Table Of ContentWater Kefir Handbook
Water Kefir Recipes, Step-by-Step Instructions, Health
Benefits and More
http://kefirblog.com
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Water Kefir – A Brief Overview
Chapter 2: The Probiotics in Water Kefir Grains
Chapter 3: Health Benefits of Water Kefir!
Chapter 4: How to Properly Prepare Water Kefir
Chapter 5: In-Depth Ingredient Guides
Chapter 6: Live Kefir Grains vs. Powdered Starters
Chapter 7: Multiplying Your Grains
Chapter 8: What to Do with Your Grains When You Want to Take a Break from
Water Kefir
Chapter 9: Additional Tips for Caring for Your Grains in Warm or Cold Weather
Chapter 10: Water Kefir versus Kombucha
Chapter 11: Water Kefir versus Milk Kefir
Chapter 12: Water Kefir for Kids
Chapter 13: Easy Recipes with Water Kefir
Chapter 14: Ways to Flavor Water Kefir
Conclusion
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Introduction
Thank you, and congratulations for downloading the book, Water Kefir: A
Compendium for the Beginner.
This book comprehensively contains proven steps and techniques, as well as all
the basic information you need to know about creating water kefir. You might be
familiar with the more popular milk kefir, but each has its own distinct
differences, which will also be part of the important discussions in this book.
Foremost, water kefir is a lacto-fermented beverage made from sugared water
and kefir grains, which compose a co-existential relationship of various species
of yeasts and healthy bacteria, vigorously bonded and clustered by a
polysaccharide matrix, which the microbes produced themselves.
This symbiotic relationship of the microorganisms sustains its existence through
the process of breaking down natural sugar, for which these microbes utilize as
their feed, and thereby, create numerous complex proteins or enzymes, carbon
dioxide, ethanol, and the desirable lactic acid.
While it yields a lacto-fermented and carbonated beverage, usually with smaller
quantities of alcohol content of less than 1%, it abundantly produces probiotics
that greatly improve the general health of the digestive system, including a host
of health issues of the human body.
In fact, water kefir is even child-friendly, which makes for a better introductory
component to a child’s dietary regimen. Thus, if water kefir is good for a child,
just imagine what it could beneficially do for adults, and, of course, you!
Essentially, water kefir is dairy-free. Thus, it is ideally suited for lactose-
intolerant individuals. It is a fizzy, lighter beverage than milk kefir and allows
flavoring in so many ways. Often, water kefir is a natural alternative for
commercial sodas, with probiotics as its big plus.
Its name actually stems from keif, a Turkish word for well-being. According to
legend, regular consumptions of kefir were renowned to proffer longevity and a
radiantly beautiful skin. Concisely, with massive dosages of probiotics in their
most natural form, water kefir is truly your natural elixir of life!
As a beginner, you will have no worries of creating your first ever water kefir.
Aside from this book’s aim of properly guiding you, water kefir is relatively
quick and easy to make. Truly, it is an exciting and tasty way of quenching your
thirst with more probiotics added to your diet.
Again, thank you for downloading this book. Hereupon these pages contain our
best wishes, for you to enjoy a good read, and along the process, let you earn to
learn something priceless!
Chapter 1: Water Kefir – A Brief Overview
Several people, including you, perhaps, may have not closely acquainted or
associated yourselves with water kefir grains, except with the more notable milk
kefir grains. (This book reserves an exclusive discussion about the differences of
water and milk kefirs on Chapter 11.)
Inevitably, you will be wondering what is water kefir all about in the first place,
how does it benefit you, where and how did this culture originate, and how is it
distinguished from the other fermented beverages.
Exactly, there is just a series of necessary and noteworthy information for you to
learn primarily about water kefir, in order to arm yourself with a solid
background and understanding of its creation, processing, storage, techniques for
production, and all its required basic elements for beginners to know and
eventually practice.
This initial chapter outlines all the principal information for your quick reference
about water kefir— from its definition, process, origins and essential
preparation.
What Exactly is Water Kefir?
Water kefir is a probiotic or a lacto-fermented beverage brewed from sugary
water and water kefir grains, also known as sugar grains or tibicos. To clarify,
these are not actually grains like rye, wheat, rice, etc. The term only describes
their appearance, composing of a water-soluble polysaccharide gel, also called
kefiran, which conveys a subtle cord-like texture in the mouth, and varies from
pale white to yellowish grains, resembling cauliflowers and growing to the size
of walnuts.
The water kefir grains contain a specific biofilm— a colony of different yeast
and healthy bacterial strains or species living in a stable, growing culture of co-
existence, where their cells strongly stick together on a surface embedded within
a dextran, or a polysaccharide matrix of sugars, lipids, and proteins, produced by
the microorganisms themselves through the fermentation of sucrose.
This communal harmony of the microbes or, scientifically termed as the
Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeasts (SCOBY), survives through sugar
feeding, whereby, they prolifically create enzymes, carbon dioxide, alcohol
(ethanol), and most of all, the favorable lactic acid that propagates probiotics.
Although some interrelated community of lactic acid bacteria predominates
within each grain, the healthy and helpful probiotic Lactobacillus species are
omnipresent and always reign.
Origins of Water Kefir
The main origins of the water kefir provide no definite dates and specific
locations due to deficiencies for its recorded histories. However, early
speculations direct its initial discovery to Mexico.
Early documentation[1], dating back from the later part of the 19th century, noted
the use of water kefir grains in a fermented drink, concocted from the sweetened
juice of the tibicos, or water kefir, culture forming on the pads of the prickly
pear cactus, Opuntia, in Mexico. These discovered formations appeared as hard
granules that propagate tibicos when reconstituted in a sugar and water solution.
For the record, these speculations have also pointed to the southern peninsula of
the Ukraine, the Caucasus Mountains, and the northeastern Himalayas in Tibet,
China. At any rate, it is actually difficult to pinpoint the place of origin of the
water kefir by just considering the common symbiotic natures of the
aggressively active yeasts and bacteria that tend to provide several variations of
the proper culture of producing this bubbly beverage. In short, manifestations of
the water kefir cultures have been predominant worldwide, and it seemed that
these kefir grains were in existence and used for millennia now.
Nevertheless, there is yet another reliable scientific paper[2] relating the origins
of the tibicos. The literature refers to a particular bacteria cultured from familiar
stocks or species, which resemble identical properties with tibicos. The cited
bacteria was responsible for the creation of dextran— similar to the
polysaccharide matrix— produced especially via the fermentation of sucrose by
Lactobacillus hilgardii and stocks from the Leuconostoc genus, both prevalent
bacterial species in water kefirs.
Around the world, water kefir grains carry an assortment of names aside from
sugar grains, or tibicos in Mexico, used for brewing its popular fermented drink,
Tepache, made from piloncillo or brown sugar, pineapple rinds, and cinnamon.
The French called these grains as Graines Vivantes; Italians referred them as
Kefir di Frutta; and, Germans named them as Piltz.
Moreover, to name a few of the most common references of water kefir grains,
they are tibi or Japanese water crystals, African Bees, Aqua Gems, Australian
Bees, California Bees, Ginger Beer Plant or Ginger Bees, and Sea Rice.
However, regardless of its name, or exact composition of its culture, the prime
technique of utilizing water kefir grains essentially remains the same around the
world.
