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Anyone making water kefir?
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davem
402 Posts
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October 15, 2025 - 2:14 pm

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.

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jafar
905 Posts
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October 15, 2025 - 7:59 pm

I think this is the first time I've seen the term.

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John S
PDX OR
3071 Posts
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October 16, 2025 - 9:47 am

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

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davem
402 Posts
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October 16, 2025 - 10:54 pm

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.

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John S
PDX OR
3071 Posts
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5
October 20, 2025 - 11:01 am

Thanks DaveM,

Great idea.

John S
PDX OR

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