Water Kefir Basics

I've been playing with water kefir lately.  I've never really cared too much for most cultured dairy, so when I learned about water kefir, I was really excited!  Hubby only ever drinks Dr Pepper, and I'd really like to find something he likes that is better for him than that.  The water kefir sounds like it might just be the ticket.  I did a lot of reading before ordering my grains, ended up buying them off ebay for a really reasonable price, and they arrived just after Thanksgiving.  I was concerned about not feeding them enough at the start, so I think I actually ended up feeding them too much.  I ended up with kefir that was way too yeasty and therefore the final product was rather alcoholic.  Nothing wrong with that, but not what I was after!  The good thing about that was that my grains really grew fast, and gave me enough to do a lot of experimenting with.  I seem to have come up with a good system of making kefir water without them growing too fast or getting alcoholic.  It looks like this:

Equipment:

-1 half gallon Ball wide mouth mason jar
-1 metal lid band
-Small coffee filters
-Nut milk bag or nylon strainer
-Long handled wooden or plastic spoon
-Non metal bowl to put the grains in while you refresh the sugar water.  There are many theories out there about metal harming fermenting agents.  I don't know what I believe yet and I haven't had time to experiment and gather evidence, so I just follow the mainstream because it's not too much trouble.
-Bottles that can hold pressure for the carbonation phase. I purchased my 1 liter plastic bottles at Kroger. They held sparkling water, which I drank and then saved the bottle.  Many people buy flip top bottles because they are glass, but I prefer the plastic ones because they won't explode glass shards all over my kitchen if they over pressurize and I can avoid fizz explosions by releasing the pressure gradually instead of all at once.

Ingredients and process:
7 cups filtered water at room temperature
1/2 cup water kefir grains
1/4 cup sucanat or demerara sugar, alternating. The sucanat has more minerals, which feeds the kefir, but if used exclusively it seems to develop more yeast.  I'm still experimenting with this.  Most of the recipes out there call for 1/2 cup of sugar per half gallon, but that was making the kefir too sweet and too yeasty, which has the natural result of becoming alcoholic.  If you are using plain white sugar, you can add 1 teaspoon of molasses to supplement minerals, or get trace mineral drops.

Heat 1 cup of the filtered water and the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Sugar crystals can damage the kefir grains, so make sure it is all dissolved.  Pour into the jar and add the rest of the water. 

Add the water kefir crystals. 

Take out a coffee filter and write the date and time along the edge (because I can't keep track of things otherwise, lol), then place over the mouth of the jar and screw the metal band on over it.

Sit it out on the counter and stir it every 12 hours or so.  It will start to sound fizzy after you stir it and smell a bit sour and yeasty, but not too much.  Taste it after stirring it each time to see how it's coming.  A cooler kitchen will take longer, a warmer kitchen will be faster.  Right now it's winter and we keep the house around 65-70, so it's taking about 2 days for it to get where I like it.  In the summer I imagine it will only take 1 to 1 and a half days.  If your kitchen is colder than 68, you might try putting the jar in the oven with the light on and the door cracked to help it be warm enough to be active.  I'm finding that even though the house gets colder at night, it's warm enough during the day to keep it active.





After it is pleasantly sour, I line my 4 cup measure with a nut milk bag and pour 3 1/2 cups into the measure, then place the bag into a ceramic bowl while I pour the kefir water into a 1 liter bottle. 

 Replace the bag into the measure and pour the rest of the water kefir into the measure, swirling at the end to get all the kefir grains out.  If there are some left, you can pour some of the kefir back in the jar, keeping the grains separate in the bag, and swirl again to remove the last of them.  Pick up the bag with the grains inside and squeeze it very gently to help the kefir flow out. 

 Set it aside in the ceramic bowl.  Pour the kefir into the other 1 liter bottle and set aside.  Gently flip the grains out of the bag, and gently scrape the sides of it with a spoon or spatula to clean what sticks to the bag off. 

 Rinse the bag so the leftover grains won't dry and get stuck on it.  Then you can scoop the grains into a plastic or glass measure cup to measure out 1/2 cup.  Restart the process for making kefir water. 

The extra grains can be stored in a more concentrated sugar water solution in the fridge for a week or two.  I put them in a quart jar with 1/4 cup sugar and about 2 cups of water.  Date when you put them in so you don't forget and let them starve.  When you have enough, pass them to a friend!