Water Kefir Questions

[Pat Robinson]

• Homemade Probiotics?
• Real Kefir Grains vs. kefir starter
• Non-dairy Kefir (and Candida)
• Water Kefir vs. Kombucha
• Probiotics 101
• Intro to Ferments
• Sharing Starter Cultures
• Probiotic Selection

Have questions about making water kefir? Feel free to post here for assistance.

Water Kefir
Ingredients / Utensils

• 6 to 8 cup glass jar. I use a Mason jar.
• Plastic sieve or colander.

• few tablespoons or more water kefir grains
• 2-3 unsulphured dates (or other dried fruit: prunes, apricots, raisins) (optional)
• 1/2 organic lemon (or peeled if not organic)
• 1/3-1/2 cup sugar- brown, raw, white or Rapadura etc.
• 1 tsp of unsulfured black strap molasses (for minerals) (optional)
• fill jar 2/3 with fresh water, preferably spring water or well water. ***MUST be non-chlorinated water!! No tap water.

1. Store covered in the cupboard at room temperature for 24-72 hours.
2. Strain the grains from the liquid kefir, and repeat above.
3. Store the liquid kefir in the refrigerator until use. Use within a week or so.
4. Start consuming only small quantities of 1 tablespoon of kefir, gradually increasing (or decreasing) depending upon tolerance

The water kefir grains will reproduce rapidly! Share the extra with friends and neighbors for improved health.

Water Kefir photos and instructions: http://www.weim.net/homeovet/Docs/water%20kefir.pdf

Instructions: http://nourishedkitchen.com/water-kefir/

Making Water Kefir (video):

 

Ordering more culture starters: http://www.culturesforhealth.com/splash.php

The King of Kefir: http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html#Kefir-d-acqua

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P.S. Favorite Posts:

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     •  The Beet Test (stomach acid?) 

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[Brandy Lance]

 

Hi Pat and Sarah,

Firstly, I didn't mean to make it sound like it was Pat's grains that caused the problem.  Another person on here sent me my first two T and the grains did the same thing.  <sniff sniff>  They were growing but for the past two weeks they haven't produced much at all.  I have a friend in a different town who said hers have stopped growing too but she's had hers for a long time and I don't know where she got them. We went through a big cold spell and our house was cold.  We had the thermostat set at 65 and it was running all of the time. 

 

As for the filter, I have a New Wave Enviro Product filter that we purchased from Vitamin Cottage.  It's a really good filter and goes from our tap, through a hose, to the filter housing and out a spigot on the housing.  I use it for my kombucha too and the kombucha does well.  I've also been wondering about mineral content.  Perhaps something else is being stripped from the water through my filter or something? 

 

Fruit: the mangoes are unsulphured.  I was worried about that too when I bought them but our health food store had a label that says all of their dried bulk fruits are unsulphured.  Our blackstrap is unsulphured too.  I'm using beet sugar because I have a cane sensitivity but the grains shrank even when I started w/ the cane for a few weeks.

 

There are still some clumps in my grains but not a lot.  I think that Pat's comparison to dried couscous sounds about right.  Some are smaller like the heavy sand.  I am using cloth tea bags to strain the grains in because I'm worried that the grains will fall through a nylon strainer.  

 

I'm totally stymied.  I thought I'd buy a gallon of distilled water from our health food store and see if that makes a difference.  If so, I guess it might be the filter.  I'm sure that the chlorine is stripped because we can taste a major difference and I have the same brand of filter on our shower head and that's made a tremendous difference for my scalp.  I don't know if it's taking some minerals out though that the grains need? 

Thanks for help with the trouble shooting too ladies.  I'm at a loss!  ;)

[Peggy]

Thank you all for responding.  I've not been on this site recently, so forgive my delay.  My kefir grain emergency has been resolved by two things.  I've started adding liquid mineral drops to my grains.  I also experimented with adding molasses to a different jar of grains, and it also seems to help the kefir grains grow in size and quantity.  However, the molasses is a very strong flavor, so I am sticking to the mineral drops.

 

I think ultimately the problem was my water, which is filtered but still has some chloramine in it.  My daughter was helping me with the batch which contained the dissolving grains, and I wonder if she had used the wrong faucet?!?!

