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My New Pet

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The15thMember:
My mom bought me a new pet, since she wants the benefits of having it, but doesn't want to take care of it herself.  My pet arrived in the mail yesterday, and I got it set up in its new housing as soon as I came in from beekeeping yesterday afternoon, since it was kind of stressed from the shipping.  We have named it Kim, and it uses they/them pronouns on the grounds of being genderless and colonial.  :D

Perhaps you have figured out from the pictures that my new pet is a SCOBY (a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast), a water kefir SCOBY to be exact.  We named it Kim because my mom's best friend growing up was named Kim Kieffer.  ;D  The little grains are used to lacto-ferment sugary liquids to make carbonated drinks, so essentially we are using it to make homemade sodas.  I soaked Kim for 20 minutes in fresh water to revive them and then put them in a solution of sugar and molasses to get them fermenting again.  This morning the solution is significantly lighter, so they are metabolizing the molasses, which proves they are alive and happy.  Tomorrow we'll remove some of the liquid, put some fruit it in, ferment that again, strain out the fruit, and put it in a pressurized bottle to carbonate.  Voila!  Soda!  :)

Zweefer:
Does it alter the flavor at all?

The15thMember:

--- Quote from: Zweefer on June 04, 2023, 02:21:10 pm ---Does it alter the flavor at all?

--- End quote ---
Does what alter what flavor?  The grains will metabolize the sugar into lactic acid and CO2 so the liquid will get less sweet.  During the second fermentation the fruit will obviously add flavor as well.     

Bakersdozen:
Keep us updated on Kim's progress.

The15thMember:
By this afternoon Kim's solution was even lighter than yesterday and no longer tasted just like molasses water, but a little bit ferment-y and not very sweet, so we moved into the next phase of the process.  I strained Kim out of their liquid and put them in a bowl of clear water for 20 minutes.  While they were in their bath, I put an inch of their liquid back into their jar, filled it up the rest of the way with water, and dissolved into that a 1/4 cup of demerara sugar for their next feeding.  We decided to flavor our first batch of kefir water with blueberries and freeze-dried lemons, since that's what we had around.  So I put a cup of crushed blueberries and a couple slices of lemon in their old liquid, and that will now sit for another day or two with a lid on to ferment again and get fizzy.  After Kim's bath, I replaced them into their jar to start the process over again.  So in a day or two when I need to do this whole process again, we'll have our first batch of kefir water soda to drink. 

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