Water Kefir Grains And Jaggery

When I switched from sugar to jaggery, my grains went from crumbly to chunky within a week. You can buy jaggery cheaply from Indian grocery stores. The cheapest are in heavy mounds which you'll need to grate first. I just use the powdered form for convenience. 

Below is a strong jaggery solution and powder.

Jaggery is evaporated cane sugar so it's unrefined. In fact, you will usually find sediment that looks like sand and ash. To remove, I mix jaggery powder with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I slowly pour it into a glass container through a fine sieve. 

This soup skimmer is what I use and you can see it has a very fine mesh. (It's also great for straining coffee grains, making it an impromptu coffee filter). I bought this from a cheap homeware store. 

I top up with cold water and add the water kefir grains. This is the finished product. The grains double easily within a few days when they are well fed and warm. From time to time I switch to refined sugar to steady their growth.

Check out the activity from using jaggery!

UPDATE: The jaggery I was using was terrible, it had too much sediment and produced a bitter drink. I ditched it and now I'm using palm sugar and white sugar. I will go back to jaggery but will try another brand.

4 Water Kefir Making Rules You Can Break

I've been making water kefir for months and my grains have "graduated" to a tall Kilner jar. The grains have been through cycles of experimentation with sugars, feedings and fermentation times. Along the way I've discovered that you can break the so-called rules when making water kefir.

So despite what some people have said not-to-do, my grains have lived happily ever after, producing delicious fizzy drink. So here's what I've done and my grains have lived to tell the story.

1) Use tap water.  

I live in north London where the water is hard and routinely chlorinated. I ferment in water from my Brita filter. If I've accidentally overfermented/underfed, the grains smell a little like puke. Yes it's gross but fixable. After a long rinse in water from the tap in a sieve and a detox (I'll get to that part next), they are back to normal.

2) Starve them for a while. 

In fact when I went away for three days, my grains were sitting in filtered water and nothing else. I was giving them a detox after I over fermented and the water kefir was smelly and foamy on top. They survived and after the first sugar water ferment, they went back to normal.

3) Use metal utensils.

The warnings about metal and water kefir are overhyped. I use a metal spoon and sieve and my kefir grains are fine.

4) Use white granulated sugar. 

I've seen blogs calling for unrefined sugars like rapadura, turbinado and sucanat. It costs of bomb if you're constantly fermenting. Some insist on organic sugar which is just as refined as non-organic sugar. But white sugar is still food for the grains and sometimes you have to switch to it if mineral content is too high. Basically refined sugar is ok in the short-medium term. Now I use cheap and cheerful golden granulated sugar and jaggery (evaporated cane juice).

7 Things I've Learned From Water Kefir Making

It's been three weeks since I started making water kefir. The grains are growing and I can't give them away fast enough. I have a glass of cold fizzy water kefir with dinner every night. Water kefir making is a permenant second day routine for me now.

Here's what I've learned from my experiences.

1) Friends will be intrigued but only a minority will be genuinely interested in making water kefir.

I posted a picture of my water kefir jars and offered grains to my friends on Facebook. I got a lot of comments but only two friends asked for grains. Not many have heard of water kefir. For those who have, it's because they have allergies or food intolerances and they read on the internet that it's good for them.

My sister didn't like the idea of growing bacteria and yeast and drinking it. But then again, she's the type who won't have a steak cooked anything less than well done. A few friends found it too time consuming or too much of a hassle to keep the grains alive when not in use. But for those who have a condition to treat, that's reason enough for them to keep maintaining the grains. And they're not disappointed with the results.

2) You need to eat the grains or give them away if you don't want to waste them.

They grow like crazy. In the English summer they grow up to 30% in one day. I hate wasting them but they consume too much sugar. So if I can't give them away, I'll just eat them with a spoon. They're tasteless so it's like chewing on gelatine chunks. They go well in a smoothie. Or you could eat them Malaysian style with palm sugar and coconut milk.

3) If you ferment more than three days, it will taste alcoholic. 

