The water kefir recipe for one litre: 30 g of grains, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 litre of unchlorinated water, 1 dried fig and 1 lemon in quarters. 24 hours at 20 to 25 °C out of the light, then strain. Do not reduce the sugar. It feeds the grains, not you.
The figures on this page
The seventh step is what makes this a water kefir recipe rather than a one off experiment. The jar is refilled in the same minute it is emptied, and the culture runs continuously.
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it decides whether the first real litre works. Grains that have just arrived are hydrated but have been in transit.
How: 30 cl of unchlorinated water with 40 g of sugar, the grains in, 24 hours at 20 to 25 °C. No fig, no citrus. Then the liquid is poured away. It is not a drink, it is a wake-up cycle.
Skipping it and starting straight on a litre gives a flat first drink, and people then often conclude the culture is faulty. It is not; it was simply still asleep.
Water kefir on the left. Milk kefir is a different culture on the right, and the two cannot be swapped.
| What goes in | Water kefir, 1 litre | Milk kefir, 1 litre |
|---|---|---|
| Culture | 30 g of grains | 10 to 20 g of grains |
| Liquid | 1 litre of unchlorinated water | 1 litre of milk |
| Sugar | 4 tablespoons, about 60 g | none, the lactose is enough |
| Dried fruit | 1 fig or 2 dried apricots | none |
| Citrus | 1 lemon or 1 orange | none |
| Duration | 24 h, up to 48 h | 24 h |
| Temperature | 20 to 25 °C | 20 to 25 °C |
This is the point we get the most messages about. Many people come to kefir from a page that treats sugar as the enemy, halve the 4 tablespoons, and write three weeks later to say the grains have stopped multiplying.
| Sugar per litre | After 24 hours | Effect on the culture |
|---|---|---|
| 4 tablespoons, about 60 g | a good part consumed | grains double in 3 to 6 weeks |
| 2 tablespoons, about 30 g | all consumed too early | culture weakens |
| No sugar | nothing to ferment | grains dead in a few cycles |
| 8 tablespoons, about 120 g | a lot remaining | sweet drink, slowed culture |
The rule is simple. The sugar is the grains’ food. For a less sweet drink you extend the fermentation, you do not remove spoons. After 24 hours about 3 to 4 g per 100 ml remain, which is roughly 6 to 8 g in a 200 ml glass.
The water kefir recipe needs three things bought once and three you already have. Everything else sold in starter kits can be skipped.
A 1.5 litre glass jar. For a litre of drink you need headroom. The gas has to go somewhere. A swing top jar, a preserving jar, an old pickle jar. Anything works as long as it is glass.
A plastic or stainless steel sieve. Plain metal reacts with the acidity. This is the only point where equipment genuinely matters.
A cloth and a rubber band, or simply the lid resting on top. The gas must get out, flies and dust must not get in.
What you do not need: a thermometer, because an ordinary kitchen is 20 to 25 °C. A precision scale, because 30 g of grains is two heaped tablespoons. An airlock, because the first fermentation runs open. And anything that looks like laboratory equipment. This is a kitchen ferment, not a measurement.
The chlorine in mains water is there to kill microorganisms, and it does the job in your jar too. It is the number one cause of ferments that never start.
Bottled water. The simplest option, no preparation. Avoid heavily carbonated waters.
Filtered water. A carbon filter jug removes most of the chlorine.
Tap water left to stand. An uncovered container for 12 hours and the chlorine goes off by itself. Free, as long as you remember the night before.
Hardness is not a problem, contrary to what is often written. Limescale does not bother the grains. Those are minerals, not an enemy.
The first two cycles do not count. Even after proper activation, the first two drinks are often flat or too sweet. Strain, start again, and from the third cycle it is normal. This is the commonest reason beginners give up too early.
| Per 200 ml glass | Water kefir, 24 h | Milk kefir, 24 h |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 30 to 50 kcal | 110 to 130 kcal |
| Residual sugar | about 3 to 4 g per 100 ml | little, lactose partly used |
| pH | about 3 to 3.5 | about 4.2 to 4.6 |
| Alcohol | 0.2 to 1 per cent | 0.2 to 1 per cent |
| Carbon dioxide | marked, more after bottling | little |
These values are identical on all our pages, because they come from the same recipe. What is absent is any claim about an effect. There is no authorisation for one, and for a glass made in your own kitchen there is no measurement either.
They have been the same for years, in every language, and four out of five are fixed in a single cycle.
First, cutting the sugar. By far the most common. The 4 tablespoons per litre feed the grains, not the drinker. After 24 hours a good part is gone. Halving it starves the culture, and within three cycles it stops multiplying. For a less sweet drink, extend the time.
Second, chlorinated water. Chlorine is made to kill microorganisms, and it does the same to your culture. Bottled water, filtered water, or tap water left uncovered for 12 hours all solve it.
Third, a jar that is too small. A litre of drink needs a 1.5 litre jar. The carbon dioxide has to go somewhere. A jar filled to the brim overflows and smells unpleasant within two days.
Fourth, rinsing every cycle. The grains are rinsed only when visibly coated, in cool unchlorinated water. Rinsing at every turn takes away the film that protects them.
Fifth, metal. A plain metal sieve or spoon reacts with the acidity. Plastic or stainless steel solves it, and it is the only point where equipment genuinely matters.
