Double Fermented Kefir

Good for your gut health and yummy too! When it is double fermented and sugar free, it is even better for you.

This is so easy! It is actually harder to explain than it is to do. Let’s start with how to pronounce it. Yes, really because I have pronounced it two different ways and both are wrong! Yep both are wrong. It is pronounced kuh-FEAR. Yeah, I’m probably going to have to correct myself another couple dozen times or so.

Basically you start with kefir grains. Kefir grains are soaked in milk. If you have a good source of grass-fed dairy cows, go ahead and use full fat milk for all the lovely health benefits it provides. But if you don’t have that good source, just use skim milk because the toxins are stored in the fats, so you won’t be getting the toxins from grain-fed cattle. I use skim milk from Aldi.

So, If you get your kefir in a jar with milk, the person giving it to you will tell you how long it’s been fermenting (what time it needs to be strained). I’m told you don’t want to use metal. So I use my glass measuring cup, a nylon strainer, and a smaller rubber spatula.

This one was in the cabinet a little longer than I intended but it’s still good.

I cannot get the whole quart poured into my strainer, so I pour as much as I can and stir and then add the rest.

Swish it back and forth around the strainer, getting all the milky part through the netting. I scrape it off the bottom of the strainer, so I don’t waste any of it.

Then you put the kefir grains back in the jar it came out of.

And fill it with skim milk about an inch from the top of the jar.

Put a coffee filter on top.

Secure in place with a rubber band or hair tie or ribbon or something.

Give the liquid that you pour out of the jar (and into the bowl or measuring cup) a stir.

And pour it into a clean, freshly rinsed jar.

Put on the lid and put back into the cabinet with the jar of kefir grains and milk for twenty-four hours (or so).

Now tomorrow, give the lidded jar a shake and put it into the refrigerator until you are ready to drink it. We like it best when it is cold.

It is okay if either jar substances separate into whey and the thicker part on top. If it is lidded, just shake it. If it is the other jar with the coffee filter, you can remove the coffee filter and give it a stir but I don’t mess with it until the next day and then I just pour it into the strainer and stir it through.

I’m told that by double fermenting the kefir (remember it is kuh-FEAR) it is getting rid of all of the milk sugars making it very low carb . . . of course I don’t know how low carb but I don’t need to know.

I’m told that it tastes much better by second fermenting it but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never drank single fermented kefir; it just smelled like runny yogurt and I’m not really a fan of yogurt either.

I’m told that second fermented kefir has more probiotics, so it is better for gut health, has more B vitamins, and that the calcium and magnesium are more bioavailable, which means it can be used more readily. There are also more enzymes and it has less lactose.