Homemade milk kefir & True Brews Giveaway
I first encountered Emma Christensen’s beverage prowess via the kitchn and her posts there and mistakenly thought my good friend Emily was behind a particular fermented soda. What a pleasant surprise to discover Emma and her oeuvre of fermented drinks and that they come handily packaged in this lovely book.
To be a fair reviewer (and take my own background and experience with fermented beverages off the table), I turned this project over to a true newbie, my marketing coordinator Christina, also the illustrator of the esteemed pickle towels and aprons!
I asked her to pick a project and go for it. She picked milk kefir and I love the post she came up with.
I hope you’ll enjoy this book as much we do. To enter the giveaway to win free copy of the book, scroll to the bottom of the post and use the Rafflecopter widget by midnight on January 28, 2014.
Disclosures: 10 Speed Press/Random House provided me with a complimentary copy of this book and will be mailing the winner’s copy directly. If you buy the book from Amazon using the link below, a fraction of the sale gets magically deposited into my bank account.
Guest Post: Making milk kefir
by Christina Valentine
What in the world is kefir? At least that’s what I thought when I agreed to try a milk kefir recipe from Emma Christensen’s book True Brews. At the time, I only knew one Kiefer, and he’s not the type to be drinking milk products, ya dig? I was surprised to find out that kefir is essentially a liquefied yogurt that has all the good bacteria that we love in yogurt. Word on the street was that it was tasty, too.
Why kefir, you may ask?
1) I had never heard of kefir before this experiment.
2) I thought the roommate could buy a pre-made bottle at the store, so I wanted to learn how to make more of this good stuff and also keep culturing endlessly.
3) It looked simple enough, and I wanted a probiotic smoothie for on-the-go!
As a newbie in the kitchen, the first thing I did was enlist the boyfriend, who pretends he’s to be a great chef and knew which of our unmarked measuring spoons was a tablespoon. With that mystery solved, it was time for the kefir to be made! It was recommended that I use Cultures for Health’s milk kefir grains for my science experiment. Getting started was the trickiest part for me, and since Christensen’s book didn’t explain how to rehydrate the grains, I turned to Cultures for Health’s instructions to do so.
I started rehydrating the grains in one cup whole milk (because kefir loves fatty milk), covered it with a coffee filter, and let them sit in a jar for 24 hours at room temperature.
;)
For the next two days, I strained the grains from the milk and added the kefir grains to fresh milk. However, on the third day, life got in the way, and I didn’t check or change the grains into new milk - a big oops! Unfortunately, this led to some trouble.
;)
Thankfully, Christensen had troubleshooting tips that explained what had happened, and how to resolve it. The kefir had a thick layer on top and a water layer on bottom, which is a sure sign that the kefir had over-fermented. The grains were still healthy, but I just had to try to culture the next batch for less time.
;)
So I did just that: I changed the milk, and checked on the kefir 24 hours later, and BOOM - I finally made kefir!
;)
The boyfriend can’t stop talking about how good that smoothie was. (Seriously, it’s getting annoying.)
One of the neatest things about this is if you have extra grains (which I did), you can dry the grains and store them in the fridge for up to a year! This won’t be my last kefir experience, especially when I have such a handy step-by-step book like True Brews on hand. Next venture - ginger-pear water kefir with water kefir grains!
Beverages, Dairy, Entertaining, Fermentation, Giveaways, Guest Posts, Healthy Living, Kitchen
Reader Comments (23)
I've been wanted to get this book to make my own hard cider!
I've checked this book out from the library twice already. It would be great to have a copy of my own!
I'd love to learn to make kefir (both water and milk) and kombucha.
Yum! I drink a smoothie for breakfast every morning...I think I'm gonna have change it up and make this one instead of my usual smoothie!
Milk Kefir is calling me!
And True Brews has been on my to-read list... Oh, it'd be so great to win it!
L
Kombucha!!
I would love to try making my own kombucha!
I have been ogling this book for months now! I make my own kefir and kombucha, and would love to learn more about other kinds of brews. Love your blog, by the way!
I would love to get back into brewing beer, and try my hand at root beer and ginger ale, too!
I've been making lots of fermented sodas lately and my man makes hard cider every year... can't wait to learn more!
I want to learn how to make cider, beer and wine! Wow...I sound like a lush! Awesome book, and awesome review Christina!
My husband wants to try a cider soon.
I'm brewing kefir for my bff who believes that it can cure any ailment!
I'd really like to brew kefir. I've heard so much about it, but just haven't gotten around to it yet!
It would be great to make a fermented cider, apples would be a first choice but pumpkin would be great to try. I have always wondered what pumpkin cider would taste like and pumpkins are not too difficult to grow.
I had some milk kefir going for a while, but apparently I wasn't taking care of it right. While it was still good, we really liked having kefir smoothies. We also liked straining it like you do with yogurt. I mixed in jam to have something sweet in my lunches at work, and mixed in various spices and whatnot to make amazing chip dips. My kefir grains have since died and gone to fermenting heaven. I'd love to get a new batch started - and take care of it right this time!
i would love to have this book!
I'm new to making my own ferments but LOVE kefir! I'd love this book!
I just finished making my first batch of water kefir and my second batch of milk kefir so I'd use the book to help me come up with new ways to flavor and use them.
so excited to try this! I love kefir and I love and make my own yogurt....not sure why I haven't made kefir before.
I've never made kefir; that's the first recipe I'd try, too!
I really want to try some of the recipes!
Just got "True Brews" from the library and enjoying it! Fermenting is new to me.. Have done 2 batches of Kombucha and Milk Kefir twice so far..... I'm really enjoying this! Would love a copy of the book : ) Thanks!