Resuming Water Kefir Production

Note: I read and enjoy every single comment. At the moment, though, the darn blog isn't letting me reply. My comments disappear into thin air, so any comments received will be answered by inserting them as q/a updates to this post. fixed!

I think I mentioned in one or more of my recent posts that I used to brew and drink water kefir, then stopped during a significant relapse back onto SAD (standard American diet) because water kefir only tastes good to me if I'm not eating a lot of sugar.

A week ago, I decided that since I've been back on whole foods for a while it would be nice to have water kefir available again. It seems to have a great effect on my gut, making me more lactose tolerant, and I enjoy making home-made sodas by adding fruit juice and bottling it.

Anyhow, my new water kefir grains came yesterday. Very exciting! I'm pretty sure they were somewhat starved; when I opened them, they looked a little dehydrated and there was an "off" smell I don't remember from the first time I ordered grains.

I gave them a good rinse and put them into feeding solution, expecting to refresh the liquid this afternoon. Last night, though, I noticed the liquid was already a very light color and I realized I may have put in too many grains for the amount of feeding solution I made. So, I fed them then and carefully measured the right amount of grains for the amount of solution.

This morning the grains look more plump and the solution is lightening but not yet exhausted. I want a mid-day feeding schedule, so I plan to feed them again in a few hours. They may or may not have consumed all the sugar by then but I'm only planning to drink a small amount so it doesn't matter. 

Update: It's now mid-morning and I just did a routine jostling of the jar. I have tiny bubbles! That's a great sign that my water kefir grains are happy and are actively turning my feeding solution into water kefir. 

One thing I learned the first time around is that you start with a small dose and work your way up to a glassful per day. Water kefir clearly makes it though the stomach and interacts with your gut flora. If you happen to have some nasty bugs, or SIBO, the kefir could actually make you ill if you drink a lot to begin with. Since I had a very unhappy gut a couple days ago I plan to be very careful.
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Update #2: I started a new brewing cycle at noon PDST as planned. I was very happy to see a few grains that were markedly bigger than any of them were when received. As suspected, they were dehydrated when they arrived.

I measured 2 tbsp of grains into 2 cups of feeding solution in late evening yesterday, and by noon today I had about 3 tbsp. In a full 24-hour cycle the ideal is for the grains to about double in volume.

I tasted the "kefir" from this batch. Because of the incomplete brewing cycle, it still had a sweetness to it and didn't yet have the signature kefir flavor; it was as if I was expecting to taste hard cider but tasted fresh cider instead. I will consider tomorrow's spoonful my first "dose" and take things very slowly as planned.
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I was disappointed when I bought supplies for brewing the water kefir. I found a lemon and organic raisins easily, but I didn't yet find a wheel of dehydrated, non-additive figs. Not only do the water kefir grains seem to like having a fig in the solution, I absolutely LOVE the fermented figs after they've been through 1 or 2 brewing cycles. So I need to try more outlets to find some. The fermented raisins are okay, but nothing like as good as those figs.
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Update, 4/14: I'm now making and drinking carbonated blueberry sodas   as described in Brewing Water Kefir, part 2. The grains smell nice and fresh and they're doubling in volume each day. The fresh water kefir has a nice zing to it and the first soda, which I drank today, had great flavor and was nice and fizzy.

The good news is that I didn't have any strong reaction to drinking water kefir again despite my relapses last winter with wheat. Apparently my gut community was still pretty robust, because the kefir tastes great to me both fresh and carbonated and there was no churning or cramping from the initial doses of the kefir.

Brewing Water Kefir, part 2

If you aren’t familiar with the basic process of making water kefir I strongly recommend reading part 1 of this recipe—or basic recipes on other sites—before reading this article.

Sometime in the past day or two you started a new batch of water kefir and now we’re going to discuss ways of flavoring it and/or creating home-made sodas.

First, though, let’s review the overall daily routine: you need to feed your kefir grains by starting a new batch and you need to do something with the water kefir that is now fully brewed.

Feeding the Kefir Grains. This involves preparing a new sugar water solution in one of your glass mixing bowls (steps 1-5 in part 1 of this recipe), straining the finished water kefir into the other mixing bowl and rinsing your pitcher. Then rinse the kefir grains by running clear un-chlorinated water through the strainer. If they have multiplied, just put the amount of grains you need—usually a cup or so—back into the pitcher. 

Fermented Fruit--Sweet not Sour!

