Water Kefir, my healthier "Soda"!

SCOBYs piled in a heart shape!

I was delighted to discover Water Kefir over a year ago! 

I like having a kefir option that does not involve milk. Water Kefir creates a culture you can experiment with adding in your own flavors in a endless amount of ways. 
From the usual root-beer, orange, and lemon standard flavors, you can go creative with coconut water, fresh fruits, herbs, flower petals, Douglas Fir tips, elderberries, (any berry) hibiscus, ginger and on and on-really the internet is full of ideas for wildly tasty recipes you can easily make.  
In a way all this knowledge, and spreading out of cultures to ferment, has freed us from the few drinks now sold in the store, to a chance to go inventive and wild, in our own kitchens for a fraction of the cost!
Notice the heart shape? No lie this jar was laying on it's side in the refer and when I pulled it out and saw that the culture had settle into a heart shape, I tip-toed out to the porch rail with it (for better light) and snapped a shot- Look at that! It is a love affair!  A February message! I know- cheesy but I love it, and I think this is saying it is a happy culture too!
This jar is in its second ferment with blue berries and a small slice of ginger because I love the zing.  That means after the first 48 hrs of fermenting in a half gallon jar, I re-bottled the fermented water in these EZ-Caps to develop the fizz.
Soda was never a big part of my life, we did not have it as a rule when I grew up except for camping trips, super special occasions, or those exceedingly rare times we ate out. 
I love the carbonation though, and I have missed it -(having gave up things that were not serving me well- all for better health).  With Kefir water I have the fizz and the healthful benefits of fermented water.

SO What is Water Kefir?

Just what is water kefir? It is a culture known as tibicos or tibis, Tibetan crystals, or Japanese water crystals, and a few other names-it is a SCOBY -which is to say it is a Symbiotic Community Of Bacteria and Yeast. They are not really grains, like wheat and such but they are called that in a descriptive sense, because of how they look.

Kefir grains

They look like gelatinous blobs, or a bit like tapioca cereal to me.
It is exceedingly easy to ferment water kefir, and the rewards of of the bubbly refreshing drink makes it so worth it! I find the kind of carbonation it provides does not cause digestive discomfort (that "bloatful" feeling) like a store bought soda drinks can.

The down side-it is a relationship with a living culture that needs to be cared for and fed, regularly. Even though I have a super busy life and not a lot of extra time, developing a rhythm with it, makes it like a dance step in the kitchen I am willing to do. Once you ferment that perfect flavor- you will too!

Water Kefir Benefits!

So what is so good about this water kefir anyway? Kefir help support your gut health which leads to general overall wellness, given how science is finding our health springs from our digestive track, drinking something that contributes rather than detracts from gut health makes sense.

How it works: The sugar is consumed by the kefir grains, they metabolize it and produce B vitamins, food enzymes, a variety of beneficial acids, and more helpful bacteria. 

This fermentation process reduces the sugar content of the drink, which is always a good thing. (If you are diabetic you should of course monitor your blood sugar to make sure whether it works for you or not.)

SO Lets Make Some!

Equipment needed:

• Glass Jar (one quart or half gallon)
• Wooden spoon
• Towel, coffee filter or cheese cloth to cover up your jar
• Rubber band to hold it on the jar
• Strainer
• Organic sugar
• Small pan to heat water (and dissolve sugar)
• Clean water (water without chemicals, chlorine, fluoride)
• Your SCOBY culture

Step one: If you don't have a friend able to give you some of their grains, buy some culture. I got mine from these awesome folks on line, Cultures for Health but our BriarPatch store here in Grass Valley also sells them.

If you are lucky enough to get some live culture you are set and ready to make kefir drink (if you have to buy the dried starter you will have to follow the directions and let them "first ferment themselves up to speed", before you can make a full powerful batch) . Just follow the directions in the package. You will be essentially letting them build up their colony enough to make substantial batches for you in the future. So once you have culture that is up and ready here is to do:

Add sugar to small pan 

First I measure out the amount of sugar needed, I have sucanat here, a sugar with a slight  molasses taste. The SCOBYs seem to love it, I alternated with regular organic cane sugar in the next ferment just to give them variety.  I put in 1/4 cup of sugar

Heat to dissolve sugar

per quart of water and  heat it to dissolve then let it cool thoroughly (sometimes I add ice) if I am in a hurry. Heat will kill your SCOBYs and very cold will stall them,  so keep the temps like or about room temperature.   

Straining out SCOBYs

If your culture is up to speed and has been fermenting for 48 hrs strain out your culture into another clean jar. There is debate over whether metal is harmful to the culture, and you can see me using my moms old metal strainer, here. I have a silicone plastic one I use now- just in case.

