Ok. Here we go. Let's build some kombucha. Get your stuff together. We will start with the gallon-sized glass jar, the stirring utensil, the cloth, rubber band, and a 4 quart (1 gallon) pot.

Also get together the ingredients for brewing tea: clean water, sugar, tea bags/loose leaf tea, distilled white vinegar (or "starter tea"), and a SCOBY that is hydrated.

Put 13-14 cups of water into the pan and heat it up, just below boiling.

Add in 1 cup of sugar and stir until it dissolves.

Put the tea bags or the loose leaf tea into the heated water. I recommend a reusable tea infuser, or purchasing empty filter tea bags for the loose leaf tea. Leave tea in to steep for 10 minutes.

Remove the tea and let the mixture cool to 65°-85°. Pour this liquid into your 1 gallon glass jar. Make sure the jar is very clean and has no residue of any kind.

Once the mixture is cooled it is time to add the starter tea/vinegar and the SCOBY!

Image credit: https://giphy.com/gifs/beer-bar-tea-d3LGrsjecYbuTO1O/

Put the lid on. The lid is the tightly weaved cloth or heavy duty paper towel. Use a rubber band to keep the material from flying away.

Now it sits. Leave it alone, undisturbed and out of direct sunlight. Make sure it is sitting in a place that is between 68° and 85.° After 7-30 days it will be ready. The amount of time required depends on the type of taste you prefer. Younger kombucha will have more of a sweet tea flavor while mature kombucha will be tart. It is fine to taste the tea as it brews.

You may notice your SCOBY becoming larger. This is fine and normal. It is a good sign. Eventually it will become enormous and you may need to start brewing more tea or give some of it to your friends. Maybe not enormous, but it will continue to grow. If you see white-ish layer forming at the top, congratulations you now have a baby SCOBY!

Keep an eye on the surface of the liquid to make sure that your batch is healthy. In rare cases mold can grow. Take a look here for reference images to normal SCOBYs and moldy SCOBYs.

While you wait 7-30 days for this to happen, it might be a good time to finish the salsa in the salsa jar, wash it out, remove the label, and place the mandatory Hackaday sticker in its place.

TIME TO DRINK THE TEA, whenever you determine the time is right. Pour some kombucha into your branded cup or into bottles so you can drink it later. Make sure that there is leftover tea and SCOBY still sitting in the glass jar if you would like to continue brewing kombucha. It is fine to drink pieces of SCOBY-like material that are floating around, unless it grosses you out and in that case it can be filtered.

Image credit https://giphy.com/gifs/gifnews-aliens-kombucha-xI996dmXYtwFq/.

To get the green effect and flavor, mix powdered spirulina into the tea once it is fermented and poured into your glass or bottle. I usually mix in about 1/4 of a teaspoon per 8 ounces. If you'd like to see the green color and texture it in its full effect, hold it to a window or source of light. Then drink it.