Water Kefir a Fully Loaded Powerhouse Beverage!!

This is a powerhouse drink!  Not only is it refreshing it is health promoting.  It is soooooooooo easy to make!  Why many more people don’t make this, baffles me.  It only takes 2 days of fermenting and is also dairy free for those who can’t tolerate dairy.  How much are you spending on probiotics?  This lacto-fermented beverage is teaming with good bacteria that would put any store bought probiotic to shame and save you oooodles of money at the same time.  To learn more about what probiotics can do, click here.

Water Kefir

Water kefir is a probiotic rich lacto fermented beverage that will help to heal your gut..  This beverage is made with water kefir grains that are used to culture the sugar and the water.  These grains help produce a wonderful source of beneficial bacteria and is super easy to make.  Water kefir does better in a mineral rich water so I choose to use spring water.  Be careful not to let metal come into contact with the grains at any time as it will harm the grains.

Things you will need:

1 glass gallon jar with a lid

plastic mesh strainer

cloth (to cover jar opening)

rubber band or pony tail holder (to keep cloth on jar)

1 gallon spring water (room temperature)

16 Tablespoons organic rapadura sugar which is the pure juice extracted from the sugar cane ( or organic white sugar).

OPTIONAL**  I love to add stevia flavored  drops like this one, and……… it makes this drink incredibly tasty, who needs soda huh?!  Even kids will love this!  A great way to get kids to drink their probiotics and ………even those with dairy allergies can have this kefir beverage!  SMILE  🙂

Water kefir grains (high quality)

Instructions:

1.Pour 3 of the 4 quarts of room temperature water from the plastic jug into the glass jar

2.Pour the last quart of water remaining in the plastic jug into a medium sized sauce pan, add the sugar, and warm the water enough so it will dissolve the sugar. You do not have to get it very hot to do this.

3.Once the sugar is dissolved add the sugar water mixture to the 3 quarts of water in the glass jar.  After you add the sugar water,  the gallon of water should still be close to room temperature or a tad bit warmer.  If the water is to warm wait till it goes back to room temperature.

4.Add 12 tablespoons of water kefir grains to the gallon of sugar water, make sure to NOT use metal measuring spoons. If using the grains from a previous batch this is when you will want to use the PLASTIC mesh strainer to strain the liquid off the grains, remember, no metal.

5. Use a wooden spoon to give the water a good stir.

6.Cover the top of jar, I use a wash cloth and a pony tail holder.

7. Put it in the part of your house where it is most likely to be between 70-75 degrees and out of direct sunlight for 48 hours.

8. When the 48 hours are done, pour the gallon of water kefir with the grains over the plastic mesh strainer into another 1 gallon glass jar.  Take the kefir grains that are in the strainer and put them in smaller jar with enough water kefir added to slightly cover them.  This is your starter culture for your next batch 🙂

9. Put the water kefir in fridge and enjoy this wonderful, probiotic rich beverage.  I like to have a 1 cup  2-3 times a day on a empty stomach.  If I need a little extra energy I also add about 2-3 drops of organic  lemon oil to my glass of kefir water 🙂

Water kefir is also loaded with beneficial bacteria.   Each batch of water kefir can vary with bacteria count.  Some batches have contained 18 billion cfu in just one tablespoon!  Personally I like to drink 1-2 cups a day.  That’s alot of probiotic!   You can get way more beneficial bacteria in you this way than ingesting potent probiotic supplements. That’s right down my alley!  This is making your food into medicine!  Lovin it.  Let’s look at the bacteria in water kefir:

There are:

16 strains in the lacto bacillus species

2 strains in the bacillus species

2 strains in the leuconostoc species

2 strains in the acetobacter species

12 strains in the streptococcus species

1 strain in the pediococcus species

So as you can see it’s not very hard to get yourself well on the way to having a healthy gut which goes a long way in bolstering your immune system.   These are two recipes that are very easy to start with and after you have those down, try making more, the ideas are endless.

• When storing the water kefir grains, if you are not going to be using them right away be sure to open lid from time to time ( every 5-6 days) to release built up pressure.  Yes, this stuff is ALIVE!
• I live in a cold climate half of the year so to keep my little kefir buddies happy when brewing I put them in my oven with the oven light on and a towel propped to keep the oven door from closing completely.  You see, I turn my heat down at night but want my brew to still be “happy”.  The temp stays an even 72 degrees this way.

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