Beginner's Guide To Making Water Kefir

Besides making kombucha tea, another drink full of probiotics is kefir.  I'm making both since they each have different types of bacteria.

Recipe For Making Water Kefir

- 2 cups of spring water
- 2 tbsp of organic cane sugar
- 2 tbsp of kefir grains

Instructions:

Dissolve the sugar in room temperature water by stirring with a spoon (no need to warm the water).   Add the kefir grains and cover.  Leave in a dark place.  Change after 1 - 2 days.  It's that simple.  If you prefer to have it bubblier, cover with a tight lid instead a coffee filter.


Water kefir grains require a balance of sugar and minerals.  Either use mineral water or sugar that has a lot of minerals in it, such as cane sugar, succanet, rapadura or molasses.  If there are too many minerals in the solution, the resultant kefir water can become slimy.


Things not to do:
- don't use distilled water unless you're planning to add other minerals to the mixture
- try to avoid tap water because of the fluoride and chlorine
- don't use refined sugar unless you have added other minerals as well
 

I rinse out the grains every few batches to get rid of any excess sugar build up.  I use a sieve to catch the grains and pour 2 cups of spring water over it and then use the water for that batch.

By the end of the first day, small bubbles between the grains.

And at the top of the jar.

By the second day, it's very foamy.

After a day, I notice small bubbles in between the grains.  By the second day, the bubbles will be huge and there will be a layer of them on the top (this is when I use the coffee filter).  If you put a lid on the jar, be careful when opening it, as the fizz can overflow.

My grains are clear because I use organic white cane sugar and the kefir water smells like yeast.  If you use molasses, it can give the grains a nice amber tinge but I find the smell of molasses even more off-putting than yeast. 

To store the grains, place in the fridge in fresh sugar solution (1 tbsp to 1 cup sugar solution) and change it every week (the grains become less active in the cold but still need sugar to survive).  When you change the solution, don't drink it because the balance of the kefir water will be off.  To use the grains again, take them out of the fridge and wait until the liquid comes to room temperature (there should be bubbles between the grains).  Then change the water.  Water kefir grains can go into shock if placed suddenly in different temperature.  When grains have been stored a long time, they sometimes develop a coat of sugar.  Gently mush the grains against a sieve to remove the excess sugar.

 Another way of storing the grains is drying them.  To re-hydrate them, simply place them in sugar water again.

I start with 2 tbsp of grains and this grows with every water change.  It soon gets to be too much, so I eat the extra grains, give them to family members who are too lazy to make the kefir drink themselves or sell them.

When I drink water kefir, I flavour it with lemon juice or fresh fruit juice.  To make water kefir fizzier, add more sugar and flavourants and bottle with a tight lid for another day.