Probiotic Water Kefir Root Beer
Once you have your water kefir batch started and going strong, this is fairly easy to make. You basically make a tea with all of the roots, bark and spices, then sweeten and mix in with the water kefir before bottling to make it fizzy. The main ingredient that gives that true root beer flavor is sassafras bark, which you can find at health food stores or online, or if you know the plant you can forage for it in your area.
Servings: 1 quart
- 3 cups of freshly made water kefir
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup rapadura
- 1 tablespoon dried sassafras bark
- 1 tablespoon dried wintergreen leaf
- 1/2 of a vanilla bean
- 1 cinnamon stick or a few cinnamon leaves if you can find them
- 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
- 2 whole cardamom pods
- 1 star anise pod
- 1 knuckle sized piece of fresh ginger root
In a mortar and pestle, break down ginger, anise, cardamom, cloves and vanilla by pounding on them to release their flavors.
Add water, sassafras, wintergreen, cinnamon stick and broken down spices to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Immediately bring heat down to simmer and cover for 10 minutes.
Strain off the infusion into a bowl or jar. Dissolve rapadura into the infusion while it is still hot. Cool infusion to room temperature. Pour infusion into the prepared water kefir and stir to combine. Pour mixture into a clean bottle or mason jar and secure lid.
Let sit at room temperature for 1-2 days. Then refrigerate until ready to drink. Enjoy!
The longer it sits the less sweet it will be as the sugar gets eaten up by the probiotic bacteria. 1 day seems to yield the best true root beer flavor.
Burp bottle to release pressure once or twice a day. This stuff can get explosive! We've had a few messes already with it shooting out of the bottle. So open with caution.