If the fruit in the cheesecloth was new yesterday, you can just rinse it and put it back in the pitcher. I always take out the now plump-and-juicy fig because I eat it on my yogurt, so I have to put in a new one. If the fruit has been used more than twice you should eat or discard it and rinse the cheesecloth, then make up another set of fruit (step 8 in part 1) and put the sack into the pitcher with the kefir grains.

Finally, pour the new sugar solution into the pitcher and stir so the grains get a nice flow of liquid. The actual amount of new sugar solution should be based on the number of people for whom you’re making it.  Also, if you mix fruit juice with your water kefir for a second fermentation, you’ll need less basic water kefir per day; if you don’t, you’ll need more. Just remember, it’s 1 tbsp of sugar for each cup of water. Cover the pitcher again and place it into a shady corner or cupboard.

Too many water kefir grains?  If your water kefir grains are healthy and happy, they are likely to multiply—mine frequently double in volume in a day of brewing. If you don’t have anyone who wants some and you don’t need them all, just measure a nice amount of rinsed grains into your pitcher for the next batch and throw the rest away. You can also eat them, they taste very sweet and nice and have a tapioca-like texture, or give them away or put some around your plants.

Too much water kefir? Since you need to keep enough microbes—I’d say at least a cup—to ensure a healthy community of them, and you need to feed them every day with new sugar water, the truth is you  may wind up with more water kefir than you wish to drink. At the end of the recipe I’ll mention resting the grains, but that’s a vacation or emergency thing rather than a casual practice so you need to give yourself permission to give away excess water kefir, feed it to your plants occasionally, or (gasp!) throw some away.

Using  the water kefir as is.  You don’t HAVE to flavor or bottle your basic water kefir. You can just put it into a regular pitcher/container and refrigerate it—I also like a room-temperature cup of the fresh kefir I just took out of the pitcher. The kefir is teeming with those probiotic microbes that are so good for you so unflavored, the water kefir will continue to get more and more sour and at some point you’ll probably find it undrinkable although it might make a fun substitute for vinegar.

If you seal it in an airtight bottle (I use the old-fashioned kind with long necks and rubber stoppers on wire brackets) it will still get more and more sour but it will also get fizzy. For good carbonation, leave it at room temperature for another day and “burp” the bottle to ease pressure before you chill it.

Pineapple Water Kefir

Flavoring the water kefir. If you browse the internet you’ll find many recipes for flavoring your water kefir. Two simple ones are adding vanilla extract or some grated fresh ginger (or ginger extract.) There are also extracts for other flavors such as root beer. If you don’t want to add other flavors but you need it to be sweeter you can just add your favorite sweetener but in that case I’d do it as you serve it rather than before chilling.

My preferred method for flavoring my water kefir is to add fruit or fruit juice. If you use fresh fruit, you’ll want to mash or puree it so the  microbes have lots of surface area to work on, and you’ll want to strain out the juice with cheesecloth or a fine strainer. So ready-made juice is more convenient.

Organic Grape Kefir

You’ll need to experiment to find the mixtures and flavors you like best. I normally mix 50% juice and 50% water kefir. It’s going to ferment again, remember, so the microbes will eat most of this sugar too. I’ve tried many flavors and my current favorite is blueberry. WARNING: I bought organic cranberry juice but it killed the probiotic bugs and didn't carbonate. I don't know if it's a lack of sugar or too much acid but I don't use cranberry juice anymore. I've had great results with pomegranate juice but I usually mix it with another juice so the total mix is only 20-25% pomegranate.

Now, when you buy 100% juice blueberry (and don’t buy juice with additives—just mixtures of juice) there will be other juices shown such as apple and that’s fine. When you first mix it, you may not taste much blueberry but after the second fermentation and chilling the blueberry flavor really pops out and, with the carbonation, it’s delightful. To make the pineapple water kefir pictured above, I pureed a fresh pineapple and strained the juice through cheesecloth. It turned out excellent, like fresh pineapple juice with a zing and fizzy bubbles.

Start with your favorite juices and see which ones are the best match for the kefir.

The second fermentation. All this means is that you  give your liquid more time at room temperature for the microbes in the water kefir to eat the sugar out of the fruit juice; if you don’t want carbonation just put it in a pitcher or container with a loose lid.

If you do want bubbles, use your funnel and pour the juice/kefir mix into bottles and leave a lot of space at the top. 

Ready for another day on the counter!

