Yemoos Nourishing Cultures Forum

I just started making my own water kefir. I purchased the water Kefir grains from Cultures for Health. How do I know that I
have made a probiotic and am not just drinking sugar water? I have read that people have said that it has a bubbly taste...it
just taste like sugar water to me.

I believe cultures for health only sells dehydrated grains, so it may need more time to get going. Water Kefir is fairly mild compared to milk kefir or kombucha, but it should be a little bit tangy / sour and once the yeast gets going, you can usually detect some kind of bubbly or fizzy taste. However the real carbonation usually picks up significantly after you bottle it.

Having said that, the biggest reason why most people don't get any activity starting out is that there's not enough minerals in the sugar. Try adding some molasses or some mineral rich sugar and it should pick up.

Alex