Water Kefir Recipes and Benefits | Keely's Allergy Free Kitchen

Water Kefir is a probiotic beverage made with Water Kefir Grains. It can be used to culture sugar water, juice, or coconut water. I just got my water kefir grains a couple of weeks ago and have been so excited trying out new recipes. Mine came as a kit with a mesh plastic strainer and some minerals from the below link. You want to stay away from using any metal with them.

Water kefir contains fewer strains of bacteria and yeasts than milk kefir, but far more than other cultured products like yogurt or buttermilk. Water Kefir Grains are gluten and dairy free.

What is so cool is water kefir grains are reusable. Once a batch of water kefir is finished culturing, simply remove the water kefir grains and place them in fresh sugar water, juice, or coconut water. If you take care of them properly, water kefir grains have an unlimited life span and can be used repeatedly to make water kefir.

Here is some basic instructions and then some different variations for fun sodas.

First the basics:
1 Quart Jar with a plastic lid instead of metal. Go here:Lids
Water Kefirs
1/4 cup organic sugar – let sugar dissolve a bit in water before adding the kefir grains.
Almost a quart purified water – leave about 1/2 inch room at top

Mix everything in jar and set in dark cupboard or on top of fridge for about 3 days. Then strain the grains out and put mixture in another jar and add any of the below recipes or just drink as is. Put the grains in another quart jar and start the process all over. You don’t want to culture the grains with fruits or fruit juice because it can dye them or ruin them.

Our first one we had some raspberries and lime. I added 1 slice lime, rind removed. 1/2 cup raspberries. Let sit out another 2-3 days and then strain, store in fridge and drink.

These instructions were taken from the insert in the Water Kefir pack from Cultures for Health.