For instance, I use the long-necked bottles and I fill only to the top of the wide body of the bottle. If you fill the bottle too full and make it airtight there’s a risk the pressure of carbonation could blow the top right off the bottle. Leave the bottles at room temperature for 12-24 hours. The actual time will depend on how sweet your like your home-made sodas. Since the fermentation will continue for a while after the bottles go into the fridge, I put  my bottles into the fridge when the soda is still lightly sweet. “Burp” the bottles by carefully opening the tops and re-sealing them, and place them in the fridge.

And that’s it, except every day you get to drink either fresh or carbonated water kefir or both! With different flavors, it should never get boring. To get the maximum benefit from the probiotic microbes in your water kefir, drink it between meals so your stomach is empty and the probiotic bacteria can sail right through your (hostile) stomach and into your (friendly) gut.

Resting your water kefir grains. It’s risky to stop the daily routine as the grains may deteriorate or die. If you’ve given grains to friends and family, you have a back-up and you can just toss them if you wish. Otherwise, the easiest way to stop your daily routine for a vacation or other situation is to put some grains in a 2-cup jar, pour in new sugar water solution and cover the jar with a coffee filter. Put the jar in the fridge and the microbes will slow way down and not starve in a reasonable time of a week or two.

When you want to use them again, expect them to take a few days to get back into full action but make sure you give them new sugar solution every day.

I’ve also read that you can freeze them but I haven’t tried that. And, of course, you can buy a new starter set of grains.

Brewing Water Kefir, part 1

This recipe is divided into 2 parts because I normally brew my water kefir twice. In this part, I will talk about what water kefir is, how to get started and how to brew a batch of “fresh or raw” water kefir. The second part will talk about recipes for mixing and bottling water kefir to create home-made fruit sodas.

What is water kefir? If you do an Internet search for “water kefir” many detailed articles will come up so I will keep it simple: water kefir is a probiotic drink (think good microbes for your gut) that is fermented in a pitcher or jar on your counter or in a cupboard. There are 2 types of kefir, actually: dairy kefir and water kefir. I will talk only about water kefir.

Do I really want to make water kefir?

You should ask yourself this question before spending any money even though water kefir is really cheap to make. I thoroughly enjoy the daily routine of bottling water kefir and starting another batch, but it’s a commitment. You know, when you get a puppy you have to walk it e v e r y  d a y. Well, with water kefir you need to do the daily routine of feeding the kefir grains. Once every great while you can rest the grains in the fridge, but 95% of the time you need to rinse and feed them.

How can I get started brewing water kefir? If you don’t know anyone who makes water kefir (they’ll frequently have spare microbes they can share) you can purchase some of the microbes (commonly called water kefir “grains”) online. You’ll need to assemble some ingredients and supplies, many of which you already have, including some sugar—I use organic unrefined whole cane sugar from Rapunzel. The sugar is for the microbes, not you!

Ingredients:

• Sugar (different people use different types but I stick with the least processed, most complete type called rapadura
• Water kefir grains
• Baking soda
• Bone meal or egg shell (cleaned)
• Salt
• Fresh lemon
• Organic unsulphured/unsweetened raisins
• Unsulphured/unsweetened fresh or dehydrated figs
• Non-chlorinated water with normal minerals (don’t use city water or distilled; use well water, spring water, etc.)

Supplies:

• a glass 2-qt pitcher, fairly wide-mouthed
• 2 mixing bowls
• Cheesecloth, a piece large enough to make a 2-layer piece about a foot long
• A large strainer, either plastic or stainless steel
• 2 glass 2-cup measuring cups
• 1 tbsp plastic or stainless steel measuring spoon
• Wooden spoon
• Coffee filter, rubber band

Note: The items that I said “2 of” are for convenience and you could get by with only one.

How do I start drinking water kefir?

The recipe below will make 4 cups of water kefir, which is as much as a typical starter set of water kefir grains (several tbsp) can produce. Be prepared for the first few batches to be weak or sour as your kefir grains adjust to your home's water and temperature.

You can taste the water kefir at all steps at any time during fermentation; it will be sweet at first, because it’s just sugar water, then it will become less and less sweet as the microbes eat the sugar. At first just taste a tablespoon or so once or twice per day. Let your GI tract get used to the good microbes you are introducing.  When the kefir is done (not too sweet, not too sour) you should plan to toss the first batch or two—NOT the kefir grains, just the strained liquid--after drinking your small amount.

