Hey Jamie -
I have a small amount of water kefir grains - about a teaspoonful. When I started out with about a tablespoon, I gave half of them away thinking that they would reproduce quickly anyway. They have been hanging on like this for months and months - happily making fizzy drinks, but not reproducing. I recently started adding an egg shell and also put them into a little muslin bag. Even though I was really careful when rinsing them, I'm thinking that having them in the bag will insure that none go missing. So these guys go into room temp sugar water (boil the water, add 1/4 cup sugar and then cool). I add some sliced fresh ginger, a fig and a few goji berries plus an egg shell. I leave them be for two days - swirling them around every so often and then take out the bag of grains, rinse and put it into a fresh mix. Is there anything that I can do to encourage them to grow and reproduce?? Our house is air conditioned. Should I put them out in the garage where it is warmer? Thanks! By the way, I just take the mixture that has been with the water kefir for the two days and put it all into the blender. Our blender liquifies the fig, ginger & goji berries (I remove the egg shells first) and that's what I consider the finished beverage. It's very refreshing, but sweeter than I'd like. I think if there were more grains, they would process more of the sugar. Maybe I'm adding too much sugar to the water for them anyway?
It's all good -
Janice
