Water kefir is a delicious homemade, healthy fermented soft drink. Making your own water kefir is mind-bogglingly easy, tingly fresh, incredibly delicious, and very satisfying. 

A good beginning: how to start with making water kefir

If you receive fresh water kefir grains, start using them as soon as you receive them. If you wait you run the risk that the kefir will not start up properly or not at all. In any case, it will take longer for it to regain its full strength. If you really must, refrigerate the kefir for as short a time as possible.

Ingredients

• Use a ratio of grains: water of roughly 1:10 (so 100 grams af kefir grains for 1 liter of water).
• Sugar can be roughly 0.5-1: 10 (so 50-100 grams per liter). Ideally, use organic cane sugar.

Often lemon and figs are added. However, contrary to many reports, it is not a requirement to add a lemon by default. It will do just fine without it, although it is true that a lemon will immediately give the solution an acidic climate, which will make the kefir do its job quickly and avoid infection. Avoid using fruits with pesticides on them- if in doubt, always ask.

Figs are often used because they contain substances that promote growth on the kefir grain. If that doesn’t matter to you feel free to use raisins, cranberries, etc. To be safe, always keep some kefir grains on hand that you put away with sugar water only. Then you can always fall back on that if things go wrong.

Timing and temperature

Water kefir will ferment in 24-48 hours. If you are lucky and your grains are very active, this may happen in 24 hours but usually, 2 days is the average.

For best results, prepare kefir at room temperature (20-24 degrees C), and never too cold.

Second fermentation

After the first 48 hours, your water kefir will be ready to drink. However, many opt for a second fermentation. This usually takes 12-24 hours, and during this additional flavors can be added. Often the fermentation is done in a sealed bottle so that your water kefir gets carbonated adding to the freshness. Beware that the bottle must be able to handle pressure, eg. round. If not it will explode!

Leave the bottle during the second fermentation completely sealed to build up pressure.

Using dried water kefir grains

When using dried kefir grains, after rehydrating kefir grains need time to adjust and mature before they will begin to grow. The adjustment period is normal and may vary widely in length from a few days to a few weeks. In most cases at around 4 days – which coincides with your 2nd water kefir-making cycle – the kefir is at about 60 to 80% of its original activity. This will grow to 100% over the course of 1 or 2 weeks. You can overcome this by adjusting the proportions a bit, so a bit more grains relative to the water used.  

• Water kefir grains should have a crystal-like appearance and a gel-like structure and may get colored due to the other ingredients used for making water kefir such as sugar.
• Healthy water kefir normally multiplies between 40 and 100% in 2 days. Less is possible because kefir can get bigger and smaller again in a continuous cycle. 
• But most importantly, your water kefir tastes great  
• Mushy: if you get a feeling that the grains are becoming mushy you might feed them too much or too little minerals. Reduce or increase the minerals in your fermentation, by adding unrefined sugar, molasses, baking soda, mineral drops, lemon juice, etc. In the case of too much mineralization just use regular white sugar.
• Grains not growing: If your kefir does not grow the temperature may be too low, and this can slow down the fermentation and the growth of the grains. Also when you over-ferment the water kefir too many times in a row this can affect the growth of the grains too. Another reason may be the water that may be damaging the grains, especially when there is too much chlorine in it, and filtered water lacks the minerals that kefir grains feed on. Use natural spring water full of minerals to stimulate the growth of grains. Make sure you feed the grains regularly so the grains don’t starve for longer periods and do not leave them fermenting at very low temperatures. Is your kefir less active? Then use proportionately more grains and vice versa. In winter there will also be slower fermentation unless the kefir is near the heating (be careful not to overheat!). 
• Foam can develop as a result of the combination of the fermentation of sugar, the contents of the fruit used, and the development of carbon dioxide, and is no problem.
• “Dust” on the surface is a sign that you have left the kefir standing too long (over two days) days. This is no problem but it will affect the taste; it tastes more bitter/sour. But if they smell bad this means they are rotting and should be discarded.

“Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria that live in our gut and play a crucial role in maintaining our health. They help us digest food, absorb nutrients, and fight off harmful bacteria. Probiotic-rich foods, like water kefir, can help replenish and support the growth of these important bacteria.”
– Dr. Mark Hyman

In conclusion

Water kefir is a delicious and refreshing probiotic drink that not only quenches your thirst but also supports your gut health with beneficial bacteria.

Want to know more?

If you want to know more about water kefir, or just order it, please click the links below for the product on startercultures.eu. We have both the dried grains -for a lifetime- and the starter culture for a ready-made quick kefir soda.