in your own home.