Kefir and Kombucha

[feather]

I don't know the first thing about Kefir or Kombucha. I'm a pro at yogurt though.

If you care to share with your knowledge and experience, what can you tell me about Kefir or Kombucha?

Why isn't it required to first bring up the temperature of the liquid when making them before cooling and adding the (kefir) grains or (kombucha) scoby? (like you do with yogurt)

Does kefir really help with health, especially acid reflux or GERD?

Do you sweeten either of them after fermenting to tone down the 'sourness' or tart flavor?

I do believe in the goodness of probiotics for health, live sauerkraut, yogurt, kim chi, kefir, and kombacha. I believe the gut bacteria is improved with a wider variety of bacteria by using probiotics.

I'm a newbie on this, can you help! Thanks in advance.

[feather]

May 31, 2016 22:20:28 GMT @redfish said:

I'm not much of a yogurt maker, but isn't the point of the temp raise before adding the culture to kill off the natural bacteria/culture in the milk so that you get the one you want proliferating?

yes

yes I actually do make yogurt without the temp raise. I just throw the culture in fresh from the goat milk or room temp milk.

You will get different flavors, though (kefir), with different milks. My kefir made with my raw goat milk tastes much different than using the same grains to make kefir out of store milk. They use what they can get and you get bacteria and such from the air in your house. If I give you some kefir grains, in a week or so your kefir will have different organisms in it than mine, even though they came from my house.

I only did kombucha briefly, but nobody would drink it so can't really speak much about it. I don't generally drink kefir either because I don't like it. I will make smoothies out of it. If you use oranges, honey and cinnamon, you get a pretty good imitation of an orange julius.

That sounds good and it won't compete with the tartness.

It's good! We don't have any digestive issues that we know of, so I don't know how effective they are at that stuff. We just figure they are good for us and so we drink it.

thanks!

[feather]

DH doesn't like the sour factor but has been chugging it for 10 days. I've flavored it with orange, crystal light, strawberries, peaches and apples, all sweetened up with sugar. So far, no acid reflux or throwing up. I'll consider it a success if this goes on for a month. 10 days is pretty good though.

[motdaugrnds]

I use to have "acid reflux" terribly, especially at night. Since using Kefir I've had none; so that tells me something. I'm not educated in chemical make ups of food substances so cannot speak as to "why" kefir works. I just know it does.

Never used that type of honey; so cannot help there.

[Deleted]

We currently drink kefir and I used to drink this rose flavored kombucha until our Natural Grocer's stopped carrying it. So while I don't have any firsthand experience on making any myself, I was researching on how to do it one day and found this one helpful. www.theelliotthomestead.com/2015/01/kefir-2/ and here is her post on how to make kombucha www.theelliotthomestead.com/2012/01/kombucha-again/ if you're interested.

[Deleted]

I used to make kombucha and I'm thinking about starting up again with it. It's necessary to be clean while making it but not sterile, because the kombucha itself is a live culture and acidic and kills bacteria. I had a lot of symptoms of crohns/ulcerative colitis and the kombucha cured that for me. Before I started drinking it I had awful intolerances to dairy products but after all my GI symptoms healed I was able to consume milk again without digestive problems. My husband is one of the pickiest eaters I've ever met and even he loved the kombucha poured over frozen strawberries. It was like drinking a dessert!

[feather]

Like @fffarmergirl, said, it does go well with strawberries (either the kefir or kombacha.) My DH asked me to blend it with strawberries and he said it was the best tasting kefir so far.

We discussed how many rolaids or tums he was using and he used to use 3-12 per day, he is only using 1 per day or not at all. We also discussed high carb foods, like bread and sugar, and how that feeds the 'bad' bacteria. I haven't asked him to limit the high carbs but to just pay attention to it and how it affects how he feels. I'm hoping this makes a long term solution for him.

Thank you EVERYONE for sharing your experience and knowledge on this.
I'm going to give Kombacha a try after a few months. Right now we are just trying kefir.

[feather]

We're at day 22 of the kefir gut test. It's really going well. No waking up coughing in the middle of the night, no throwing up with a raw throat at 4 am, hardly any acid in the throat anymore. He said he is finding it 'very refreshing' after any yard work. It's all good and I sleep better not worrying so much.

[Deleted]

That's awesome to hear feather, glad to hear things are going better due to the kefir!