I’ve been having a lot of fun in the kitchen making our own soda lately and we’ve been loving the results. I’ll fill you in today on my less than scientific way to make really fizzy grape kefir soda.
It always seems that making traditional foods is hard or takes a lot of time, so people simply don’t do it!
But making water kefir, a fermented drink, is super easy and tastes great. Plus it’s healthy for you and everyone loves it.
What you need to make grape kefir soda:
- 1 cup grape juice (preferably organic)(I used some apple/grape juice I made last fall)
- 2¾ cups water kefir
- mason jar and 2 part canning lid
- 1 Tbsp organic sugar
How to make it:
Once your water kefir has gone through at least a 24 hour ferment, and bubbles when you move the jar, pour 2¾ cups water kefir into a clean mason jar.
Add one cup grape juice, leaving about 1 inch headspace.
Place the 2 part lid on and close fairly tightly, but not crazy tight. You want it to build a bit of pressure, but yet you don’t want it to explode!
Now here’s where we get to the not so scientific part.
You know that extra tablespoon of sugar in the ingredient list? You’re going to add some to the kefir everyday. If it’s warm out, add it 1 tsp at a time, if it’s cooler out, add it 1/2 teaspoon at a time.
You’ll know when it’s done when it bubbles up and almost over the top when you add the sugar!!
How to Make Grape Kefir Soda
Ingredients
- 1 cup grape juice preferably organic(I used some apple/grape juice I made last fall)
- 2¾ cups water kefir
- mason jar and 2 part canning lid
- 1 Tbsp organic sugar
Instructions
- Once your water kefir has gone through at least a 24 hour ferment, pour 2¾ cups water kefir into a clean mason jar.
- Add one cup grape juice, leaving about 1 inch headspace.
- Place the 2 part lid on and close fairly tightly, but not crazy tight.
- You know that extra Tablespoon of sugar in the ingredient list? You’re going to add some to the kefir everyday. If it’s warm out, add it 1 tsp at a time, if it’s cooler out, add it 1/2 teaspoon at a time.
- You’ll know when it’s done when it bubbles up and almost over the top when you add the sugar!!
*For more amazing drink recipes, follow our whole foods board on Pinterest!
Donielle Baker
Fermented Italian Green Beans
I’ve mixed my water kefir with grape juice before but I normally just put it right in the fridge/drink it. That tastes okay but I’ve never gotten much carbonation like I’ve wanted, I’ll have to try this!
Alas, I killed my water kefir grains, well, morning sickness killed them but I’ve been meaning to buy more. We miss it around here. Now that we are used to water kefir, regular juice just seems boring and too sweet.
I have been making this stuff for about a week now and have found that I do not need additional sugar. I just add juice to a kombucha (storebought) bottle with the water kefir and cap it tight. Put it in a warm place and after a couple of days you have bubbly goodness.
@Shannon, Good to know!
Sometimes I put a quart of grape juice in a mason jar, add some water kefir grains, and let it sit for 2 days. I like the taste. I throw out the purple grains, as I am always making plain kefir soda and usually have extras.
@Barbara Grant, I can’t wait till it gets warm enough here for my grains to start growing again! Since about October they haven’t grown one bit. In the summer they were doubling every week!
@donielle, Donielle, that has been the way with my kombucha. It took 2 months to get 1/4″ of scoby in a mason jar. I’m in Iowa and last week it got hot and humid (70s) – I can see where my kombucha doubled!
I’ve got a scoby growing now but I’m anxious to try making some kefir. I’ve had some goat’s milk strawberry kefir – it tasted like thin yogurt – and I want to try the other types like water, soda, and milk! My husband is a root beer man, is there such a thing as root beer kefir?
Hey Donielle,
I was wondering where you got your water kefir grains. I would like to start making water kefir since you make it sound so good and I don’t know of a reliable place to get grains. Do you have any recommendations?
Thanks!
@Marin,
Cultures for Health is where I got mine(and I think Donielle also bought hers), they have worked wonderfully.
Yummy! I actually gave a rather gutteral laugh and said, “Nice….” out loud to myself when I saw it would bubble up and over the top! 🙂 I’m trying this out.
I am a bit confused…. I want to make this, but a quart mason jar doesn’t fit 2 3/4 keifer + 1 cup juice… but yet a half gallon seems too big, especially if you have one inch space…. What size jar are you using? Also, is it finger tight on the lid, not wanting an air tight seal? I have some organic blueberry pomegranate juice that would be perfect for my new kefir grains..
My wife makes water kefir and thought of trying some grains in apple juice. We loved it!
Then she decided to try using grape juice to see if she could make some of the old Nehi grape soda.
She used about a teaspoonful of grains in a pint of grape juice.
When checking it on the third day we were both surprised to discover that a very healthy scoby had formed on top. Having made kombucha often we recognized it immediately for what it was but neither of us had even a suspicion that this would happen!
I braved tasting a sip and it was just delightful but we are wondering if this is normal. Hence, searching the net we found this blog. Have any of you ever experienced this?
She is making a new batch using both the scoby mother as well as the kefir grains. Hope it turns out and it will be interesting to see how the mother grows. The kefir grains seem to not grow any to me but I suspect the mother will continue to grow more. Both are full of probiotics so we may find ourselves making grape kombucha before this is done! Any experience with any of this would be welcome.
@Pam and Morris, I’ve had this happen as well, though I’m unsure of the probiotic and bacteria counts as compared to the actual grains. I find this happens more often when I allow it to ferment to long – usually I just toss it. 🙂
I am making grape soda with milk kefir whey and it has been separated in my bottles the whole time. Is this normal?
I’ve never made it with whey from milk kefir, I’ve only used this recipe with water kefir! My thinking is that the whey from milk isn’t mixing well with a fruit juice.