Do any of you mess with kefir any more?

[Boogity]

A year or two ago we had several discussions about kefir here. It seemed that many sang the praises of it so I tried it too. After several tries I abandoned my efforts because everything I made tasted awful. Just last week I decided to give it one more try.

I have my jar of grains in very good condition but I just can't seem to "brew" my water kefir to taste very good. The 1 gal. batch I made I used dried blue berries and one lemon. This was from a recipe I found on the web. I allowed it to set at room temperature for about 36 hrs. and strained off the fruit, poured into 1 pt. jars, capped them, and allowed them to set at room temp. for another 48 hours. The first jar tasted alright but nothing to write home about. After one more day all of it tasted like vinegar. I dumped all of it down the drain.

I'm not sure this kifer idea is for me. A lot of messing around for yuckie tasting drink. Not only that but I'm not 100% convinced that there is any nutritional or health value to kefir.

Can someone help me? Thanks.

 

[so lucky]

I tried milk kefir a few times, and it was very hard to choke down. I agree, lots of trouble to get bad tasting stuff.

 

[FarmerChick]

yuck
there are a ton of other good tasting and easy to make/handle things in life to worry about this stuff
if you ate the blueberries and lemon you would get better nutrition in the old body. I think whole foods are so easy and yummy vs. making concocotions that take up time and energy.

now juicing. I love it but the price to juice is high. So the juicer is now in the cabinet and I just eat some fruit

 

[moolie]

Never made the water kefir, but did the milk kind for almost a year. We always masked the taste by making smoothies with it. Turned out it bothered my oldest daughter's stomach, caused her serious pain and plugged her up from time to time. Which is weird, because she loves dairy products and eats a lot of cheese and yogurt. I have mild lactose-intolerance and I couldn't have the milk kefir even though everything I've ever read said that the fermenting gets rid of the lactose, it always made me uncomfortable and gassy.

So we gave up.

Now we stick with home made yogurt, which doesn't bother her at all, and which I can tolerate better as well.

I do know other people who've been doing milk kefir for years, same thing--they make smoothies to cover the taste. But I don't think it's all that common.

 

[ORChick]

I gave up on it a year or so ago as well. Personally, I am convinced that it is healthful, with lots of good bacteria, so I kept at it for several years, trying to like it. But I couldn't really find a way that worked for me. DH didn't like it at all, and, while I liked the fruit smoothies, I don't relish the idea of a cold drink on a cold day, so only made smoothies in the summer. I found it useful in baking, but that kills the good bacteria, and yogurt serves the same purpose. And the chickens liked it, mixed with grain, but again, yogurt works as well. I always have yogurt on hand, because I like it. I dried my grains, and have them in the freezer, in case I decide to give it another shot.
Conversely, my friend with Crohn's disease, to whom I gave some grains, loves the stuff, and swears that it makes a difference.

 

[KnittyGritty]

Like ORChick, I DO believe it's really good for you, so I've been making it for about 9 months now. I HATE the taste, so use it in smoothies about 3 times/week. It has tons more probiotics than yogurt, so that's why I try to keep it in my diet. I also eat a lot of fermented food, and have just, in the last month or so, started making kombucha, with a second ferment to flavor it. - love it!

 

[Bettacreek]

Wait, the taste is bad? I guess the homemade stuff sucks compared to the store stuff? I kinda liked the storebought stuff to be honest. I'm not a fan of regular yogurt, but I DO like Greek yogurt with some kind of crunchies in it, and I liked the blueberry kefir from the store. Regular yogurt just tastes bad and has an awful texture.

 

[moolie]

Home made plain yogurt is wonderful, commercial kefir is full of sugar, not the same thing at all as the natural stuff

 

[BirdBrain]

I make water kefir. I found that I really preferred it to sit more like 72 hours. Then I poured it up and added lemon wedges squeezed and recapped it, sticking it in the refridge...tasted like hard lemonade and I found it very refreshing.

I had an over abundance a couple of weeks ago because I got behind. I ended up pouring it into the chickens watering bowls and it was amazing how the algae disappeared.

 

[Dawn419]

I'm still doing milk kefir but don't like the tast so I've been giving it to the chickens. Despite temps of 100F+ degrees since spring, they hadn't slowed doen in laying until this past week and several of the girls are showing signs of molting.

I enjoy making and consumingKefir Leban cheese, though. I like to flavor it with different herbs and garlic or by adding jam/jelly/preserves and have actually passed it off as homemade cream cheese to unsuspecting family members.

I'd really love to try kefir water and kombucha but haven't been able to find starters for either one locally. If any one has starts of either, please let me know!