Make a sugar water solution by dissolving 80g of raw sugar and 20g of coconut sugar, rapadura or brown sugar in 2 litres of water and add a tiny pinch of bicarb soda.
Add half a cup of living kefir grains and cover your jar with a tea-towel & secure with rubber band around rim (so bugs don’t climb in)
Ferment for 1 to 2 days. When you start seeing a lot of bubbling, taste the brew regularly and notice it become less sweet over the course of 24 hours
When it no longer tastes sweet, strain off the kefir grains and set them aside to use again. You can then add flavourings (such as juice, ginger, dried or fresh fruit, herbal teas etc) to the finished kefir water. As a guide you can add anywhere between 10% to 40% of flavouring (juice or tea etc) to your kefir. If you want it to be fizzy you can do a secondary ferment - transfer into airtight bottles and leave unrefrigerated for one or two days.
Check carbonation levels every day by cracking open the lid. Once it is nice and fizzy, refrigerate and enjoy! Be aware that if you neglect and over-carbonate in glass bottles, they can explode!
After bottling, wash your jar and start again (re-feed kefir grains with a fresh sugar water solution)
Want a break? If you want to take a break from brewing or store spare grains so you can hand out to friends and family or keep as back up, just put your kefir grains into a ziplock bag/tupperware or glass jar with some fresh sugar solution and keep in the fridge. It is a rapid-fermenter and will need to be fed more sugar every week to keep it alive (otherwise the grains will pickle themselves and no longer be viable for fermenting).
Add half a cup of living kefir grains and cover your jar with a tea-towel & secure with rubber band around rim (so bugs don’t climb in)
Ferment for 1 to 2 days. When you start seeing a lot of bubbling, taste the brew regularly and notice it become less sweet over the course of 24 hours
When it no longer tastes sweet, strain off the kefir grains and set them aside to use again. You can then add flavourings (such as juice, ginger, dried or fresh fruit, herbal teas etc) to the finished kefir water. As a guide you can add anywhere between 10% to 40% of flavouring (juice or tea etc) to your kefir. If you want it to be fizzy you can do a secondary ferment - transfer into airtight bottles and leave unrefrigerated for one or two days.
Check carbonation levels every day by cracking open the lid. Once it is nice and fizzy, refrigerate and enjoy! Be aware that if you neglect and over-carbonate in glass bottles, they can explode!
After bottling, wash your jar and start again (re-feed kefir grains with a fresh sugar water solution)
Want a break? If you want to take a break from brewing or store spare grains so you can hand out to friends and family or keep as back up, just put your kefir grains into a ziplock bag/tupperware or glass jar with some fresh sugar solution and keep in the fridge. It is a rapid-fermenter and will need to be fed more sugar every week to keep it alive (otherwise the grains will pickle themselves and no longer be viable for fermenting).