Fresh Cherry revived my water kefir

[Guest guest]

I got my water kefir grains (SKG, tibicos) growing well now thanks to a single

cherry. So I think I should share the info.

For water, I dilute 1/8 tablet of 1000mg Vitamin C in 5 teaspoon of tap water.

Use 1 teaspoon of this to treat 1 galon of tap water (trying to newtralize

Chloramine in tap water). In other word, I use 1 tablet of 1000mg Vitamin C to

treat about 40 galons of tap water that has Chloramine.

When I first got my SKG, it doubles every 12-15 days. I had tried various

combination and varying amount of:

8-12 oz. water

1-3 table spoon of white sugar

0-20 drops of molass

frozen ginger slices

pinch of salt (1/32-1/16 of a teaspoon)

pinch of baking soda (soda bicarbonate, NOT baking soda).

I let it sit 1-3 days between feedings. The more sugar I added, the less active

my SKG seemed to get. My SKG (tibicos) seemed ever lethargic, monotone in

color, there were only 2-4 bubbles every 30-60 minutes. It trippled in size in

5 weeks from less than a tablespoon to about 2 tablespoons. I kept it because

secondary fermentation of the kefirized water did give some fizz.

Last weekend I had some fresh cherries. So I cut up one cherry and gave it to

my SKG jar, I only used:

10 oz. water

1 fresh cherry

1 tablespoon sugar

8-10 drops of molass

a pinch of salt

that time. Overnight, there was lots of bubbles on the surface. The grains did

look more lively, I can see the white-ish bubbles and white-ish highlights of

the cracks in the grains. I have not added more cherries since then, and the

feeding cycles has been 1-2 days. The SKG have since doubled in 5-6 days, that

the best growth rate I ever get. I now have a small bag of frozen cherries to

try later, may be once a week for a few weeks to see the results.

If you have never tried fresh cherries (or frozen cherries), I suggest you

divide your SKG and try only on part of your grains first.

Jimmy