By the third batch, you should notice that it’s tasting better. That will be because your kefir grains are settling in and you are getting used to the taste. Gradually increase how much you drink every day. With luck, your kefir grains are now multiplying and you can increase to 6 cups of sugar solution if desired. Just remember, 1 tbsp of sugar for each cup of water.

I drink 2-5 cups of water kefir every day, but I took 2 weeks or so to build up to that amount and you  may  need more or less time to become fully accustomed to this new beverage.

How do I make a batch of water kefir? Okay, let’s go!

Kefir Grains

Fruit for Fermentation

1. Measure out one or more cups of water based on desired amount of kefir. Again, this should NOT be chlorinated or distilled; you need well or spring water.
2. Add one tablespoon of the Rapunzel sugar for EACH cup of water you will have in the pitcher; for the first batch, start with 4 tbsp (you can use any type of sugar, but if you  use refined sugar you need to add some blackstrap molasses—check online for recipes using other sugars.)
3. Heat a little of the water (a cup or less) and the measured sugar just hot enough to dissolve the sugar. While it’s heating, put the rest of the cool water into a mixing bowl.
4. Stir the heated water and sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved. Pour it into the bowl of cool water. The bowl of solution should barely feel warm,  about room temperature. If it's too warm, just let it sit and cool a while.
5. Add tiny pinches of the salt, baking soda and bone-meal/egg-shell into the sugar water that’s still in the mixing bowl.
6. Remove your kefir grains from the container or storage liquid and rinse them with cool clean water (not part of your brewing liquid, and again it can’t be chlorinated.) Put them into the glass pitcher you’ll use to brew the water kefir.
7. Pour the pleasantly cool sugar water into the pitcher.
8. The fig, ¼ fresh lemon (well scrubbed on the outside) and 6-8 golden raisins should be tied up in the cheesecloth. You don’t have to use the cheesecloth but it makes it much easier to discard the used fruit later; without it, you’ll be picking the raisins out of the kefir grains. The lemon is important because it adds acid to the brewing solution.
9. Drop the cheesecloth sack into the pitcher.
10. Put a coffee filter or two over the mouth of the pitcher and hold in place with a rubber band. Put the pitcher on the counter where it won’t get direct sun or in a cupboard.

Brand New Brew Solution

That’s it! If you’re around, stir it occasionally with the wooden spoon. Check the brew after about 24 hours. If it no longer tastes sugary sweet and the color of the liquid is much lighter (with my whole sugar, it goes from dark brown to honey color) the batch is done. The longer you let it brew the more tart it will get. If it’s not done, you can let it brew up to 48 hours but with the first batch or two plan to prepare new sugar water (steps 1-5 above) after 24 hours because you are trying to encourage the grains to grow.

Strain the water kefir you're going to drink or store into a cup or container. Any liquid you're not going to keep can be strained into the sink. Rinse your kefir grains--now in the strainer--in cool, clean non-chlorinated water and put them in the new liquid and also rinse your pitcher out. 

Ready to Strain and Drink/Flavor

Freshly Strained Water Kefir--Good!

If your grains multiply, you will reach a point where you need to make more water kefir at a time OR you will need to throw some of the grains away--or give them to friends and family. It's good if they grow as it means they're happy and probably making terrific water kefir!

Please note that water kefir grains can starve if left too long after all the sugar is gone from the brewing water. My water kefir has always been ready after 24 hours. Don't put too many grains in the sugar water or they'll run out of food and could starve.

If you want to bottle the water kefir you can, but I recommend you just sample and toss the first two batches because you’re only drinking small quantities per day anyway. I normally use the bag of fruit at least twice before discarding it, rinsing the cheesecloth in non-chlorinated water and putting new fruit in it.

Fresh water kefir from the first brewing cycle (not yet flavored or carbonated) is not particularly sweet or fruity, although I enjoy about 1/2 cup of it in the morning. It is somewhat like apple cider if you're off sugar, more like vinegar if you're adapted to a high-sugar diet. It is, of course, teeming with the good bugs for your gut.

In part 2, we’ll add flavor and seal the water kefir in an airtight bottle or container so it becomes carbonated. If you don't want to add anything for flavor, just seal it loosely if you don't want bubbles and tightly if you do.

Important: If you put water kefir into an airtight bottle or jar, it should be "burped" once or twice a day to release carbon dioxide. After a day or so, put it in the fridge for a day or two and the fermentation will slow down so you can stop worrying about pressure but always open water kefir slowly and move the top carefully in case it's very fizzy.

Resources: I recommend you check out Basic Water Kefir Instructions and this  YouTube video