Can I use tap water for making kombucha?

Last Updated on January 17, 2023 by Michelle

Can I use tap water for making kombucha? It’s a common question. When you look up any recipe or kombucha tips, everyone agrees… use filtered water if you’re making your own kombucha. But why?

And if you stumbled upon this article but don’t know how to make your own kombucha yet, check out Simple DIY Kombucha. It will fill you in on every detail you need to be off and running fast and effectively, saving lots of time & hundreds of dollars a month.

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Can I use tap water for making kombucha?

The answer is a wholehearted “yes,” you can use tap water for making kombucha IF your water isn’t treated with chlorine.

So, essentially, if you have well water coming into your home, you can make your kombucha with water right out of your faucet.

The only real problem with tap water in kombucha is the chlorine.* While it’s great at killing bad pathogens in our water (see more info here, if you’re interested) it’s also great at killing all bacteria, including the GOOD bacteria that makes up your scoby.

*EDITED TO ADD: A follower on my instagram page pointed out that some tap water now contains Chlormine, which is more stable than chlorine and therefore not removed by evaporation. I dug into a few scientific studies about this additive (here’s one study). And I found that you can filter chlormine out with a charcoal filter (like a pitcher filter), or neutralize it with tablets (like sodium- or potassium-metabisulfite Campden tablets).

Does tap water harm my SCOBY?

Since chlorine, found in all treated water, doesn’t discriminate and isn’t able to discern the good bacteria in your scoby from the bad bacteria that might be present in the water, you definitely don’t want any chlorinated tap water near your DIY kombucha.

Yes, the chlorine will kill your scoby, over time.

Is there any way to use treated water for making kombucha?

There are 3 ways you can safely use treated tap water for making kombucha.

While you CAN use bottled water, that’s so expensive, and I want you to be able to SAVE money when making your own kombucha.Have you checked out my Master Class, btw, Simple DIY Kombucha? After walking through the 12 modules, you will be making truly delicious DIY kombucha that your family loves, with total confidence… and saving hundreds of dollars a month!

You can remove the chlorine from treated water in one of 3 ways: evaporation, boiling, and filtering…

3 ways to use tap water for making kombucha:

Evaporation – Chlorine is a gas, so if you give it enough time, it will evaporate. This is the super easy way to do it, if you have the time. Just leave water out for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Done.
Boiling – Boil your water for 10 minutes to remove the chlorine.
Filtering–Run tap water through an under-sink RO system.

Having explained all that, I’ll fill you in on one more detail… if you have well water (which we do), you don’t need to worry about any of this. Because, of course, you don’t treat your well water with chlorine.

But if #3 intrigues you, I DO have an RO system, if you’d like to know more about what we do with our RO system, this is my most popular post ever–all about RO and how a sugarmaker uses an RO system.

And here’s all the rest of The Tools I Use the Most in my Farmhouse Kitchen.

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If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me (with the hashtag #simpleDIYkombucha) on ig to show me your delicious kombucha flavors @souly.rested.