Water kefir

[Atash Hagmahani]

I could send some down. Lemme finish the current batch and see how much I have. A tablespoon of colony would get you started. I'm pretty sure mine is authentic as it matches the "official" description.

[silverseeds]

 That would be greatly appreciated....

[Lady Lilya]

Doesn't seem to be hard to do natural fermentations: Lactobacilii and yeasts seem to be ubiquitous. Trick is to keep out undesireable microogranisms, by creating environments which strongly favor the micro's you're after.

Yep, that's the main idea.  You want the right saltiness, temp, etc for the strains you want to move in.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Fruity.

Vaguely fruity.

When you let the water kefir ferment longer. I have a feeling that the instructions I had did not allow a long enough fermentation time to create a noticeable flavor shift. I might try fermenting it longer next time before bottling it.

All my cultures are taking longer than advertised. The fastest is the Kombucha. Even a small colony ferments fast. Probably adapted to lower temperatures than the other 2. Fastest-growing is the water kefir. I swear it's noticeably bigger every time I look at it.

[Lady Lilya]

Aren't you tasting the ferments to decide when they are ready?  I never go by recipe time.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Yes, I am going by taste...but actual time is so much longer for most of them than "advertised" that I was concerned that something is wrong.

[Ozark Lady]

It must be a temperature thing.

I find that half of the time and my kefir is done.  By 24 hours it is spoiled.
I also found out with water kefir, if you put a bit too much sugar look out, it gets wild.

I still can't get brave enough to taste test either in the "raw".