I don't like to get it to that stage because it no longer tastes healthy to me. It's like drinking a Magners. It could be the taste you're going for in which case the longer the second ferment, the more alcohol the yeasts produce. Just don't forget to burp the bottles everyday or you can have a nasty explosion.  

4) Hands down, your digestion will improve.

I'm going to get TMI here. I'm a first thing in the morning person now. Sometimes after dinner too. My stomach is flatter and bloats less. Can't complain about that! If you have IBS, it worth trying out. Some people say it can cure your symptoms. Just make sure to slowly introduce water kefir daily to ensure your gut can handle the introduction of bacteria. If water kefir doesn't do anything for your allergies, it will surely improve your digestion. 

5) The grains do not like to be refrigerated.

I put my grains to rest when I had too many drinks. I put them in sugary water and kept them in the vegetable crisper. They were only there for three days and they weren't as active as they used to be. They also crumbled into finer grains. It will take a few more rounds of feeding to perk them back up again. 

6) Cheat-cordial makes a delicious and easy flavouring.

This is my favourite tip. Despite recommendations of using organic fruit or freshly squeezed juice in the second fermentation, I cheat. I add cordial. After all, it's mostly sugar and that's what the yeast feeds on. I use a delicious peach and lychee cordial from Five Valleys. You only need to add a tenth of the the volume of kefir and once chilled, it tastes like a gourmet soft drink. It fizzes well and tastes even better with thin slices of lemon.

7) You don't need narrow necked bottles for fizzy drinks. 

It helps but I've made do with recycled passata bottles and Voss water bottles. Anything tall and narrow gives the best fizz but heck, I've even made drinks in jam jars. They still work. The key is that they are airtight so don't bother shelling out for fancy flip top bottles unless you want to when recycled bottles do the job. 

Incredible Water Kefir Growth After One Week

Somewhere in this jar are the 3 tablespoons of water kefir grains I bought from Ebay. After a week the grains are like rabbits on steroids! 

Look at the greedy jelly chunks. They're eating me out of sugar. I've started giving them away to friends and failing that, I'll have to eat them. 

So how am I getting this amazing growth?

It's not due to fancy water kefir making equipment. The only thing I invested in were the grains. Everything else was already in my kitchen. I have two of the above jars, which are for pickles. I use those for the first fermentation. Then I have two narrower and taller passata jars for the second fermentation and storage. Their mouths are small enough to capture carbonation and large enough to decant without a funnel. I don't use flip top bottles because they're fiddly and hard to clean.

And then I use a metal sieve, a no-no in the water kefir world. With the way I decant the water kefir, there's hardly any contact with the metal. There's no harm to the grains if they are sitting in the sieve for a very short period of time.

I don't feed my grains with anything else except half and half moscavdo sugar and white cane sugar in the first fermentation. My grains LOVE moscavdo sugar, probably because of the extra nutrients. Gives them a nice golden "tan" too.

And finally I use filtered tap water. None of that fancy spring water for me. I live in north London where the water is hard. Maybe that's one of the secrets to the wild growth-there's alot of minerals in the water already. 

I've dropped a square inch of boiled egg shell with the grains as an experiment. The shells are shrinking or absorbing into the fermented water. If you need to add more minerals in the water, use eggshells. It really works if the grains are mineral deprived.

So having broken some of the rules set by the youtubers and bloggers about water kefir making, you're probably wondering how the heck am I getting this incredible growth. Here is my list of dos and don'ts if you want your grains to grow:

Water Kefir DOs:

1) Use unrefined sugar-it has more nutrients and the grains thrive on it. You don't have to shell out for rapdura or palm sugar. Raw or better yet, moscavdo sugar works well.

2) Place the jars in a dark, not cold spot-My jars have their own cosy corner in my kitchen.

3) Use filtered tap water-if that's what you drink already. As it's not chlorinated it's fine to use.

4) Watch the water temperature-I use hot water to dissolve my sugar but always top up with room temperature water and test before pouring it on my grains. If water is fairly warmer than you, it's too warm.

