Water Kefir: (dairy-free probiotic drink)

Water Kefir is a great way to have a probiotic drink without dairy. It’s full of beneficial bacteria strains that are also vegan friendly!

I know how good kefir is to my body, as I have been making my own with local goat’s milk for many years. I was so happy with the result and the milk even came in reusable glass bottles.

It is not so easy to find such high quality organic milk in glass containers everywhere however, and I have been looking for a way to be less milk dependent.

I read more and more about how much plastic packaging ends up being burnt somewhere outside the US after we recycling. 

I tried to make kefir with coconut milk for a while, and it worked well, but takes more effort. So, I did more research and found out that Water Kefir had almost the same benefits as dairy kefir does. 

I soon ordered Water kefir grains online and started making it. I was so happy with it on the first try.

It’s much easier to make than other probiotic drinks too. If I plan well and keep it going, I always have Water Kefir in my fridge to replace dairy kefir. I don’t have to strain and feed the grains every 24 hours like I have to do with dairy kefir either.

The work you need to do for water kefir is just adding sugar & the grains into filtered water, then letting it sit at room temperature anywhere between 5-7 days to ferment. Before you know it, you have a frizzy & tangy probiotic drink that it’s full of good bacteria and wild yeast.

frizzy probiotic drink

Even though sugar is an important part of making this Water Kefir, the bacteria and yeast eat all the sugar. By the time the process is done, most sugar is pretty well gone.

Now, you can drink the Water Kefir. I like to drink it a little bit at a time with chia seeds and fruit. 

Ready to make your own dairy-free Water Kefir? Let me show you how!

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 4 cups (1 L) 

1. 2-3 TBSP (30-45 ml) Fresh Water Kefir grains. Note: you can use dried Water Kefir grains if you can’t get fresh ones, but it takes a few cycles to get the right result.
2. 4 TBSP (60 ml) unbleached sugar cane
3. 4 cups (1 L)  filtered water. I use about 1 cup (250 ml) of warm water and 3 cups (750 ml) at room temperature. Note: Feel free to adjust the amount you want to make. One tablespoon of sugar per one cup of filtered water with two to three tablespoons of Water Kefir grains is perfect.

Instructions:

1. Add the sugar into a glass jar followed by a little bit of warm water, stir it until it dissolves. I use warm water to speed up the process, but you can certainly use room temperature water too.
2. When the sugar is dissolved, add room temperature filtered water and mix.
3. Add the Water Kefir grain, stir, and lightly close the lid.
4. Let it ferment at room temperature for 5-7 days. This depends on the temperature of your house. I keep the temperature in my house at 68 degrees fahrenheit (20 C) in winter during the day, and letting the Water Kefir ferment for 7 days is perfect.
5. When it’s fully fermented, usually you can see a lot of frizzy bubbles. Strain it and let the it sit at room temperature for one more night before moving it to the fridge. Letting it sit out during this second fermentation for one night makes it tastes better.
6. To drink it, I like to mix it with chia seeds and some fruit. Drink a small amount of it at a time often.
7. Enjoy!

Have you made Water Kefir? Please share your experience below, I’d like to hear about it!