We love water kefir! I can see why people call it a natural soda. But it is better than soda! Not only does it give you all sorts of probiotic goodness, it is not as sweet and doesn’t leave you with a sickly sweet upset stomach. With proper care, the water kefir grains can probably last longer than you, making this a frugal – not to mention healthy – way to break a soda habit!
See also: What’s So Great About Water Kefir?
I have done a little experimenting with flavors, but I could use some more ideas. My family likes the plain water kefir best, with just a bit of vanilla added. I enjoy the lemon/ginger best.
Rehydrating the Grains
Unless someone shares grains with you, you’ll have to purchase water kefir grains. They arrive dehydrated (see Resources for sources). Rehydrate according to the package directions. It takes 3 to 5 days in sweet water to rehydrate them and get them going again. The package from my source gives enough grains to make around 3/4 gallon of water kefir at a time.
First Fermentation
After the grains are rehydrated, mix 3/4 gallon of water with 3/4 cups of sweetener in a gallon jar. The less refined the sweetener, the better – the water kefir grains love minerals!
For more information on water, sweeteners, and minerals, see also: What’s So Great About Water Kefir?
If using a dry sweetener (such as Rapadura – raw, unrefined sugar), it must be dissolved in hot water first. Bring the 3/4 cup Rapadura and 2 cups of water to a boil to dissolve the Rapadura. Let it cool a bit, then add 10 more cups of cold water to lower its temp. It should be comfortable to the touch, not hot at all, when using it with the water kefir grains. Add it to the jar.
Add a half (rinsed) pastured egg shell to the jar. Thank you Cheeseslave for this tip; my grains love those egg shells! Put the grains in the jar – either loose or in a little muslin fabric bag (see Resources for sources). Swirl it all around gently. Cover the jar with a paper towel or cloth napkin and secure it to the jar lip with a rubber band. Let it sit for 3 to 5 days until desired sweetness is left – the longer you go, the less sweet. It may or may not be bubbly.
Pour off the water kefir liquid into another gallon size jar or two half gallon jars. If not following the forthcoming directions for adding flavor during a second fermentation, add 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla per 3/4 gallon of water kefir to make a simple cream soda. Refrigerate and drink as is. Use the grains to start a new batch of water kefir.
Second Fermentation
(The grains should be removed by this time.) Add fresh or dried fruit, or fruit juices to the jar. (See next for flavor ideas.) This second ferment should be done without air. Add a new half of a rinsed (pastured) egg shell. Cover the jar opening with plastic wrap and then the jar lid. Leave out at room temperature for 1 to 3 days. When you’re happy with the flavor, strain the liquid free from any bits of fruit and the egg shell. Refrigerate the soda or bottle it. I’ve never bottled it. I just put it in the fridge in a lidded pitcher and we drink it up quickly! The water kefir tends to get more bubbly during this stage. But, as I said before, it may or may not get bubbly.
Flavor Ideas
- 1/2 cup raisins plus 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates plus 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla
- 1/2 cup dried fig pieces plus 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla
- 1 cup organic grape juice
- 2 to 4 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, plus 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, plus a splash of vanilla
- dried peach slices (a friend’s idea and I can’t remember how many she used – maybe 6?), plus splash of vanilla
So that’s my simple process for making water kefir, and some ideas for flavors. Now it is your turn. How do you flavor your water kefir? Do you make it differently? Is there some flavor combination you’d like to see?
See also: What’s So Great About Water Kefir?
This post is part of the Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet.
About Wardee Harmon
New: 
Two hard 'g's and stress the middle syllable. 
Hi,
I have a problem with my water kefir, maybe you know what’s happend:
I stopped brewing water kefir for a while (3 month) and recently started again. My grains were in stored in the fridge in sugary water. I put them into new sugary water with some lemon juice to recover for a couple of days.
My brewing method is as follows: I put the grains in a muslin bag and this in a 5l fermentation plastic vessel (both from a home (beer) brewing store). I add 250g white, normal sugar (~50g/liter) and some lemon juice. After 1-2 days at room temperature (unheated room, so a little colder than normal) I remove the bag and a ~170g raisins. After another 1-2 days I bottle, i.e. fill it in a 5l wine-in-a-bag bag with tap and put this into the fridge. So far this resulted in a nice yellow water kefir. The color is of course different for different dried fruits, but always yellow for raisins.
My last batch turned out to be not very yellow, just a little bit but quite slimy. When I removed the raisins with a sieve the liquid didn’t flow very good so I put a spoon in the stream and it was quite solid. I tasted it and it didn’t tasted bad but not like normal finished water kefir. One other funny thing is that the white muslin back got a large brown spot on it where I made the knot to close it.
I dumped both the water kefir and the used grains to be on the save side and set up a new batch with some backup grains I kept in the fridge. Let’s see how they turned out.
Do you have any idea what happened? Maybe I got some contamination of other bacteria in it? Is this bad or nothing to worry about it? I like to avoid this to happen again with my other grains.
i have done a few successful batches of water kefir and we love it plain! I just did a batch with lemon juice(fresh squeezed) and grape juice. they sat on the counter for 3 days (w/o grains), bottled them, popped one open and it splattered all over my kitchen! it smelled wine(ish) but didn’t smell bad, just like wine. tasted o.k. not sweet at all like the plain kefir. will it have some alcohol content just after those 3 days? is it o.k. to drink?
Is the plain water kefir supposed to get fizzy like that? because mine never does.
Thanks for your help!
I also experienced the slimy disgusting water kefir. I got tired of all the effort and no one would drink it. So I froze my grains in sugar water. I pulled them out of the freezer about a week ago and started a new batch. They don’t seem to be fermenting at all. No bubbles. The water is still very sweet, though it is beginning to smell like kefir. My grains are no longer firm. More like mush. Did I kill them??? Can I revive them? I would really like to try again now that I know a bit more about how to make it.
