How to Make Water Kefir: Grains, Recipe and Flavours, 1 to 30 Gallons
How to make water kefir: grains and sugar per gallon, a 24 to 48 hour first ferment, flavours, carbonating it, how much alcohol it makes, and a recipe card that scales from 1 to 30 gallons.
In this post
The short answer: stir about 200 g (1 cup) of sugar into a gallon of chlorine-free water, add about ¾ cup of hydrated water kefir grains, and ferment at 68 to 78°F for 24 to 48 hours. Lift out the grains, flavour it with fruit juice, seal it for a day or two to build fizz, then chill it. It is a light, fruity, gently tart soda.
Water kefir grains are not grains at all: they are small, clear crystals of bacteria and yeast that ferment sugar water the way a SCOBY ferments tea. Water kefir is faster than kombucha, lighter, and it takes any flavour.
The recipe
The card scales from 1 to 30 gallons.
Bräu Supply recipe · Water kefir
Water Kefir
Ingredients · for 5 gal
| 5 gal (18.9 L) | Filtered, chlorine-free water | |
| 3.75 cups (887 mL) | Hydrated water kefir grains | ¾ cup/gal |
| 2.20 lb (1.0 kg) | White or light cane sugar | 200 g/gal |
| 75 g | Unsulphured dried fruit (figs or raisins), optional: minerals for the grains | 15 g/gal |
Process
- Dissolve: the sugar in a little warm water, then top up with cool water; it must be below 85°F (29°C) before the grains go in
- Culture: add the grains, in a stainless basket in the tank or loose in a jar
- First ferment: 68–78°F (20–26°C), covered, 24–48 hours, until it is only lightly sweet
- Lift: the grains out and save them for the next batch
- Second ferment: add 1–2 cups of juice per gallon, seal with the spunding valve at 12 psi, 1–2 days
- Cold crash: 34–36°F (1–2°C)
- Carbonate: 3.0 volumes: about 14 psi at 34°F, or keg it
Grains are the limit: they grow with every batch, so build up from a jar before you go big. Ferment times vary with the grains and the room.
How to make it
- Dissolve the sugar in a little warm water, then top up with cool, filtered water. Chlorine and chloramine slow the grains, and anything over about 100°F can kill them.
- Add the grains. In a fermenter, hang them in a stainless tea basket so they come out in one lift; in a jar, add them loose and strain them later.
- Cover the top with a cloth and hold 68 to 78°F for 24 to 48 hours. Below 65°F it slows right down. It is ready when it tastes only lightly sweet.
- Lift out the grains and start the next batch with them.
- For flavour and fizz, add 1 to 2 cups of fruit juice per gallon, seal the tank with a spunding valve at 12 psi, and leave it 1 to 2 days.
- Crash it cold and carbonate it to about 3 volumes. Keep it cold.
Grains are the limit
About 2 to 4 tablespoons of grains ferment a quart, so a 5 gallon batch needs about 2½ to 5 cups. Grains multiply when they are healthy, so the way to a big batch is to start in jars and grow your grains for a few weeks. New or dried grains can take several batches to wake up fully. Feed them minerals now and then (a dried fig, a few raisins or a little molasses) and they grow faster.
Alcohol
Water kefir makes some alcohol, usually less than kombucha, but not always: when researchers in Vancouver tested store-bought products, 19% of the water kefir samples were above 1% ABV. Longer and sweeter fermentations make more. In the US, 0.5% ABV or more is regulated as alcohol, so if you sell it, test it.
Flavour ideas
- Lemon ginger: lemon juice and a few slices of fresh ginger in the second ferment.
- Grape: 1½ cups of grape juice per gallon: it tastes like a grape soda.
- Raspberry lime: crushed raspberries and lime juice.
- Coconut: ferment coconut water instead of sugar water; it ferments fast, so check it early.
Frequently asked questions
Is water kefir the same as milk kefir?
No. They are different cultures. Milk kefir grains ferment milk; water kefir grains ferment sugar water and juice, with no dairy.
Why aren’t my grains fizzing?
Usually chlorinated water, a cold room or tired grains. Use filtered water, keep it at 68 to 78°F, add a few raisins for minerals, and give new grains a few batches to wake up.
Water kefir or kombucha?
Water kefir ferments in a day or two, needs no tea and tastes lighter and fruitier. Kombucha takes one to two weeks and is more tart. See how to make kombucha.
Related
How to make ginger beer, how to make a ginger bug, how to make root beer.