Hello,
I've been brewing water kefir for the last few months, but the last 3-5 weeks I have been having some trouble. My batches would turn out, as expected, perfect within 24-48hours of primary ferment and 24 hours of bottle conditioning. However, now after 48 hours of primary ferment and after removing the grains, a 48 hour secondary in bottle ferment, (with ginger and lemon juice as my sugar sources and baking soda or sea salt as my mineral sources), my water kefir is no longer getting below a pH of 5 and is just sweet water and no carbonation if I'm fortunate. However, I've gotten quite a few batches where an almost scummy off smelling and off flavor develop during secondary ferment. The batches, after primary fermentation is done, smell perfectly normal, slightly sweet and yeasty and at pH of high 5's to mid to high 6's. The only way I can get the batches to turn out through secondary ferment is with the use of unsulphured molasses as my mineralization base or high sugar content juices. I understand that there is a conditioning period for the water kefir grains to get use to the water you use, but I don't think it should slow down to almost a stop. The grains continue to multiply, but they are small to medium in size with a number of large grains and tons of small developing grains. I have been using The Ginger People ginger juice and Santa Cruz lemon juice as my go to juices and I use Wholesome brand's organic granulated evaporated cane sugar as my sugar source, while using carbon filtered well water and straight well water at times.
Has anyone had a similar problem and did you figure out a resolve to it?