I've been dabbling with water kefir lately, as another way to use up my fruit and berries.
Thus far the results are promising. Though I don't have everything quite dialed in. I.e. flavors and carbonation levels. But it is a lot of fun.
One thing I discovered is that you can "carbonate" fruit. E.g. put a plum in the jar while it's fermenting, when it's done the plum has a slightly sweet, sparkling, carbonated taste. Like a dessert in a fancy restaurant.
Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else is making water kefir.
I have never made it, but you've got me interested. I've heard of it, but I'm not going to pretend that I'm sure I can do it right.
Sounds like it would be fun to try.
John S
PDX OR
John S said
I have never made it, but you've got me interested. I've heard of it, but I'm not going to pretend that I'm sure I can do it right.
Sounds like it would be fun to try.
John S
PDX OR
OK let me know if you want to go for it, I can share some of my kefir "grains" to get you started. There are a lot of videos online about the process. Be sure to search for "water kefir". There are two kinds of kefir - water and milk. The milk process uses different grains and is a totally different process.
You can also buy the grains online, either dehydrated or active. But it takes a while for them to wake up after being dormant. If you get grains from a friend, they will be active right away. I got mine from a seller in Minnesota, on Etsy. I started about a month ago with 1 tablespoon, now I have about 1/2 cup of grains.
I am finding that the grains LOVE apple cider. i.e. they grow fast and produce a lot of bubbles when I add cider.
The microbes seem to be able to penetrate the fruit/berries, thus extracting the flavors without me having to mash them up first. That is a huge selling point for me. e.g. just drop in a handful of cornelian cherries, and they flavor the kefir. Then strain them out when the fermentation completes. As I mentioned you can then either eat the "carbonated" berries/fruit, or compost them. Although the process moves some of the flavors out of the fruit, and also removes a lot of the sugars. Sugars are the food for the grains.
One area I'm still figuring out is how to get a good carbonation without producing alcohol. If you tried hard I think you could make it up to 2% alcohol, but I don't want any. The alcohol production seems to occur after you seal the bottle, if there are still a lot of sugars present. But you need to seal the bottle to get some carbonation. I am sure I will figure it out.