Water Kefir Day 1 -ACCLIMATIZATION & FIRST FERMENT
Leeza Zurwick
Founder
Instructional video: Step-by-step instructions for how to ferment your own water kefir, day one.
The first round is to get your water kefir grains acclimatized to your specific brewing environment.
Step One: Prepare the water
Bring 4 cups of unfiltered tap water to a boil. Add to a non-reactive brewing jar and stir in 1/4 cup of sugar blend with a wooden spoon. As per the Happy Gut Method, we suggest using a combination of coconut palm sugar and organic cane sugar for best results. For 1 standard batch, put 1 tbsp of coconut palm sugar into a 1/4 cup & fill the remainder with cane sugar. To make it even more simple, you can purchase our Organic Sugar Brewing Blend from our website. If you have purchased a Homebrew Kit you will find the sugar blend in the glass brewing jar (measure out 1/4 cup.) Finally, stir the water so the sugar has dissolved, and allow to cool to room temperature.
Step Two: Add the grains (cultures)
Open the bag labelled “Grains” and dump the contents into the brewing jar with the sugar/water mixture and stir lightly. Close the lid on the jar, but do not seal. Leave in a consistently warm spot, 20-30°C (70-80°F) and leave it for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, strain the grains and dispose of the liquid. Your grains should be acclimatized and are now ready to brew with.
Repeat steps 1 and 2, leaving the brew jar in the warm place for 48 hours. After this time the liquid is now fermented. Strain the grains out using a nylon strainer. You can either consume the water kefir as is or move on to the second ferment (where it is flavoured and carbonated.) *Even if you are unsure if you achieved fermentation continue with the next step as that will be the indicator if the ferment was successful.*
