houdbaar: The Ingredient that Greatly Improved my Water Kefir: Giving Cultures What They Need

I continuously find that cultures are like so many things: what you get out of them is dependent upon what you put into them. I also find that there are often very different circumstances under which we culture. Where we live, our current temperature, the water we use, and the ingredients we choose all play a huge part in how well a culture will perform.

Which is why I’m forever experimenting and tweaking. Sometimes these experiments fall flat on their face – like the time I tried to make a water kefir eggnog. But sometimes I find that changing up the routine just a little results in a big improvement in the product my culture is giving me.

Over the years I’ve wrapped kombucha vessels in blankets, buried jars of sauerkraut, and meticulously divided my milk kefir grains all in order to adapt to my current culturing situation. Recently I found that a small amount of a single ingredient seemed to really improve my water kefir’s activity.

I have tried various things to boost the activity of my water kefir when it seemed to be in need of a boost. The water kefir was culturing the sugar water, it was just taking a bit longer than I thought it should or the grains didn’t seem to have the vigorous nature I have seen before.

After trying sea salt and trace mineral supplements to boost the mineral content I tried adding just about 1.5 teaspoons of molasses per quart of water kefir. The salt and mineral supplement did boost the water kefir’s activity a bit but not nearly as much as the molasses all on its own.

I am theorizing that it has to do with the minerals and the sugar and other constituents found in the molasses that make it what it is. And for some reason, my water kefir grains really respond to being fed just a small amount along with the organic, semi-refined sugar I’ve been using.

My grains seem to convert sugar water to water kefir at a better rate. There is more activity to the grains in that I see plenty of bubbles coming up from the grains in the bottom of the jar as well as on the surface of the water kefir. The finished water kefir tastes more cultured to my palate and has a very vigorous carbonation to it once bottled. And the grains seem to be more willing to multiply than ever – meaning more water kefir!