I love making and drinking kefir sodas

Jan White wrote:I much prefer kefir to kombucha, if only because I can't handle the caffeine in kombucha.

Did you start out with dairy or water kefir grains? I need to get some more. I ended up dumping all mine cause we lived for quite a few years in a place with hard water, and all my kefirs kept getting slimy from too many minerals in the water.

Kimberly Agnese wrote:Kefir is awesome!

Lif Strand wrote:

Kimberly Agnese wrote:Kefir is awesome!

I love kefir to drink straight & to use for various dishes, but I'm not a discard person whether it's kefir or sourdough starter. It's just too much waste for me, and since I don't much like cooking anyway I don't want to figure out how to make anything with the discard.[/
I’m a raw vegan so we’re not cooking much here either:)
If interested these are some of the things we do with the extra:
My dog gets a spoonful daily,
I wash my hair with kefir
My daughter and I use as a face tonic
Just started watering sickly trees with it. Our sickly fig looks better since being watered with it. The other tree was watered with it just this AM but I think it’s going to help.

Lol it took awhile but this is what I found when researching and for me it has worked.

Kimberly Agnese wrote:

Lif Strand wrote:

Kimberly Agnese wrote:Kefir is awesome!

I love kefir to drink straight & to use for various dishes, but I'm not a discard person whether it's kefir or sourdough starter. It's just too much waste for me, and since I don't much like cooking anyway I don't want to figure out how to make anything with the discard.[/
I’m a raw vegan so we’re not cooking much here either:)
If interested these are some of the things we do with the extra:
My dog gets a spoonful daily,
I wash my hair with kefir
My daughter and I use as a face tonic
Just started watering sickly trees with it. Our sickly fig looks better since being watered with it. The other tree was watered with it just this AM but I think it’s going to help.

Lol it took awhile but this is what I found when researching and for me it has worked.

I don’t use the kefir whey for those things, but I do make my own apple cider vinegar and that’s fed to all of our animals for a good probiotic kick. Especially baby chicks do better with it.

Am Pohlacker wrote:There is another culture called water kefir that cultures sugar water instead of milk. At a quick glance, I believe that is the product culturedfoodlife.com is selling. However, you can continuously culture water kefir just like milk kefir, no need to purchase new starter unless you let it die. The 'grains' are a similar culture but more clear-looking. The culturing time is similar to milk kefir, about 24 hours, depending on temperature, and then you can do a 2nd ferment with fruit or juice to make a flavored 'soda'.

I use 3 tablespoons organic unbleached sugar, 1 tablespoon succanat, and 1 quart water. Cultures in less than 24 hours as temps get higher in summer. Then I add a few berries or some lemon juice, bottle it and let it ferment another 24 hours or so to make a soda. Very tasty!

Water kefir is my summer culture. It's too cool in my house in winter to keep it going easily, so I just buy new grains spring. But you could keep it going indefinitely. I get my cultures from nwferments.com. They are awesome!

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:I love kefir sodas.
In fact, I love them a lot more than kombucha and find them easier to make and manage. What I don’t understand is, why people are so reluctant to make kefir sodas? Why is kombucha so much more popular, when this is easier to make and either taste better or just as good?
When it comes to dealing with food allergies, leaky gut, celiac, IBS and other stomach illnesses, I know a lot. Not because I want to, but because it has been part of my family’s journey. One of the things that has helped us the most, is fermentation. I use fermented foods heavily in our diet. I brew kombucha, our breads are all sour dough, I make krauts and other fermented vegetables too, plus vinegars, wine and last but not least kefir and kefir sodas.
What I experienced when I started this, was first a purge of my gut, then a lightness in my body and last tons of new energy. Today I always start my day with a bowl of homemade cashew kefir topped with a little fruit and honey or some jam. Anything else and I don’t get the same energy boost. My family has had the same experience so I end up making kefir from  2 gallons of cashew milk each week.
When you make kefir, you get a clear liquid by product. If you use milk to make the kefir you call it whey, so we do that for the dairy free version too. This whey is liquid gold, when it comes to fermentation. I use it to boost fermenting vegetables, to start more kefir, and to make delicious kefir sodas.
Imagine getting a delicious soda pop, healthy, probiotic and nourishing for your body. One that taste fantastic, but is low in sugar, and has no chemicals or flavorings added. In my mind, it should be a loud yes, but I find that while most people find it to be cool, they are reluctant in getting started actually doing it. Why do you think that is?

