Kefir and Whey Sodas

These are the recipes I will be demonstrating tomorrow for my local WAP chapter!

Ginger Ale
In a 2 qt jar:
1 apple, quartered (or 10 slices dried apple) or one lemon, sliced
1-2 T ginger, ground or fresh or combination
1/4 c honey or rapadura/sucanat
1 T kefir grains
1 T malt syrup if using milk kefir grains
1 small piece of eggshell
filtered water to fill, leaving 1" headspace

Close tightly and leave in soaking cabinet for 2-4 days. Soda should become fizzy and sour. Strain in colander to remove large bits and kefir grains. Reserve grains for future batches. Drink straight or with added natural sweetener, if desired. Extra-delicious chilled. May be fermented for several more days at room temperature after the kefir grains have been removed.

Beet Kvass
In a 2 qt jar:
2 large beets, peeled and chopped very coarsely
2 T salt
1/4 c homemade whey
filtered water to fill, leaving 1" headspace

Close tightly and set in your soaking cabinet for 2-5 days. Should be salty and fizzy. Strain and serve chilled. Beet kvass is not a fancy beverage, but a health tonic. Excellent for colds and fatigue.

Kefir Grains:
The kefir-fermented ginger ale below is actually a variation on an ancient fermented drink called water kefir. Ideally, it would be make with Sugar Kefir Grains (SKG), which are composed of glucose-eating microbes. However, these are not always available, though many of us have milk kefir grains. If milk kefir grains are used, fermentation is improved by the addition of barley malt syrup because maltose is more similar to lactose and preferred, over glucose, by the SKG organisms. Both SKG and milk grains are built out of calcium, which they need if they are going to proliferate. Proliferation is desirable because it not only increases your supply of kefir grains, but also ensures that the grains you already have are thriving. Once a set of milk kefir grains has been used in water kefir, it should not be used in milk kefir again, but reserved for its new purpose.

One simple method for using kefir grains in soda is to tie them into a little sachet with a piece of muslin cloth. This prevents them from getting mixed in with the other solid ingredients such as fruit and spices so that they are easier to retrieve at the end of a brew.

Homemade Whey:
Don't try to purchase whey for your beet kvass! To work properly, it must be microbiologically active. The best ways to make whey are to drain them off of kefir, curdled raw milk, or homemade yogurt. In a pinch, you could try using the whey from store-bought yogurt, but your results might not be good. (You'll recall that yogurt ferments at a warm temperature between 80° and 90°F. It is impractical and unnecessary to maintain those temperatures for beet kvass, so using yogurt cultures might prove problematic.) To drain whey off of kefir or sour raw milk, line a colander with a piece of muslin and fill with finished kefir which has begun to separate. Collect the whey in a bowl under the colander. Save it all! What doesn't go into your beet kvass can be used to start pickles, sauerkraut, and drinks, as well as adding the required acidity to your soaked grains. I keep whey in the fridge in jars for up to two months. If it smells bad, it is bad.