How to Make Water Kefir

Learn to make this delicious dairy-free probiotic-rich beverage at home. Water kefir is easy to make and can be flavored a number of ways--your family will love it! Step-by-step instructions.

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Howto & Style

Tags:

• water kefir
• probiotic
• dairy-free
• make
• how to
• homemade
• kefir grains

[CulturesforHealth]

You can dry them or eat them too. To dry them just lay them on a piece of unbleached parchment paper and put them in a warm part of your house to dry (but not over 95 degrees). It usually takes a few days for them to dry. Once they are dry, you can store them in a zip lock bag in the fridge as a back up in case anything happens to your regular set of kefir grains.

[CulturesforHealth]

That's a great point--there are a number of ways to pronounce Kefir and the popularity of each tends to be regional. keh-FEAR is one, there's also KEE-fir and KEF-fear.

[CulturesforHealth]

Technically you can use water kefir grains in milk with a couple of caveats. First, they need to be fully activated in sugar water and well established before putting them in milk. Second, once they go into milk, they can't go back to sugar water (no switching back and forth). Third, while they will normally culture the milk, the results are more unpredictable in terms of taste and texture than if you're using milk kefir grains.

[CulturesforHealth]

Adding the berries and lemon may have caused the taste. Both the berries and lemon contain fruit sugar that was fermenting right along with the sugar water. There are a couple of things you can try. One would be to culture it for less time (I'd start tasting it at 24 hours). If that doesn't work, try making your water kefir plain and then after the kefir grains are removed, add the berries and lemon and let it sit for at least a day (and up to a couple of days). Hopefully that helps :)

[drevyl]

My first batch is fermenting but was seeing no growth.That little line you mentioned about the kefir taking the first few batches to grow eased my concern. thanks!

[thoromicina2]

@JesusChristlovesu1 Same thing happens to me, I know they´re bacteria, but even so I call them little animals hehe and can´t throw them away either, please if you find what to do with the excess, other than giving them away, which I usually do, please tell me, and If I find out first I´ll tell you. do we have a deal? =D

May Jesus Bless You.

[JesusChristlovesu1]

I have alot of them they multiply like crazy hehehe, I dont have the heart to through them away, so I really dont know what to do with them, Im wondering if I can dry them and storage them, or something.....some suggestions? help!!

[mledubya]

keh-FEAR.

[lalamango1]

Once hydrating with water, can you then use the kefir grains with milk to create milk kefir? Can you go back and forth between the 2 liquids?

[jstylz77]

activated the grains in 4 cups water, 2 tbsp organic cane sugar, 2 tbsp sucanat & set for 3 days. drained/ discarded water, made a little more than 4 tbsp of kefir grains. my 1st batch of kefir was basically the same as the activation water, except i added about 15-20 goji berries(navitas naturals) and a slice of lemon. let that sit for 48 hrs. i got excited when i saw the soda/beer like fuzz appear. so i tried my kefir, and it tasted like a beer?! is this cool? maybe because of the 48 hrs?