I put the culture into the clean jar and fill it with filtered water, being careful to leave enough room to add the sugar water too.

Add SCOBYs back into new clean jar

Water IS THE BIG DEAL here. Think living culture, needing a chlorine free world, free of fluoride, and other toxic things normally found in our drinking water. 

Add clean water

It may make you stop a moment and think- if all those chemicals kill SCOBYs what are they doing to us and our digestive health? What I call "clean" water is so important to the SCOBYs. We are accustom to thinking that water from our faucets as safe for drinking, and in some ways that may be true, but for these living cultures they need water that has no chlorine, fluoride, or water softener chemicals. Also now days many water companies are adding chloramines (a mix of ammonia and chlorine)  which cannot be boiled out or evaporated out. Your SCOBYs need clean fresh water each time. The problem with filtering my water here at my home is it has lead to a low mineral content which has made sluggish cultures that don't multiply. I have resorted to clean filtered water that I beef up once in a while by putting in a small piece of sterilize egg shell (a surprising experiment that resulted in the dissolving of the shell in the two days). As weird as that sounds, it put minerals into the culture. You can also purchase mineral drops on line, if you think they are necessary, as a more modern approach.   Below is the new jar filled with the dissolved sugar and SCOBY culture, capped with a coffee filter to keep out any unwanted guests. It is dark because of the type of sugar I used. On day two you can see the culture in action metabolizing the sugar, it is considerably lighter in color.

Day one

Day two

This jar does not show it, but adding a piece of organic ginger root about the size of your thumb and a few raisins and a slice of lemon seems to send the SCOBY into ecstasy and they multiply even better! So experiment but be careful, not to add too much or things that cannot be easily picked out when you go to strain out the SCOBYs.
The text all say not to leave the SCOBYs longer than 48 hrs or they will starve or acidify their own home so much they can die. The one cheat I found that works somewhat on days I am just too tired to bottle for the "second ferment" to get the delightful fizz, I add 2 or three spoons of sugar and 1/2 cup more water which buys me some time. Putting them in the refer may work also but it tends to slow down the cultures growth, which is better than having them die though.
Also small tip here: I live where it gets really cold, even in our home so I bought a Betta fish bowl heater and set my kefir on it during cold spells really seems to work! You can get them at Petco also. I set mine down on a piece of marble kitchen stone bought at a re-store and set my jar on top of it. I do not use it inside.

The Second Ferment! The Fizz!

Bottle the cultured batch

It is particularly important to use caution here. When creating the much desired fizz, use only bottles designed for pressure like the self capping bottles you see in the picture below, or recycle ones you have bought kombucha in -those bottles are thicker and heavier. You can buy the  Grolsch flip tops bottles on line, or if you are  lucky to live in Grass Valley, CA our local Bottle Shop Sierra Moonshine  carries them at a great price. So here you see me filling the bottles. I leave the neck of the bottle empty so ferment can build and it gives me a bit of room to add my berries, or ginger, or juice flavorings also. 

A cheap beginner way to make ferment is using old clean beer bottles with a balloon stretched over the top and put a couple of pin pricks in the end of it to let "just some" pressure out.
Then after two days, cap and put in the refer.

Safety note!
These bottles will built natural pressure in the process of fermentation and can even explode if too much pressure is allowed to build- so thoughtful management is an important safety piece. 

Some people wrap each bottle in a hand towel with a rubber band, so that IF the bottle were to break from fermentation pressure, it would contain the glass. I opt for remembering to release the pressure at least once a day, by lifting the cap and then re-closing it. I keep them on the floor where it is cooler, and am extremely careful and mindful of the effects of pressure. 

Add one teaspoon of sugar

I add one teaspoon of sugar (more is not better here) to help create the desired "Fizz". Then comes creative fun: add berries, add ginger root, add rose hips, or rose petals, add fruit juice, add what ever your heart desire to create that special drink! The internet is full of recipes and cool ideas.

Add berries or some other exciting item to flavor

I have experimented with making different batches adding just plan fruit juices, or lemon grass, or mints leaves, or all kinds of berries, even Douglas fir tips, or cherries, raisins, prune juice, on and on-and of course have found my favorites!

Berries strained out just to show you-

After two days in the second ferment, I strained out some of the berries and sliced ginger because I was not sure I wanted to eat them, since then I figured out I  love eating the berries, a fermented treat so I leave them in.

Finished berry batch!

Let me know what wonderful Kefir drink you have made- I might want to try it too!

Sincerely, Boni