water kefir newbee hoping for tips

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I am brand new to kefir and looking for some tips.

I have a few grains and I am brewing a single jar of water kefir per

day. I have had them for a little over a week and the friend who gave

them to me wasn't sure how " happy " they were at the time.

SO my biggest question is:

What do I look for to tell that they are healthy grains?

I use filtered tap water and feed them sugar. I have tried my organic

sugar a couple times, but thought maybe they did better with the

processed stuff? but I have no idea what to look for....

I have seen them rise and fall with the bubbles, and figured that

maybe they were good looing when they looked beautifully clear

crystal-like...

I have brewed them in apple juice for one day. That came out

DELICIOUS. Then I returned them to water with sugar. The next batch

of water was WAY fizzier than it had been perevious to the apple juice

batch. It tasted better to me too. But the grains also look

different. They are more whitish and almost appear crumbly in the

water.

What color are healthy grains? What about consistency?

Do they produce more fizz if they are healthier? Or less?

What does it look like when they grow? I have no idea how to really

tell if I have more grains then i did before. Could it be there are

MORE now and thats why they are producing more fizz?

I hear water kefir grows slowly, but I have NO IDEA what I'm working

with here...

thanks Cheryl

[Guest guest]

Hi Cheryl,

Your water grains are doing fine.

The fizz is caused by yeast acting on sugar. Eventually you will want to

rinse your water grains to wash away excess yeast for better balance. For

example if they turn yellow because they are coated with yeast.

Water grains take on the color of them medium they are grown in. If you put

in cranberries, they turn pink. It takes about three batches in sugar water

only to get them clear again.

Happy water grains are big water grains, sunflower seed size or bigger.

Sesame seed size are not happy.

Marilyn

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 1:49 PM, elshiyr <TeacherCheryl@...> wrote:

> Hi everyone,

>

> I am brand new to kefir and looking for some tips.

>

> I have a few grains and I am brewing a single jar of water kefir per

> day. I have had them for a little over a week and the friend who gave

> them to me wasn't sure how " happy " they were at the time.

>

>

> SO my biggest question is:

>

> What do I look for to tell that they are healthy grains?

>

>

> I use filtered tap water and feed them sugar. I have tried my organic

> sugar a couple times, but thought maybe they did better with the

> processed stuff? but I have no idea what to look for....

>

> I have seen them rise and fall with the bubbles, and figured that

> maybe they were good looing when they looked beautifully clear

> crystal-like...

>

>

> I have brewed them in apple juice for one day. That came out

> DELICIOUS. Then I returned them to water with sugar. The next batch

> of water was WAY fizzier than it had been perevious to the apple juice

> batch. It tasted better to me too. But the grains also look

> different. They are more whitish and almost appear crumbly in the

> water.

>

> What color are healthy grains? What about consistency?

>

> Do they produce more fizz if they are healthier? Or less?

>

> What does it look like when they grow? I have no idea how to really

> tell if I have more grains then i did before. Could it be there are

> MORE now and thats why they are producing more fizz?

>

> I hear water kefir grows slowly, but I have NO IDEA what I'm working

> with here...

>

>

> thanks Cheryl

>

>

>