Continuous Brew Kombucha

I’ve been making kombucha at home for a long time, but it wasn’t until we switched from the batch method to continuous brew a couple years back that I began to incorporate the practice of brewing, fermenting, bottling, experimenting with flavors, and - of course - drinking it daily into my routine. Kombucha can be a time consuming beverage to keep up with, but it’s so worth it to make at home, and I’m especially reminded of this now as we enter spring with a whole new world of flavor possibilities growing right outside the door.

Last week, I harvested some lilacs from our lilac tree, rinsed them under cool water, removed the blossoms and sprinkled them with a big scoop of organic cane sugar to make a quick lilac-infused simple syrup. A couple days later, I did the same with a few stalks of rhubarb that were growing in a container near the fence gate.

This week, the kombucha crocks were ready to bottle, so I combined the simple syrups with some ingredients found in the kitchen. I could have used the simple syrups alone to flavor my bottles, but I decided I wanted to pair the rhubarb with strawberries (strawberry-rhubarb is one of my all-time favorite spring flavors) and the lilac syrup with a bit of orange juice concentrate.

I don’t know how either flavors will turn out. I guess we’ll see once the bottles are ready to crack open in a few days, but it doesn’t really matter if they’re good or bad. It’s all part of the fun.

And since we’re on the subject, I made a video last year talking about some of my kombucha tips and tricks. Check it out below: