If you've received or bought water kefir grains - this is how to wake them up and get brewing. If you are looking for grains - dehydrated grains are great because you can wait until you're ready to start brewing, they post and keep well and are also a wonderful present. If you need grains - find some here. 

Once woken, your water kefir grains are a living thing - they need a bit of care. Eventually, you might see them as a kind of pet, in fact, sometimes quite demanding pets, that will provide you with not only a probiotic powerhouse, a delicious carbonated drink, a very cool mixer, a low alcohol solution or replacement but something amazing to talk and think about for as long as you tend to them. They are something to pass on, give to friends, quench a thirst. Provide relief to an upset tummy, or a tired microbiome. They tend to be very good for a slow and sluggish system (if you know what I mean...).

At worst, however, this SCOBY can become a nagging pain, reminding you that you have work to do, something to feed........or is something you've killed. I think that's why I have a business in Water kefir brewing. Sometimes they can be annoying and unpredictable.

Water kefir grains are not grains - they are called that simply because of their shape - and have nothing to do with gluten or carbohydrates. The grains are another kind of SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast ) - a polysaccharide matrix of bacteria and yeast that keep each other alive and happy as long as they are fed and kept in the right conditions. Water kefir goes by many names, one of them is Tibicos, another is Snow Lotus... different versions have been found all over the world. You can read more about it in my book - but for now - let's do this.