Food Preserving

I had heard about the standard milk-related kefir years ago, it makes a thick fermented milky drink that is very good for you, at least it is good for you if you can keep it down! It is not my thing but is very popular anyway. Just recently I came across water kefir through a friend and it is more my style.

It is a similar process using kefir “grains” which are in fact a SCOBY (Symbiotic Community of Bacteria and Yeast), and look like small translucent off white granules although they are, in fact unrelated to milk kefir granules. This is how I use them to make water kefir –

1. A friend gave me somewhere between 50g and 100g of granules which I placed in a 1 litre open mouthed glass jar.
2. I dissolved half a cup of sugar in one litre of tap water in a glass graduated jug then poured it off into the jar with the kefir grains.
3. I then left it to ferment for a few days and it did pick up a definite odour of fermentation. It was consuming the sugar as food as the primary fermentation.
4. After four days I poured the kefir water (minus grains) into a glass bottle with a wired on stopper. The bottle needs to be designed for a fermented product and I suspect that a lot of stoppered bottles available in the el-cheapo shops would not be able to stand up to the pressure and would blow apart.
5. Time for the flavouring agent! I use fruit, especially citrus fruit. I cut up a couple of lemons and remove the skin and pith, then squelch the fruity pulp into the bottle. I lie the bottle on its side for a couple of days to maximise contact of the fruit pulp with the kefir water, this is the secondary fermentation.
6. After a couple of days on its side, the bottle gets turned upright and placed in the ridge for a couple of days. Then it is ready to consume!
7. In the meantime the original jar with the grains gets refilled with the sugar solution and the process starts again.

It is a good idea to pop the top on the bottle once it has been in the fridge every day or two to check for carbonation. I tried one with some very sugary pineapple and it only took a day before it was super-carbonated and I lost a fair amount down the sink. Hint: Don’t do a test opening in the lounge room while sitting on the new couch.

You could try almost any kind of fruit or berry, or even fresh ginger as a flavouring agent. In the end you get a flavourful fizzy beverage without the health concerns of commercial soft drinks. This one is actually good for you!