Mark and I have been on the hunt for a root beer recipe that we not only like but love. A recipe that would some what resemble some of the natural root beers we've tasted. We tried making root beer with whey, we've tried making root beer with a ginger bug, we tried making root beer by making an extract and adding club soda to it. None of these gave us the taste we were craving. I wasn't discouraged, because I knew there had to be a source out there, somewhere! Low and behold after looking and looking all over the internet I finally found something I thought might get us close to what we were looking for and I was right. While mark prefers root beer keifer, I prefer juice keifer. Keifer is chalk full of probiotics, you know those things yogurt companies push so hard for people to buy, same thing, except more potent! Mark is a purest, he likes things the way they are suppose to taste, and nothing else. He will try just about anything, but it's hard to sway him from the original. The fact that he likes the root beer keifer is a miracle in and of itself!To make a gallon of Water Kiefer you need:
this recipe makes 1 gallon of water keifer
* 1 cup water keifer grains
* lemon juice from a 1/4 of a lemon
* 1 cup natural sugar (rapadura, sucanant, etc.)
* 1 dried prune or other dehydrated fruit
* 1 gallon of filtered water
Add first 4 ingredients to your gallon container, then pour your gallon of filtered over your four ingredients. Your brew needs to be able to breath and mix with the air, you can do this by placing a kitchen towel over your container with a rubber band around the lid of the jar (this lets it breath without getting bugs in it). Your keifer is done when the prune or dried fruit is floating on the top or is nice and bubbly.
Add first 4 ingredients to your gallon container, then pour your gallon of filtered over your four ingredients. Your brew needs to be able to breath and mix with the air, you can do this by placing a kitchen towel over your container with a rubber band around the lid of the jar (this lets it breath without getting bugs in it). Your keifer is done when the prune or dried fruit is floating on the top or is nice and bubbly.
To make root beer syrup:1 tablespoon licorice root
3 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
1 vanilla bean
1 anise star
1 cinnamon stick
couple drops wintergreen extract
1 qt. filtered water
Put all ingredients in a pan and then pour the 1 quart water over ingredients. Let water come to a simmer. Try not to let it boil, because boiling the spices can cause them to become bitter tasting. Let ingredients simmer for about 45 minute's. Let cool, then add root beer syrup to water keifer. Put all the ingredients together in a gallon container, then fill the container up with water, set the container on the counter until the dried fruit floats to the top. When the water keifer is ready you are ready to make keifer soda!
I don't have a bunch of soda bottles to divide up my keifer so I use 1/2 gallon glass jars. I fill the half gallon jar with 1/2 flavor of any juice I have a hankering for at the moment and 1/2 of the keifer water into a 1/2 gallon jar, screw lid on tightly, then taste everyday until you each the desired taste you prefer. You can use fresh chopped ginger for ginger ale, lemon for lemonade (I want to try lemonade sometime), vanilla beans for cream soda tasting keifer. The key to water keifer is to keep trying until you get the tastes you are looking for. For the first round, to get your confidence going, I would suggest using 1/2 juice and 1/2 water keifer and then adjusting your taste and creativity from there.
There's nothing better than a healthy, good for you, bubbly beverage with an amazing slice of homemade pizza!!!