If you don’t know how to make it, here are the general directions.
To make a kefir soda, you will need:
1 strong large flip top glass bottle meant for carbonated beverages
1/4 cup whey or 1/4 cup of the last kefir soda you made
1-2 cups of juice (2 cups if only juice, 1 cup if adding honey)
1/4 cup of honey or sucranate  (optional, only use with low sugar juices like lemon juice, cranberry and tart cherry juice)
Enough filtered water to fill the bottle
Shake the bottle and let it ferment. Every 12 hours, take your bottle to the sink and burb it. This will show you when the soda is ready, and prevent exploding bottles. Once it’s carbonated to your liking, put it in the fridge to slow down the fermentation. Now it’s ready to drink. The soda won’t go bad, but will get more tart as time goes by.

To make dairy free kefir you will need:
1/4 cup of kefir whey or 1/4 tsp of easy kefir starter or kefir grains
1/2 gallon of nut milk (cashew milk gives the best flavor)
1 date
Blend the date into some of the nut milk in a blender until smooth. Add this mix, the rest of the milk and your kefir starter to a large glass crock. Cover with a cheese cloth and let it ferment on your countertop for about 48 hours. The time needed for the fermentation to get going, depends on how hot or cold your kitchen is. Because of this, it can take as little as 24 hours and as much as 5 days to ferment it. The kefir is done, when you like the tartness of it.
If you used kefir grains, now is the time to strain them out.
You can mix it all and drink it like this. At this stage, it’s also a good alternative to buttermilk. We mostly prefer it thick though, and to get that, you have to strain it through a cheese cloth. Most of the time, the kefir will have split at stage, into clear liquid (whey) and a thicker kefir. If the whey is on top, use a ladle to scoop it off into a separate bowl. Don’t worry if you get some of the thicker kefir with it. Once you get to the thicker layer, ladle it into your cheese cloth add the thicker kefir first, and the more liquid stuff last. This way you will get a clear whey dripping out if the cheese cloth. If you start with the thinner kefir, it will run straight through the cloth and you will just get the drinkable kefir. Don’t worry if a little bit of kefir gets into the whey, that will sink to the bottom once you refrigerate it. The straining are done, once the kefir has your desired thickness. If you let it strain a very long time, you will end up with kefir cheese, which is nice and spreadable  with added salt and spices.
Once you have the whey separated out, put it in your fridge where it will be good for a very long time. I actually have never had one go bad or not working, no matter how long I let it sit in the fridge.
Now you have whey, and you are ready to make great healthy sodas and many other ferments.
I hope that someone will find this information useful and that someone has advice on why people don’t do this? Why is this so intimidating?

Carla Burke wrote:The real fun for me was in the water kefir. I had a blast playing with various fruits and herbs, in the 2nd ferment. Sometimes, the 'blast' was even literal.

Jane Mulberry wrote:
He he, I had some "blasts" too! Those water kefir organisms can get lively! The main problem for me was dealing with the quantities, and the fact I was just drinking too much kefir soda! And they grow! Especially in summer, they just kept growing and growing, I couldn't give them away as fast as they multiplied, and I hated the waste. When I went on a long vacation, I stopped. I wish I had some again, though. My blueberries loved the excess grains and water kefir. They have not been nearly as happy since they stopped getting that.                    

Gilly Burke wrote:How interesting, thank you!

Why a half gallon of  nut milk to make kefir?  Why so much? Would you suggest a particular recipe  to make the nut milk?

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:I

Carla Burke wrote:

Jane Mulberry wrote:
He he, I had some "blasts" too! Those water kefir organisms can get lively! The main problem for me was dealing with the quantities, and the fact I was just drinking too much kefir soda! And they grow! Especially in summer, they just kept growing and growing, I couldn't give them away as fast as they multiplied, and I hated the waste. When I went on a long vacation, I stopped. I wish I had some again, though. My blueberries loved the excess grains and water kefir. They have not been nearly as happy since they stopped getting that.                    

Our worst night of blasts was a combination of poor quality bottles and an overzealous fruit blend. We were up in the loft of our last apartment, watching Walking Dead, lol. Suddenly, we started hearing gunshots & glass crashing to the floor. We ran to the loft rail, to see what/ who was shooting, and our windows were intact, so we figured it was probably not 'gunshots'), especially since we could also hear water running. We got downstairs just in time to see more of the bottles blow, that were sitting on the pass-thru counter, so I ran in and, amid broken glass and a sticky-wet floor, in bare feet, quickly started burping the last few bottles, while kefir dripped down on me, from the ceiling and ran off the counter top, all over the floor. I was still finding tiny bits of glass in weird places, even a year later, while we were packing, to move here. Most of the rest were just the bottoms popping off, and a puddle, under an empty bottle.

