Comments on: Water Kefir Tips

By: charlene martelli

charlene martelli — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:17:19 +0000

Hi Michele/Stacy
I’ve been making water kefir really sucessfully (dried apricots is the current favorite flavor) for a few months but last week both lots went decidedly vinegary. I’m wondering if it was because we had some warmer than normal days – but it wasnt that warm – 82 F. Any ideas? Do the grains just get more hungry sometimes for some reason and eat up all the sugar? or… just occurred to me – for a couple of batches i used some organic trade aid sugar – its pale brown but looks pretty refined. maybe too refined?

By: JustScattin2

JustScattin2 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:39:32 +0000

How much sugar to how much water ratios; I am diabetic and need to use as little sugar as possible. I use dried cane syrup from Mexico.

By: LizzieJ

LizzieJ — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:32:50 +0000

HELP !! .. I ordered water kefir grains from Cultures for Health …I have tried several batches and NO FIZZ, just too-sweet flat watery ugh … I have reviewed the directions and cannot see what I am doing wrong ! What is the best ambient room temp to hold it at ??? That is the only thing I can think of !
thanks
Lizzie

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:29:23 +0000

HI Michele,

Tasted like vinegar, that is interesting. I’ve never had that problem. A few times when I’ve let it ferment too long, it gets a little alcoholic. I wonder if that is what happened with yours? Warm rooms or too much sugar can make it go alcoholic on m. Coconut water makes it go really fast. I’d suggest doing it again, but tasting it every 12 hours or so to see if maybe you need to ferment a shorter period of time than the instructions say.

Good luck!

By: Michele

Michele — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:28:01 +0000

After following the directions included in my water kefir grains from CFH my water kefir was not sweet but tasted a little like a bubbly vinegar. Where did I go wrong?

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:22:10 +0000

CHEESESLAVE – thank you so much! I hope people find it useful.

Michelle – No problem, thank you! I’ve only made water kefir, though I’d like to explore milk kefir. Right now I’ve got a batch of coconut water kefir that I’m enjoying. My goal is to get the grains to reproduce enough so that I have a few backup batches as well as a batch I can play with and try different recipes. Once I’ve got that all under control, I’m going to give dairy kefir and kombucha a try. I also want to try my hand at sourdough. Right now the water kefir and yogurt making is keeping be busy enough.

By: Michelle @ Find Your Balance

Michelle @ Find Your Balance — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:58:23 +0000

That is so cool. I have to try it. Thanks for sharing all this great info! Have you made other kinds of kefir as well?

By: CHEESESLAVE

CHEESESLAVE — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:24:42 +0000

Thanks for participating in Real Food Wednesday! I stumbled your post.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:59:50 +0000

No problem! It is such a neat thing. If my water grains continue to grow, I’ll be posting those up there! And I know I’m going to want milk kefir at some point.

I’m doing jar rotations now, not continuous brew, but since I’m making about a quart a day, continuous brew might be good for me! I don’t know anything about how to do it.

As for Vitamin D, I’d seen it repeated a few places, but I couldn’t find the original source, so I removed it.

By: Jenny @ NourishedKitchen

Jenny @ NourishedKitchen — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:19:54 +0000

Thank you for linking to the swap! I hope it gets lively. I also REALLY like Cultures for Health – selection and service are fantastic. You have some really good tips here for water kefir. Do you know anything about the continuous brew method? Also, where did you get the data regarding vitamin D?