If you’re remotely interested in fermentation, probiotic-rich foods, or culturing at-home, I highly recommend you dive head-first into Water Kefir and just start playing around. It’s affordable, relatively forgiving, small enough to manage, and just plain fun. It yields a fizzy, flavored drink that brings a smile to most and has more probiotics than a serving of yogurt (yep!) so it leaves your gut smiling too 🙂 Happy fermenting, kefir people!
Bubbly, sweet and full of life (no literally, this drink is filled with living organisms), Water Kefir makes a great alternative to your typical sugary soda.
WATER: Kefir Grains love minerals but hate can die due to too much chlorine, so your best bet is to go with tap water that is unchlorinated. To allow the chlorine content to reduce (since most municipalities use chlorine in their tap water treatment), allow your water to sit out at room temperature overnight for some of that gas to evaporate. Filtered and distilled water will lack the minerals necessary for your grains, so good ol' tap water is actually the winner for once.
SUGAR: As mentioned above, Kefir Grains need minerals to thrive. Certain sugars (like coconut sugar, brown sugar, raw cane sugar, organic cane sugar, turbinado) have higher mineral content than others. It's good practice to rotate and feed your grains a "varied diet." For the details, I recommend you reference this chart:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/water-kefir/water-kefir-ingredients/
Add your sugar to your glass jar and then pour over your hot water. Stir to dissolve.
Add in your 3 cups of cool water and stir.
Add in your grains, cover and secure with a rubber band.
Allow to sit at room temp (between 68°F and 85°F) for 3 days.
After 3 days, strain off your now hydrated and active grains (discard that first batch of liquid) and make your first batch of Water Kefir following the directions below....
Follow the exact same directions as above (1/4 sugar, 1/2 water, 3 cups cool water, grains) - only this time, using your hydrated and active grains.
The only difference is you'll taste your kefir every day starting on day 1. It will only rest for 1 to 3 days and you'll know it's finished when it's still sweet but it has that nice fermented tang to it - it should be nice and cloudy.
*Do not surpass 3 days, as you need to feed your grains new sugar water every 72 hours.
Once it has that kefir flavor, you can either drink it straight as is or, if you want a bubbly flavored drink, you can bottle and do a secondary fermentation!
Strain off your grains and follow the same steps as above to brew another batch of water kefir.
Add your flavoring to a bottle with a tight fitting lid (ideally one with a swing top!).
*The amount of flavor is 100% variable, for a 24 oz bottle I use ~1/4 cup of juice and would use slightly less purée since it's more concentrated. I use about 1/3 cup of sweet tea, since it has less sugar than the above two suggestions.
Add your finished strained water kefir to the bottle and close the lid and give it a little shake to combine.
*If you're using a sweet tea, be sure to allow your tea to come to room temperature before adding in your kefir - you can kill your living kefir by adding it to a solution that's too hot.
Allow to sit at room temperature until carbonated. Check on your bottles every 12 hours to see its carbonation progress. Depending on how active your kefir is, this could take as little as overnight to become perfectly carbonated.
*The goal here is not to OVER carbonate and end up with a bottle explosion (as seen in my how-to video).
Once it's carbonated, you're ready to drink! Cheers, fellow fermentors 🙂
Ingredients
Directions
WATER: Kefir Grains love minerals but hate can die due to too much chlorine, so your best bet is to go with tap water that is unchlorinated. To allow the chlorine content to reduce (since most municipalities use chlorine in their tap water treatment), allow your water to sit out at room temperature overnight for some of that gas to evaporate. Filtered and distilled water will lack the minerals necessary for your grains, so good ol' tap water is actually the winner for once.
SUGAR: As mentioned above, Kefir Grains need minerals to thrive. Certain sugars (like coconut sugar, brown sugar, raw cane sugar, organic cane sugar, turbinado) have higher mineral content than others. It's good practice to rotate and feed your grains a "varied diet." For the details, I recommend you reference this chart:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/water-kefir/water-kefir-ingredients/
Add your sugar to your glass jar and then pour over your hot water. Stir to dissolve.
Add in your 3 cups of cool water and stir.
Add in your grains, cover and secure with a rubber band.
Allow to sit at room temp (between 68°F and 85°F) for 3 days.
After 3 days, strain off your now hydrated and active grains (discard that first batch of liquid) and make your first batch of Water Kefir following the directions below....
Follow the exact same directions as above (1/4 sugar, 1/2 water, 3 cups cool water, grains) - only this time, using your hydrated and active grains.
The only difference is you'll taste your kefir every day starting on day 1. It will only rest for 1 to 3 days and you'll know it's finished when it's still sweet but it has that nice fermented tang to it - it should be nice and cloudy.
*Do not surpass 3 days, as you need to feed your grains new sugar water every 72 hours.
Once it has that kefir flavor, you can either drink it straight as is or, if you want a bubbly flavored drink, you can bottle and do a secondary fermentation!
Strain off your grains and follow the same steps as above to brew another batch of water kefir.
Add your flavoring to a bottle with a tight fitting lid (ideally one with a swing top!).
*The amount of flavor is 100% variable, for a 24 oz bottle I use ~1/4 cup of juice and would use slightly less purée since it's more concentrated. I use about 1/3 cup of sweet tea, since it has less sugar than the above two suggestions.
Add your finished strained water kefir to the bottle and close the lid and give it a little shake to combine.
*If you're using a sweet tea, be sure to allow your tea to come to room temperature before adding in your kefir - you can kill your living kefir by adding it to a solution that's too hot.
Allow to sit at room temperature until carbonated. Check on your bottles every 12 hours to see its carbonation progress. Depending on how active your kefir is, this could take as little as overnight to become perfectly carbonated.
*The goal here is not to OVER carbonate and end up with a bottle explosion (as seen in my how-to video).
Once it's carbonated, you're ready to drink! Cheers, fellow fermentors 🙂