Kefir Beer

[Guest guest]

I've been enjoying my kefir beer and trying to come up with

ways to use the abundant (coming out our ears) fruite that

grows around here. I finally tried my Mom's old-fashioned

method -- she boils the fruit and strains it. I boiled the berries,

which are REALLY full of seeds, then hung them in a bag

and strained the juice, pressing after to get most of the

juice out. Then later I boiled the juice, adding about as much

sugar (for 6 cups juice, 6 cups sugar. Later I read that for

jelly, you are supposed to use 6 cups juice to 3 cups sugar,

but don't quote me on that, read a recipe!).

The resulting stuff jelled in the fridge, making jelly! Which

the family loves. However, I spoon a couple of spoons

of it into my kefir-beer container, when it gets 3/4 empty,

and refill with water, and I'm set for another batch. By the

time I drink it, the sugar is gone and it is slightly sour

and fizzy.

I've been trying to do this with raw berries but juicing this

many berries is a TON of work. I haven't done it yet, but

this is basically how they used to make jelly, so in theory

this could just be " canned " and put on the shelf forever.

You miss some of the vitamins in the berries, but you still

get the minerals and antioxidants (and apparently some of

those antioxidants work better after cooking). And it makes

WONDERFUL beer.

-- Heidi