Fall fermentation guide: How to make kombucha and fire cider at home

Along with beautiful leaves, crisp weather, and earlier sunsets, the autumn season often brings colds and the flu into your home. But instead of running to the drug store at the last minute for whatever symptom relievers you can find, stock your pantry with these delicious, homemade drinks to help keep you and your family healthy.

Both kombucha and fire cider are filled with incredible health benefits. Kombucha’s probiotic-rich makeup supports gut health, provides antioxidants to keep your heart, brain, and skin healthy, and fights harmful microbes. Fire cider, meanwhile, also provides antioxidants and supports digestion, in addition to boosting immunity. 

Kombucha is a fermented tea, chock-full of probiotics and antibodies. It only takes about two weeks to ferment, and the recipe is very simple! The only “weird” ingredient you will need is a SCOBY – short for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast – that you can buy, get from a friend who makes kombucha, or grow yourself.

Fire cider is even simpler, though the fermentation time is a bit longer. You don’t need a special culture – just apple cider vinegar, some common kitchen ingredients, and raw honey. It’s more of a remedy than a drink, so take a shot in the morning when you feel a sore throat coming on! It can also be used in salad dressings, marinades, and soups. You can even host a cider-making party with your friends!

Kombucha recipe

Ingredients:

• 6-9 bags or 2–3 tbsp. looseleaf black tea (green tea also works, but DON’T use herbal teas or any tea with added flavor)
• 13-14 cups of fresh, filtered water
• ¾-1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup strong starter tea (plain, raw, unflavored kombucha – can be store bought or from a previous batch)
• 1 SCOBY 

Supplies:

• Gallon mason jar
• Tightly-woven cloth
• Rubber band
• Optional: swing-top glass bottles

Instructions:

• Boil 4 cups of water and pour it over the tea bags/ leaves and sugar. Let it brew for 15 minutes. 
• Pour a little room-temperature filtered water in the bottom of your gallon-sized jar. Strain and pour the tea into the jar, and top with more cool water, leaving about 2 inches of space for the scoby and starter tea. Make sure the tea is between 65–90 degrees Fahrenheit before adding the SCOBY and starter tea. 
• Cover with a tightly woven cloth and secure with a rubber band. 
• Leave it in a cool, dark place for 5 days. At this point, a new SCOBY will have formed on the top. Slip a straw past it, taste-test the kombucha, and leave to brew for another 2-3 days if you want it to taste stronger.
• Take out the SCOBY with clean hands and strain the kombucha, leaving aside the SCOBY and a cup of kombucha for your next batch. The original SCOBY will be at the bottom; you can either toss it or set it aside for a friend who wants to try a recipe!

Optional Carbonation and flavoring:

• Add a little sugar and fresh fruit juice or puree to your kombucha until it’s slightly sweeter than your preferred taste. It will become slightly less sweet during the second fermentation. 
• Pour the combination into your swing-top glass bottles, leaving an inch at the top. Seal and leave to ferment for 3–7 days. 
• When you’re ready to taste-test, chill one bottle completely and then open over the sink. If it’s carbonated enough, refrigerate the rest and enjoy! If not, leave the rest for another few days and repeat the taste test.

Kombucha has a very low alcohol content (usually about 0.1%-0.5%) so children can drink it, Homemade batches can get up to 3%, so test the alcohol content with a strip test if you are concerned. Some doctors recommend that pregnant women do not drink homemade kombucha.

Fire cider recipe 

Ingredients:

• Raw apple cider vinegar 
• 2-3 sliced jalapenos or any chilli peppers (or ½ tsp. cayenne pepper)
• 10 chopped cloves garlic
• 1 chopped onion
• 7 oz. grated or sliced fresh ginger
• 2 oz. grated or roughly chopped fresh turmeric (or 1 tbsp. turmeric powder)
• 7 oz. grated and peeled fresh horseradish
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 sliced orange
• 1 sliced lemon
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp. whole peppercorns
• ½ cup raw honey

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients except honey and vinegar to a 2 qt. jar and cover with vinegar. The only essential ingredients are the peppers and vinegar – do any mixture of the other listed ingredients! 
• Seal the jar, and if the lid is metal, add a piece of parchment paper underneath. 
• Shake it and leave in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks, making sure to shake it daily. 
• After a month, strain the vinegar through a cheesecloth into a clean jar, and stir in honey to taste. Store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. 

These home-fermented drinks are low-effort with huge health benefits, and they are sure to help you and your loved ones stay healthier all fall and winter long. If you start them soon, they’ll be ready just in time for cold and flu season!