 

I have stopped measuring my sugar amount, and just do it by taste.  It seems to be working well.  There is a wonderful site about kefir grains, www.yemoos.com with tons of information.  Thanks again everyone for your help :o)

[Brandy Lance]

Peggy, thanks for posting this.  I, too,  am trying the molasses more and it does seem as though my grains are collecting in to bigger pieces a bit more.  I'm also thinking it may be the mineral content in my water and agree w/ the strong flavor of the molasses.  My husband likes it because he likes the extra iron content.  Could you tell me what kind of mineral drops you are adding?  Do you get at a health food store? 

Peggy said:

  I've started adding liquid mineral drops to my grains.  I also experimented with adding molasses to a different jar of grains, and it also seems to help the kefir grains grow in size and quantity.  However, the molasses is a very strong flavor, so I am sticking to the mineral drops.

[Jamie]

Where do you find your liquid minerals?

[Peggy]

Hi Brandy and Jamie,

 

I picked up the liquid mineral drops from Whole Foods, which is a chain retail store catering to organics/natural.  It was expensive . . . $20 for a 4 oz bottle, but you only use a few drops at a time.  I didn't know which brand to get, so I just picked up Concen Trace Trace Mineral Drops.  It was one of three available.

 

I found the same exact brand online at Vitacost for about $13, though, so if you have time, maybe shop around.  This brand does not contain additional calcium, yet the kefir grains seem to be doing really well.  I am still using organic sugar with the minerals, and have stopped using any dried fruit or ginger.  So far, so good!

[Brandy Lance]

Ok, lots has happened in a week!  ;)  I found that my grains LOVE the molasses and double after a 48 hr ferm w/ 2 T of blackstrap molasses in it. 

However, after experimenting more I've discovered that it does seem to be my water.  I have a pretty good filter on my tap but my grains aren't liking how it's filtering the water.  I tried distilled water and holy smokes!  I had my three jars going (one w/ dried pineapple and the other w/ an inch of fresh ginger) and the other with the molasses.  The non-molasses jars doubled their grains in 48 hrs AND they clumped up much more!  They aren't very sandy now!  The molasses did basically the same that it did last time even w/ the distilled water.  I was surprised that it didn't do EVEN better than it did w/ my filtered water but that's alright.  So!  I don't know if my filter is stripping out some minerals that are replaced w/ the molasses and are in the distilled water or what.  I'd be worried that some of the chlorine was left in my filtered water but it doesn't seem that's the issue since the grains do well when I have them in molasses.  My kombucha also does fine using that water as well.

So now it seems as though I'll be purchasing distilled water for my grains.  ;)  I'm just happy that they are thriving now and that I figured out some ways to bump them up.  Oh and they seem to really like the dried pineapple but did even better w/ the ginger.  

 

Anyway, just wanted to update you and say thx for the help.  :)

[Peggy]

That's fantastic, Brandy :o)  It's so exciting when the grains make a comeback, isn't it?!?!

[Pat Robinson]

I love kefir puzzles!  Thanks for sharing. :-)

 

Pat

[Jamie]

Wow!  Maybe I will try the distilled too.  We have a reverse osmosis filter system and I am wondering if the water is too clean.  I ahve a brew going with molasses right now.

Thanks for sharing your success for us all to try!

Jamie

[Brandy Lance]

You're welcome Jamie.  :)  I was thinking my water was too clean too but didn't want to have to buy distilled.  Hopefully you will find the right thing for your grains too.  Best luck!

Jamie said:

Wow!  Maybe I will try the distilled too.  We have a reverse osmosis filter system and I am wondering if the water is too clean.  I ahve a brew going with molasses right now.

Thanks for sharing your success for us all to try!

Jamie

[Meg]

i am looking for suggestions. my grains seemed to have lost their oomph! They were multiplying like crazy. now not so much or at all. The still seem alive...They still let off bubbles. I really haven't done anything different. The only thing I could think of that it is a bit colder(78) in the house now that the air is on..so I put them outside and it doesn't really seem to be making a difference. I use lemon and turbinado sugar. I also stick an egg shell in and some dried cranberries. thoguhts? Thanks so much.

[Meg]

my grains have lost their oomph! nothing is different they just aren't multiplying as much, if at all. i thought maybe it was the ac (78) being on so i stuck em outside(95)! they are alot more bubbly but still not multiplying...any suggestions. i use turbiado sugar, dries cranberries, lemon slice and add in egg shells.