I have been brewing my own Kombucha and Kefir for a few years now and am very happy with the results. They provide a healthy, home made, refreshing drink for every occasion. Also, coming from a culture where fresh curds (Indian jogurt) are compulsory at the end of every meal, I also have a small pot of live curds always at hand.

There has been a recent trend towards probiotics that has made all of these very popular. Further, recent scientific findings have highlighted the possible impact and influence gut bacteria can have on human brain and behaviour. This research is still in its initial stages though and should be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism.

There are a lot of resources online on how to make Kombucha, Kefir and curds, but here I list down rough guidelines on how I make them.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a type of fermented tea that works using a SCOBY which is a Symbiotic Combination Of Bacteria and Yeast.

1. The yeast works to convert the sugars to alcohol.
2. The bacteria consumes the alcohol and produces healthy acids, and eventually starts turning it into vinegar. Somewhere in between when the contents are not too vinegary, we can drink it.

This is the reason why Kombucha cannot be used to make alcohol, even if lots of sugar are added, it will simply be converted to vinegar by the bacteria.

Steps to prepare Kombucha

1. Make sweet tea by adding boiling water to sugar and tea leaves. Black tea made from loose tea leaves works best. The sugar in the tea is the food for the SCOBY. Roughly 3-4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tea spoons of tea for one litre of water should work. Let the tea tea cool down to room temperature.
2. Clean a glass jar / bottle thoroughly. Rinse once with vinegar or Kombucha from a previous batch.
3. Pour the tea into the glass jar and introduce the Kombucha SCOBY into it. A healthy SCOBY floats on top, but with fresh cultures it takes some time.
4. Let it sit in a warm dark place. Monitor every alternate day.

Kefir (water kefir)

Kefir is also a fermented product made from a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Water kefir are in the form of translucent bottom settling crystals that consume sugar and minerals in the water to produce a fizzy clear drink.

Steps to prepare Kefir

1. Take sugar, water and mix well. Unchlorinated clean tap water with a lot of minerals works best.
2. Clean and prepare a glass container. Rinse with vinegar to disinfect.
3. Add kefir crystals with sugar water in a glass container and allow the fermentation process.
4. Kefir needs to be fed more often than Kombucha - every 48h or so.
5. Refill the sugar water and separate the water kefir into bottles for consumption.
6. They may be infused with fruits (pears, plums, dates, go wild) or drank as is.

Jogurt (live / active)

Jogurt is a mild product prepared by the acidification of milk using lactic acid bacteria. The same product is known by various names across the world and nearly every culture that use milk have some form of jogurt, curd or soured milk.

Most of the jogurt that is available in stores are not active i.e. they do not still have living bacteria that contributed to curdling the milk. Fresh jogurt or active jogurts are those that still contain these bacteria.

Steps to prepare active Jogurt

1. Obtain a small amount of active jogurt.
2. Add one tablespoon of active jogurt into a glass of pasteurised milk. The milk does not have to be boiled and cooled beforehand if it has been already pasteurised.
3. Set in a warm dark place.
4. Takes about a day to curdle. The longer the wait, the more sour it gets. If refrigerated it can last for up to a week or more.

Notes

• Fermenting anything is a non-linear process that depends on a variety of factors. Depending on the ingredients, the water, the temperature and the health of the bacteria and yeast involved the time may vary. In summer, a refill is necessary every alternate day whereas in winter they can go for weeks.
• Do not seal the containers air tight. It is best to loosely cover them to allow for air transfer while preventing dust / insects etc from getting in.
• If there is too much sugar, then the balance swings in the favour of the yeast and the product smells yeasty. If there is very little sugar the reaction favours bacterial growth. Aim for a balance between the two.
• In my experience the microorganisms are quite robust and if basic cleanliness is maintained then it is very difficult to kill them.
• The good bacteria / yeast prevent the formation of bad bacteria and molds. So a bubbly effervescent culture is always a good sign.
• The final products should look good and smell good before consumption. If in doubt, it is always better not to consume and to start over.