The second fermentation is a step many don’t realize needs to happen before you can get the carbonation automatically assumed there when you drink water kefir. You can definitely achieve pop and fizz naturally! Let’s pick up where we left off last – you’ve strained your grains from its 48 hour ferment. You can do fruit juice or fruit – we’re doing frozen fruit. On hand, cherries! Plop them in your finished water kefir…make sure it’s in a mason jar + lid/ring that will ensure a good seal. With fresh/frozen fruit, sometimes you can achieve pop and fizz is just one day. You can also put it in a Grolsch-Style flip top lidded bottle, but it’s super hard to get that fruit out of...
From time to time your Water Kefir Grains might give you a run for your money (and patience). Here are some common troubleshooting issues. My grains are sluggish! What do I do? Raisins! Add a small handful of raisins to your next culturing batch, ensuring the raisins are free of oil and sulfur. This batch will be sweeter since raisins are naturally sweet, and the grains will feast upon the natural sugar. Fun fact, if you eat the raisins after the culturing time, they won’t be sweet anymore. Also, because of the extra fruit sugar, extra carbonation should develop. Oh, and raisins add a little boost of nutrition! You can also do a “rinse and rest” where you gently rinse grains in filtered water...
Water Kefir is one of the easiest cultured drinks to make. In addition to the grains, all you need are two to three ingredients: Sugar Water Minerals (only needed if your water is lacking) Sugar The good sugars: Cane sugar/organic cane juice crystals/organic evaporated cane juice crystals – by far the best and our favorite for water kefir. It will make a sweet drink, so for a little less sweetness, in our kitchen we do a blend of mostly white cane sugar + a little rapadura. White cane sugar – a great sugar for water kefir. But, because it’s refined/processed, there are no minerals in it. If you find your Water Kefir Grains are not quite thriving, they might need...
Although not extensive, here’s a Do’s and Don’ts list to get you started when working with Water Kefir Grains! Ingredients: DO use water free of chlorine, fluoride, chloramine, and other harmful additives. If using well or spring water, DON’T use rapadura, turbinado, Sucanat or add extra minerals. This causes over-mineralization, and your grains likely will become mushy, fall apart, or disappear. DO use a cane sugar such as: rapadura, turbinado, Sucanat, white sugar, or evaporated cane juice crystals. This is exactly what your grains crave. DON’T use honey, palm sugar, stevia, agave, artificial sweeteners, maple syrup, sorghum syrup, coconut sugar, beet sugar, corn based sweeteners, powdered sugars, and invert sugars. These are nutritiously deficient. If you want a sweeter kefir,...
Water Kefir Grains are by far one of the easiest (and most fun) cultures I have ever encountered. It’s the healthiest “soda” out there, complete with pop and fizz! You can flavor it as well during that second ferment for the pop and fizz, so let’s start by waking up these babies! Gather up your supplies: I’ve always used the creamier colored organic cane sugar (evaporated cane juice crystals), so experiment with your cane sugars as the type will influence the taste of the finished water kefir. Do not use beet sugar, sugar alcohols (i.e. xylitol), honey, stevia, etc. JUST USE CANE SUGAR for your grains’ optimal health. You’ll likely get failed results or sick/dead grains in the end, and we...