I also had tons of grains - which is why I have dehydrate ones, now. But, I found uses for them. They can be dehydrated and stored, of course, but they're also great to add as a topper on dog or cat food, can be added to smoothies, and other foods. They can also be composted or even added directly to garden or potting soil. I got to the point where I kept hoping to have even more extras, lol.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

Gilly Burke wrote:How interesting, thank you!

Why a half gallon of  nut milk to make kefir?  Why so much? Would you suggest a particular recipe  to make the nut milk?

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:I

I actually make kefir out of 2 gallons now, which after draining off whey, to make it thick, makes about a gallon of thick kefir. This kefir, are now my substitute for sour dairy products. We not only eat it with berries or jam for breakfast, I also use it for salad dressings and as you would sour cream. Last month, I drained it enough, that I could use it as cream cheese and we made cheesecake with it.  
We are five people, so that gallons only lasts a week or two.

As for making nutmilk. I soak cashews overnight. Then I add 1 1/2 cup to my vitamix blender, and fill it with up the rest of the way with filtered water. I blend it on the soup program, until it’s warm to the touch but not hot. (This process prevents the nutmilk for splitting when added to tea or coffee.) Then I strain and filter it through a mushlin cloth (a little thicker than cheese cloth). You can also use a nut milk bag. This will take a while. To make this process faster, I usually place my cloth in my cone shaped strainer, and use a pestle to press the milk through the cloth.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:
I actually make kefir out of 2 gallons now, which after draining off whey, to make it thick, makes about a gallon of thick kefir. This kefir, are now my substitute for sour dairy products. We not only eat it with berries or jam for breakfast, I also use it for salad dressings and as you would sour cream. Last month, I drained it enough, that I could use it as cream cheese and we made cheesecake with it.  
We are five people, so that gallons only lasts a week or two.

As for making nutmilk. I soak cashews overnight. Then I add 1 1/2 cup to my vitamix blender, and fill it with up the rest of the way with filtered water. I blend it on the soup program, until it’s warm to the touch but not hot. (This process prevents the nutmilk for splitting when added to tea or coffee.) Then I strain and filter it through a mushlin cloth (a little thicker than cheese cloth). You can also use a nut milk bag. This will take a while. To make this process faster, I usually place my cloth in my cone shaped strainer, and use a pestle to press the milk through the cloth.

Carla Burke wrote:

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:
I actually make kefir out of 2 gallons now, which after draining off whey, to make it thick, makes about a gallon of thick kefir. This kefir, are now my substitute for sour dairy products. We not only eat it with berries or jam for breakfast, I also use it for salad dressings and as you would sour cream. Last month, I drained it enough, that I could use it as cream cheese and we made cheesecake with it.  
We are five people, so that gallons only lasts a week or two.

As for making nutmilk. I soak cashews overnight. Then I add 1 1/2 cup to my vitamix blender, and fill it with up the rest of the way with filtered water. I blend it on the soup program, until it’s warm to the touch but not hot. (This process prevents the nutmilk for splitting when added to tea or coffee.) Then I strain and filter it through a mushlin cloth (a little thicker than cheese cloth). You can also use a nut milk bag. This will take a while. To make this process faster, I usually place my cloth in my cone shaped strainer, and use a pestle to press the milk through the cloth.

I think a chinois is one of the most brilliant tools to have in the kitchen! I had one, that disappeared in a move, long ago, and I've never replaced it, but it would be so very handy to have one, again - especially one with a stand!

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

Jan White wrote:
That’s the beauty of it all. I just wish I had more things to use the whey for. Our of every 2 gallons I start, I end up with 1 1/2 gallon of whey and 1/2 gallon of kefir yogurt/cheese. As it is, most of it goes into the drain.

Would the whey be nutritious for your garden? That would be cool.

Jackson Barnett wrote:

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

Jan White wrote:
That’s the beauty of it all. I just wish I had more things to use the whey for. Our of every 2 gallons I start, I end up with 1 1/2 gallon of whey and 1/2 gallon of kefir yogurt/cheese. As it is, most of it goes into the drain.

Would the whey be nutritious for your garden? That would be cool.

That’s a very good idea. So far I have only given some to my chickens. I will try and pour the next bath into the compost. It needs more moisture anyway.

Lif Strand wrote:

Kimberly Agnese wrote:Kefir is awesome!

I love kefir to drink straight & to use for various dishes, but I'm not a discard person whether it's kefir or sourdough starter. It's just too much waste for me, and since I don't much like cooking anyway I don't want to figure out how to make anything with the discard.