Hey there,
I googled it for you in case I run into the same issue in future. I hope it’s okay that I mention another site, ‘Cultures for Health’ has an article on their site entitled ‘Rehabilitating Water Kefir Grains’ based on the article, the slime is one of the indicators that your kefir grains are stressed.
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/rehabilitating-fixing-repairing-damaged-water-kefir-grains
Hope this helps!
Caroline
Hi I’ve been working on making water kefir for the past few weeks and every time I make it it is always super bitter and tart and loses almost all carbonation once I bottle it. Do you have any suggestions to help make my kefir more drinkable? Every time I make more I can barely stand to drink it and usually end up pouring it out.
I’m new to the WK and just finished my first batch. I’m wondering how I should store them? Thanks!!
Hi Wardee,
Thanks for the information on Water Kefir. We are just getting started with it and it was great information. I’m actually writing just to complement you and thank you. For the last year and a half, we’ve been struggling to isolate some food allergies with our kids. They are strong, beautiful, healthy children for the most part, but our trials in balancing their diets have driving us to the brink of frustration. We wife has slowly been pulling me into the world of organic/natural and sustainable living and we are doing our best to move that direction. Anyway, getting to the point. The picture of your daughter for this article is amazing…she looks so healthy, warm and vibrant. It truly inspired me in wanting to give that to our children.
Thanks for the inspiration and great job helping others break out of the system
Shawn
I notice you say to do the initial ferment for 3-5 days. I got my water kefir grains from http://www.culturesforhealth.com and they have an FAQ page on their website about it. In the FAQ section thay include this info:
“Q. Can I allow the kefir to culture for longer than 48 hours?
A. We strongly recommend against allowing the kefir grains to culture for longer than 48 hours as over time it will damage the grains by potentially starving them (particularly in warm weather when the culturing process is sped up due to the heat).
I notice with my grains that after 48hrs it still tastes sweet but also tastes and smells very fermented (almost a spoiled taste/smell that you would get from dairy only it’s not bad). I’ve been flavoring it with lemon juice to make a sort of “lemonade” and it tastes pretty good.
Are my grains differnt from yours? Should allow mine to ferment longer to allow the grains to “eat” more of the sugar?
Thanks!
Lisa — It is risky to go so long on a continual basis. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done, though. You have to play with it so the sugar is gone, but not so much that the grains decay. In summer, no more than 3 days. Cooler room temp can means a bit longer, but we do that at our own risk. I have had grains decay and fail to thrive because I pushed them too much.
Oh yeah, and one other question…I’ve never gotten the carbonated “soda” feel with my water kefir. Does that only happen if you allow a second fermentation period? I haven’t experimented with that yet as I’m very new to this.
Thanks!
Lisa — You’ll only get carbonation with the second ferment, where the container is sealed at room temperature building up carbonation.
Just found this article. I’ve only managed to get my kefir to be bubbly after the second ferment one time. Is there any way to do this more consistently?
I was given grains. How much should I add to this recipe?
Kelli — I need more info.
How many grains were you given? Are they hydrated or dehydrated? 
I have a ton of grains. At least a half a cup. And they are hydrated. For some reason your response got sent to my junk mail. I’m glad I found it! Also, I am doing Kimi’s no sugar challenge. Is there any sugar left after the kefir is ready to drink? I might have to make it for my family until I am done with that.
Kelli — Use 1/4 cup of grains per 3/4 gallon of water kefir (or up to a gallon). How much sugar is left depends on how long you ferment it. After three days in warm temps, there’s not much left. Taste it and you can tell if it has any residual sweetness.
I just made my first batch of kefir water….I rehydrated my water kefir grains that I bought, then put the grains in 2 quarts of water that had 1/2 cup of palm sugar dissolved in it. Then I let it ferment for 24 hours, then added 1 quart of strawberry juice to it…and then bottled it in grolsch flip top bottles…and let these bottles sit on the counter for 18 hours….and absolutely NO carbonation at all! I was advised to not go longer than 18 hours because it might “explode when I open it. Should I have let the bottles sit longer? would that have caused carbonation?
Danielle– Where are the grains? Did you remove them before adding the strawberry juice? How did it taste after the first 24 hours, was the sweetness gone as if the grains had been doing their work?
Yes, I removed the grains before adding the strawberry juice. I didn’t taste it after the 24 hours…should I have?
Danielle — Yes, you should taste it to see if the grains were eating the sugar. If it was still sweet, it needed more time to ferment, both to reduce sugar and to populate the beverage with beneficial organisms for the next fermentation. I’d try it again.
I let my last batch of kefir water ferment in the grains for about 31 hours…and there was a greyish film on the top of the water. Is that mold? Should I throw out this batch?
I have tons of water kefir grains to share if anyone is interested. email me at jneddo76 at yahoo dot com with your address. —Jenn
Why do you add the egg shell? would I use that instead of mineral drop? And do I need either? And by pasteurized eggshell do you mean from a grocery store as opposed to my local farm?
Thanks!
The egg shell is for minerals. You can use mineral drops instead.
“Pastured” egg shells means shells from an egg that came from a free range chicken that was allowed to freely eat green stuff growing outside. As far as I know there are no “pasteurized” eggs thank goodness.
Hi Wardee,
How often do you make water kefir now? I’m getting more grains and I’m gonna get back to making more now!
Michelle (Health Food Lover) recently posted… Recipe: Feijoa and Apple Crumble (With Oat-Free & Vegan Variations)
How is your kefir so clear? Mine always looks brown from the sugar.