Water Kefir - again

It is like a wacky science experiment. I appear to have found the secret to water kefir... relax and follow the kefirlady's directions, lol. These things grow like crazy. This picture is 5 days after the previous kefir post's picture. The difference in liquid color is because one batch (the jar on the right) is a day ahead of the other.
So far, I use organic sugar, sucanat, slices of ginger, a pinch of baking soda in unfiltered tap water (we have very hard water here) or spring water. I've been watching to see if the water source makes a difference. The kefir in both jars seem happy, but it seems like the spring water kefir is growing a tad bit faster than the tap water.
Growing
In 9 days I went from having 1/3 cup kefir grains to 2 1/2 cups. I need to find recipes that call for the grains. They taste and feel a little like hominy. Which is fine for a bite or two, but eating a cup of plain squishy hominy isn't too appealing.

Why Kefir?
For probiotics ... all those good guys also found in yogurt (in theory) that keeps your gut healthy.

Why Water Kefir instead of regular Milk Kefir?
1. cheaper - to put the grains in sugar and water everyday than goat or cow milk
2. lactose intolerance - enough said
3. convenient - having diary on hand everyday isn't convenient
4. reality - finding a raw (and organic) milk source can be difficult to impossible, depending on your area.