Is it possible to make Kefir out of Hempseed Milk?

[neiljjm]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I'm posting to the grain ferments but I couldn't find out how to post under miscellaneous. Does anyone know if you can make kefir out of hempseed milk?

Thanks a lot!

Neil

[Tim Hall]

I'm really not sure, but I suspect hempseed milk would ferment with with kefir culture in it. If you have any spare "baby" mothers, I wouldn't hesitate to just experiment with a small batch. My only conern would be the viability of the culture over the long term...the hempseed milk may not provide all the right nutrients to keep the mother healthy indefinitely.

[neiljjm]

Hi Tim,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate it as I am completely new to fermenting. I am wondering if I could use coconut milk to make kefir? I would really like to be adding kefir to my diet but don't necessarily want to consume lots of dairy. The other possibility is whether I can add extra ingredients to the hempseed milk that will nourish the kefir grains adequately?

Thanks again!

Neil

[Tim Hall]

I know someone who makes kefir from coconut milk...well I say it's kefir, but really she dumps a packet of store-bought cultures in coconut milk to get a reasonable facsimile of kefir. She also sometimes uses fresh coconuts, ferments in the shell, and then scrapes the fermented meat out and uses it something like a cheese. I never tasted this "cheese," and have no idea if it's any good or not. One thing I noticed though, is the coconut culture gave off a VERY strong eggy/sulphuric smell that's not terribly pleasant. This could have been unique to the cultures she was using and not the fact that it was made with coconut...not sure though.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure all these things will ferment with a kefir mother culture, and I'm not saying your kefir is necessarily going to poop out after some time without milk, but it has been suggested as a possibility by others (sorry I couldn't give you the reference here.) I have heard of others using something called a "water kefir" mother that is apparently more adapted to vegan ferments, but I don't really know anything about it or where to source it.

[neiljjm]

Thanks Tim! Worth following up on; I will have to do some further web research. I'm sure the information is out there somewhere.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Cheers, Neil

[cushsb]

in my own opinion, i think you can make kefir out of almost anything. If you can make kefir from water, then i guess you can pretty much make it from anything as long as you add a little sugar to the liquid medium for the kefir grains to eat. you can check this recipe of water kefir water kefir recipe.

I think the process is pretty much the same for anything else. i've personally tried it with apple juice and pineapple juice too. since both are pretty sweet though, i didn't have to add sugar to it anymore.

hope that helps. : )