A culture needs a few cycles before it works consistently. Knowing that keeps people from throwing everything out after the second mediocre drink.
Activation. On the day it arrives, 30 cl of water with 40 g of sugar, 24 hours, nothing added. That liquid is not drunk.
First cycles. For a week, strain daily and start again, always with 30 g of grains, 4 tablespoons of sugar and a litre of unchlorinated water. Swings in taste at this stage are normal.
Steady running. From the second week one jar resembles the next. The fig rises around the twelfth hour, and at 24 hours the drink is tart and lightly sparkling.
Multiplication. After three to six weeks you have more grains than you started with. That is the real difference from a sachet of freeze dried ferment, which is finished after a few litres.
The strained drink is already pleasant and lightly sparkling. For bubbles that hiss on opening you need a second fermentation in a closed bottle.
How: fill a swing top glass bottle to just below the stopper, add two slices of ginger, 50 g of berries or the zest of a lemon if you like, and leave 12 to 48 hours at room temperature. Burp it once a day over the sink, then refrigerate.
Why it works: in a closed bottle the carbon dioxide cannot escape and dissolves into the drink. The fruit supplies the fresh sugar it is made from.
The safety rule: burp once a day. A bottle forgotten for three days in a warm room builds real pressure, and that is not an exaggerated precaution.
This is the part of the water kefir recipe that makes it worth starting at all, and it only becomes visible in the third or fourth week.
From 30 g you reach roughly double in three to six weeks, if the recipe is kept to. Three weeks if the kitchen sits around 24 °C, closer to six if it sits around 19 °C.
What to do with the surplus. Start a second jar, give some away, or dry it on baking paper at room temperature for two or three days and keep it in a closed jar. Dried grains keep about six months and revive in 24 to 48 hours with 30 cl of water and 40 g of sugar.
Why it matters commercially: a sachet of freeze dried ferment makes a few litres and is finished. Live grains grow, so the culture is bought once. That is the whole argument, and it needs no claim about health.
And a practical note: keeping a portion of dried grains in a cupboard changes how you ferment. Long cycles, warm rooms, ginger versions. With a reserve you experiment without risk, because a failed jar costs a week rather than the culture.
| Variation | What changes | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Ginger beer | 20 to 30 g of grated ginger | 2 to 4 days |
| Fruit kefir | strained onto fruit juice | 24 h more |
| Summer version | mint and cucumber, second ferment | 24 h |
| Drier version | same recipe, 48 h instead of 24 | 48 h |
All of them start from the same water kefir recipe: 30 g of grains and 4 tablespoons of sugar per litre. Only what is added afterwards changes, and in every case the grains stay in sugared water and never go into juice.
And one figure for the glass: a 200 ml glass of water kefir is 30 to 50 kcal after 24 hours, with traces of alcohol of 0.2 to 1 per cent. These are orders of magnitude, because a homemade drink is not analysed. No health claim about kefir is authorised in the European Union, so this page gives the recipe and nothing else.
The health claims authorised in the European Union are listed in the register of the European Food Safety Authority. Guidance on home food hygiene is published by the Food Standards Agency.
Live cultures, water and milk
Shipped hydrated and active, ready for the first cycle on the day they arrive.
See the culturesThat is all of it. The water kefir recipe has not changed since it existed, and it needs no equipment and no laboratory precision. A jar, a sieve, and a day’s patience.
And if one line is worth keeping, it is the sugar. Every other mistake is fixed in a single cycle, while a culture starved for weeks does not always come back. Four tablespoons per litre, and the rest is learned by doing.
For one litre: 30 g of grains, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 litre of unchlorinated water, 1 dried fig and 1 lemon in quarters. Leave 24 hours at 20 to 25 °C out of the light, then strain and start again at once.
No, and it is the commonest mistake. The sugar feeds the grains, not the drinker. After 24 hours a good part is gone and about 3 to 4 g per 100 ml remain. With 2 tablespoons the culture weakens and stops multiplying within three cycles.
White cane or beet sugar, 4 tablespoons per litre. Unrefined sugar works but darkens the drink. Honey is not advised because it contains compounds that disturb the culture. Sweeteners feed nothing.
Unchlorinated: bottled, filtered, or tap water left uncovered for 12 hours so the chlorine goes off. Chlorine is made to kill microorganisms and it works on your grains too. Hard water is not a problem.
24 hours at 20 to 25 °C for the reference recipe. Up to 48 hours for a sharper, less sweet drink. Below 18 °C everything slows, above 30 °C the taste drifts.
The dried fig rises to the surface, bubbles appear at the rim, and the taste has gone from sweet to slightly tart. Taste it with a spoon. That is the only reliable test.
Yes, on the day they arrive: 30 cl of unchlorinated water with 40 g of sugar, 24 hours, no fig and no citrus. That liquid is poured away. Skipping this gives a flat first litre and makes people think the culture is faulty.
Not as a rule. Only when they are visibly coated, in cool unchlorinated water. Rinsing every cycle takes away the film that protects them.
Five to seven days in a closed bottle in the fridge. It keeps fermenting slowly, so it gets a little sharper and a little fizzier each day.
Yes, in traces: 0.2 to 1 per cent, as in any fermented drink. More with a long or warm ferment, and more again after a second fermentation in a bottle.