Water Kefir DON'Ts:

1) Sterilise anything-but of course I'm sanitary. I don't double dip. I wash everything with detergent and hot water. I think sterilisation is overkill-literally.

2) Disturb the grains too much-most of them stay in the pickle jars and by not breaking, thats how they get fat. Only a small amount of grains makes it into the sieve and I carefully return them into their jar.

3) Cram the grains-as long the grains are in contact with each other, it should encourage growth but they don't like to be crammed and have to compete for food. 

If you're still not getting any growth or the grains are shrinking or becoming slimy. It might be your water supply or they're too weak to reproduce and you need to source new grains. 

How To Make Water Kefir

I went on a probiotic spree when my eczema flared up and was keen to try natural remedies. I tried milk kefir but my stomach doesn't agree with it. I turned to water kefir and have not looked back.

I've been drinking water kefir daily and my digestion quickly improved. After 6 months, my eczema settled down and now I don't have to treat it anymore. In fact as long as I keep my skin moisturised, it's like I don't have eczema at all.

This is what I do to make water kefir. Don't worry about buying special brewing jars. Cleaned out pickle and pasta sauce jars do the job.

Instructions for 3 tablespoons of water kefir grains:

1) Put the grains in a large wide mouthed jar. You can make up to 400ml of water kefir and increase as your grains grow.

2) Add sugar, preferably a raw or brown type and top up the jar with lukewarm to cold filtered water. For 400ml of water kefir, I add roughly three heaped tablespoons. You can adjust sugar and water ratio accordingly to your taste as you make more batches. Just remember the water can't be too warm or you could kill the grains. 

3) Cover mouth of the jar with a coffee filter or a double layered paper towel and secure with a rubber band.

4) Place the jar in a dark place that's not cold or warm. Leave it for 24 hours.

5) After 24 hours you will notice small bubbles raising from the grains when the jar is tapped. Give the water a stir if there is undissolved sugar at the bottom. In summer you can taste test with a clean spoon after a day. If it's sweet, you need to cover and wait 6 hours before testing again. If it's NOT sweet or rather, on the tangy side, the water kefir is ready to drink or to be refermented with cordial/juices. You can also tell when it done when the water becomes cloudy. In winter, taste test after 48 hours.

6) When it's ready, pour the water kefir into a bottle through a sieve over a funnel. It can be stored in the fridge or be re-fermented for carbonation.

7) Repeat the above for the next batch of water kefir. 

The longer the fermentation process, the stronger the taste and smell. When it ferments with exposure to air (lid off), lactic acid and good bacteria is produced. You can drink it after the first ferment although it taste better with bubbles and flavouring.

When it's fermented the second time with the lid tightly on, probiotic production ceases. Alcohol and carbonation is produced from the new sugar. The second fermentation takes 24-48 hours. The best carbonation is made in narrow necked bottles with flip top stoppers. You can use the narrowest tallest jars/bottles I can find. Recycled Voss water bottles have served me well. 

For the second fermentation, you will need to add roughly 1/8 of the water kefir amount in fruit juice or cordial. This is where you can experiment with flavours and sugar sources. I've made delicious ginger ale with lemon juice, sugar and grated fresh ginger. 

Make sure you leave an atleast an inch of space at the top of the bottle before capping the bottle tightly. Leave in a dark, not cold place for 24 hours.

After every 48 hours you need to burp the bottle to avoid an explosion. You can taste to check if further fermentation is required.  For a stronger flavour or more carbonation, give it another 24 hours. Don't exceed more than this because it will become sourer and alcoholic.

When it's ready, store in the refrigerator. Consume within 3 days for maximum probiotic benefits.

There are many internet resources and youtube videos on water kefir making. This is my favourite website:  http://www.yemoos.com/faqwaintro.html

First fermentation with white cane sugar and dried fruit.

The left and centre bottles are ready for drinking. The bottle on the right has the grains with unrefined sugar water. The grains loved it.

Proof that you can make fizzy drink at home without a Sodastream!