Kefir is a probiotic drink containing beneficial bacteria and enzymes. It can be made with either kefir grains or a powdered kefir starter culture. Water kefir grains can be used with sugar water, juice, or coconut water. Kefir grains consist of bacteria and yeast existing in a symbiotic relationship.
I have never brewed kefir before, so this is totally new to me.
I oredered some live kefir grains online. Having done some reading up on making kefir, I decided to initially use bottled spring water, and organic, unrefined brown sugar. These are supposed to be preferable for the kefir grains, and after tavelling, the grains may need a little reviving.
I used a 2 litre glass kilner jar. I added one litre of water, half a cup of sugar, half a lemon and a few un-sulphered raisins.
It is difficult to know if much is happening…I left it for 36 hours (lifting the lid occasionally to release any excess carbon dioxide) and then filtered out the grains to make a new batch.
I poured the kefir water into two glass bottles. In one I added some lemon juice, and to the other some fresh apple and lime juice. These were placed in the fridge and left for a further 24 hours to carbonate.
Because I had used brown sugar, the drink had a very strong flavour. I’m still not sure if the first batch had actually done much fermenting, but I’ve been drinking it anyway!
Have you tried making kefir? What did you use to flavour yours?
loved and free 