This is a very easy and immensely rewarding recipe, producing an impressively fizzy rhubarby soda. I saw @cafe.baerbucha on Instagram post a picture of a beautiful pink bubbly drink and they kindly told me what they did. Mine isn’t quite as pink as theirs but it tastes delightfully of rhubarb and has a lovely creamy mouth feel and milky, frothy head. If you have the bright pink early forced rhubarb your soda will be the pinkest. Later in the year the rhubarb is a little greener in hue but nevertheless delicious, a refreshing lightly alcoholic fizz. Alcohol content will vary – you must be the judge who you serve it too. I’m also imagining cocktails.

Make this soda with gooseberries and other fruit over the Summer.

You’ll need

1kg rhubarb

400g or so of sugar – you can adjust the sweetness according to the tartness of the rhubarb

1.5-2 cups of whey strained from your milk kefir.

7 litres water

To make the whey: Simply put some made milk kefir through a muslin cloth lined plastic sieve and allow to drip through. The watery liquid is the whey that you need for this recipe and the remaining curds in the muslin are a lovely soft cheese ready to eat.

Utensils: A couple of large jars to ferment in, clip-top bottles to bottle into and a funnel, a plastic sieve and muslin cloths.

Method

1.     Wash the rhubarb stalks (the leaves are poisonous) and chop into inch pieces.

2.     Put the rhubarb in a large pan with 2 litres of water and the sugar and gently bring to a simmer, stirring to fully dissolve the sugar.

3.     Simmer for 5-10 minutes then turn the heat off and allow to cool, cover and leave overnight.

4.     Next day strain the rhubarb pulp through a plastic sieve. Leave it for a couple of hours for all the juices to drip through. It’s the juice you want.

5.     Put the juice into one very large or a couple of large jars (I use old sweet jars) and add the whey and another 5 litres of water, giving it a good stir.

6.     Put lids loosely on to the jars and put them out of direct sunlight, but at room temperature for two to three days to ferment. I gave my jars a stir a couple of times.

7.     Get your bottles ready, hot washed and dried. Fill the bottles but leave at least 5cms headspace at the stop. The soda can be very fizzy and you don’t want to loose all of it in a fountain when you open the bottle. Use a funnel and a sieve to pour the soda into the bottles catching any bits that might still be in the soda in the sieve. Smaller particles will go through and settle in the bottom of the bottles – this is fine.

8.     Leave the bottles at room temperature for a few days to a couple of weeks to continue fermenting. Mine still tasted of whey after a week so I moved them to a cooler place to continue fermenting for another two weeks.

9.     TAKE CARE. If you haven’t got a really cool place to keep your bottles put them in the fridge. Like any home-made fermented drink, the bottles can explode.

10.  Chill in the fridge your bottles before opening as this sets the bubbles and helps to allay a soda fountain.