Make Your Own Water Kefir
What you need:
- Swing top heavy duty bottles, Glass jar with plastic lid, strainer
- Tap water, after chlorine has been evaporated by sitting at room temperature for 24h
- White sugar (honey is anti-bacterial and will work the first time but will kill the grains with time)
- Optionally, lemon and dried figs give a little punch; fresh ginger with the skin to feed the yeast; a tsp of molasses,coconut sugar, a pinch of sea salt or baking soda for extra minerals.
Preparation:
- Our dry grains must first be rehydrated: place them in 500ml of water with 30g of sugar. Let sit at ambient temperature. After 24h, strain the grains and repeat.
- Fresh, refrigerated grains are inactive. To reactivate them, simply follow the procedure for the first fermentation twice before moving on to the second fermentation.
First fermentation
In a clean glass jar with a plastic lid, dissolve 30g of sugar in 500ml of water. Add the grains (you can also add any mineral boosting ingredient). However, keep the fruits and other flavorings for the second fermentation. Cover tightly, and leave ferment for 24 to 48h. Taste to measure the change. Strain, recuperate the grains, and start a new batch, or soak them in a water and sugar solution to store in the refrigerator.
Second fermentation
For a 2nd fermentation, add fresh fruits, fruit juices, herbs like mint, or lemon balm, ginger, hibiscus, or vanilla to the kefir (the grains having being filtered out). Raspberry-mint, cranberry-lime, strawberry and black pepper are recommended Leave for 24h at room temperature to create a bubbly kefir. Open the bottle once a day to let out accumulated CO2. It will keep in the refrigerator for about two weeks. If the sugar content is still high, the second fermentation may continue.
Taking a break?
Make a sugar water mixture, add your grains and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, and repeat. To reactivate the grains, follow the instructions for fresh, refrigerated grains (above).
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