If you read any articles or blogs about the paleo or primal lifestyle, you no doubt have read about the benefits of fermented foods. They are the bees knees for the gut and therefore for the brain. In an effort to get more of these beneficial probiotics into my system, over the past year I have experimented with jun, water kefir and milk kefir.
I received a jun scoby from a YTT friend of mine. It looked very alien – an amorphous, white blob with floating tendrils. I made some green tea, added some honey, and the blob went to work. It produced a lightly sweet, mostly tangy, slightly fizzy concoction. The flavor of it was good, especially initially. However, the scoby grew faster than the size of my container. Pretty soon the scoby was fermenting the jun so quickly that by the time I got around to drinking it, it was VERY tart and tasted more like apple cider vinegar than green tea with honey.
However, I kept drinking it, convinced by everything that I’ve read that I was doing my body good. Then I started to notice that I was getting rough, dry patches on my upper lips. At first I thought it was just dry skin, but then I noticed it was EXACTLY in the place where a glass meets my lips. I tossed my ancient Sigg bottle, assuming that the lining had failed and was aggravating my lips. Nothing changed. I bought some Abreva, thinking maybe I was getting cold sores. Nothing changed. Finally I stopped drinking the jun. Problem solved!
In my unscientific experiment of n = 1, here is what I think happened. The jun was SO vinegary that it was burning my lips! I can only imagine what it was doing to my stomach. I ended up giving my monster jun scoby away and moved on to something more familiar – water kefir.
A couple of years ago, I had experimented with water kefir grains from Cultures for Health. I guess I should back up. To make water kefir, you take filtered water, add sugar, add water kefir grains, and a day or two later, you have a fermented water beverage. You can then add some juice to that fermentation (after you filter out the grains) to make an even fizzier second fermentation.
My first experiment with water kefir was frustrating and did not consistently produce tasty water kefir. However, after my jun experience, I decided to try again. This time I bought grains from Amazon, a reseller for poseymom.com.
These grains were amazing! In the beginning I followed the instructions on poseymom’s website and added A LOT of black strap molasses to the water. The grains loved the minerals and doubled in size with every batch. However, even though the grains were healthy, neither Tim nor I were huge fans of the molasses flavor in the kefir. So I cut down the molasses to about 1/2. The grains still did well, but the taste was much more mild. I started to produce super fizzy, very delicious water kefir.
After several months of creating water kefir, I ran out of my Brer Rabbit Blackstrap Molasses and could not find any bottles anywhere, so I bought a different brand. I *think* that is what caused my issue, but I’m not sure. The grains started to fall apart and change color. They were not fermenting like they used to. I didn’t like the smell, so I tossed them, intending to buy a fresh batch.
However, I soon noticed that within a few days of not drinking water kefir, I lost about 3 stubborn pounds. Despite eating the same way I have for the past 3.5 years, I had put on a few pounds. I had attributed it to getting older and maybe allowing more non-paleo cheats. But once that weight came off, my second very unscientific conclusion is that the water kefir must have still had quite a bit of sugar/carbs in it, and that’s what was pushing my weight up. I did some research on the internet, and it sounds as if water kefir can drive up yeast in the body. So not all people react well to it. Some women even reported getting more yeast infections when they drank water kefir.
So I decided to move on to milk kefir. I had also tried making that several years ago with powdered grains from Greatest Grains. It did not turn out AT ALL. So I went back to poseymom.com, since I had such good results from her grains.
When I got the little pouch (6.99 from Amazon), I was a little disappointed in the tiny amount of grains in the package. But I followed the instructions on the website and added them to about 2 cups of cheap milk. After 12 hours, I poured the milk out and put the grains in a fresh batch. I did this maybe one or 2 more times before putting the grains in some whole fat organic milk. I set the jar on a seeding mat to speed up the fermentation process.
Every 12 hours now I have a batch of tangy, slightly fizzy, thick milk kefir. It is super delicious and filling. Our only complaint is, is it so thick that you waste a lot of product on the inside of the jar and glass.
The process is incredibly easy. Every 12 hours, I get out a clean glass jar and add 2 cups of whole milk. I then get the fermented milk off the seeding mat and give it a good stir with a plastic chop stick (you can’t use metal with milk kefir). The kefir needs to be stirred because it starts to separate into curds and whey when it ferments.
Then I get out a plastic strainer and strain the milk kefir into a clean, empty jar. The kefir is quite thick, so I use the chop stick to stir the milk in the strainer, being careful to not break up the kefir grains. I then dump the grains into the fresh milk. I have a pretty small strainer, so I have to repeat this process 3 or 4 times to process all the kefir.
I then use a rubber band to attach a coffee filter to the top of the jar with the new milk and grains in it, and set it on the seeding mat. I give the kefir in the other jar a good stir, cap it with a plastic lid, and put it in the fridge.
We’ve been drinking the kefir for 2 or 3 weeks now, and so far I have not noticed any weight, skin, or stomach issues. Tim and I both really love the taste and consistency. We will see how long these grains last before I end up accidentally killing them. Oh! And one more thing I should mention. If you need to go out-of-town, or if you are just producing more kefir than you can handle, you can put the grains in milk in the fridge, and the grains will basically hibernate. When you return home, give the milk a stir, set the jar on the seeding mat, and 12 hours later you will be back in business.
I may get adventurous and make a little video showing the process because I know that would have been helpful to me.
Hope you have a fabulous Monday!! If you have any questions or comments please leave them below. 🙂