Fermenting With Milk Kefir Grains

It does seem like it would be a simple thing to ferment with milk kefir grains.... put the grains in, take the grains out, drink the kefir and it is easy once you get the basics and start running on autopilot.

I've heard a lot of misinformation about brewing milk kefir but none of it is serious and you can't go too far wrong if you use a little common sense; but, sometimes when something is so new to a person it is so foreign that it is hard to see clearly; so, here I am again trying to write a very clear instructional guide to fermenting with milk kefir grains.

There are certainly no rules or authority when you are dong this; you can basically brew kefir anyway that makes you happy, anyway you like it. There are no kefir police, if you want to ferment for optimal probiotic benefit you may do that; you may just want a good tasting drink that is healthful or at least one that won't hurt you too much; you could do that or something anywhere in between.

Here are the basics of the thing

Milk kefir is generally fermented at a ratio of between 7 to 14 parts milk to kefir grains by volume. That means you measure your grains and if they measure one ounce you may ferment with 7 to 14 ounces of milk. How much milk (between 7 to 14 ounces) is determined eventually by you according to how active your grains are at the time, the temperatures in the fermenting environment, how you like your kefir to come out, etc. It might be good to start at a 10 to 1 ratio and see how it goes and how you like it like that and adjust from there. How long you ferment is also up to you but there are things to keep in mind.

I've read other directions that say kefir is done when it separates or when the kefir result in the jar makes rivers on it's sides (if you can picture that.) Well; it is done when you say it is done; but, for optimal benefits a long fermentation is necessary; so, all the reactions that place may take place. Kefir strains work in a certain order. The first reaction from the strains create an acidic environment, the next start to digest the lactose, then the yeasts begin and finally the smelly reactions begin, all these reactions don't happen in 18 hours.

You put your grains in the milk and they will float barely sticking up above the surface. Depending on whatever, with in hours the grains will send out their strains and gather up milk around themselves, they will thicken from the kefiran being produced within. Don't forget to mix or stir your fermenting kefir as much as possible or just whenever you think about it. It will come to a point where the grains will get so thick that your plastic stirrer will stand and not fall due to the thickness of the grains at the top of the mixture. You keep mixing and when you come to your mixture to stir the next time you may see that the mixture appears to have separated somewhat and a yellow or clear liquid has been secreted from the kefir grains. If you have not stirred much it will occur in the middle of you mixture, if you have stirred alot it will be on the bottom, continue to stir you mixture, you will find it will eventually fully mix back into the mixure for good.

The grains will eventually stop swelling and return to normal size as this reaction is now over and another has begun. The mixture has come to a point where it will not separate anymore and at this point you can also call it done. What I do here is give it another few hours to get to the point where much of the lactose is digested and all of the reactions have taken place and I have optimal benefits from my fermentation.

Someone wrote me and said their kefir smells like old gym socks. That is when real full tilt max kefir is done. You don't have to do it this way; but, this is full benefit kefir, that is a probiotic soup. Any place in between here is still an excellent healthy probiotic, it just depends on how far you are able to or want to take it... if you have a child and the child doesn't like the taste of a full fermentation, then what good is it, if you can do an 18 hour fermentation and add some fruit to it and the child likes it, then you are better off.

Here is what you do and what you don't do

When you get your kefir grains from the mail put the whole package in new milk, you are not gonna drink this first batch anyhow. put them in a low ratio milk to kefir grains like 5 or 6 parts milk to grains as the grains may be weak anyway. do a 24 hour fermentation and see how it goes. The grains should be ready to go after this one cycle and you can drink the next.

Try and get a jar that you can put your whole hand in so you can clean every part of it well. Use more elbow grease than soap or no soap at all. You don't have to use soap every time if you scrub in very hot water and then rinse right away in very cold water. Foreign bacteria thrive in the temperature in between,be aware of that. Kefir can more or less take care of their own defense from foreign bacteria, do not wash them or store them in water. Don't even wash them in evev in milk. When you strain them be gentle and don't do a good job of it, leave some of the sticky stuff, the grains are comfortable in the sticky stuff.

What the grains don't like and can't defend against is chemicals. Watch out for soap residue, watch out for the chemicals in the water, chlorine, fluoride, arsenic, mercury, if you rinse your jar in water, place it upside down on a paper towel to dry and get a spray bottle and fill it with distilled vinegar. Spray the bottles and the utensils with the vinegar and once again place the jars upside down to dry.

Use a glass jar, use a plastic strainer or if you have to use stainless steel but be gentle. Only ferment with milk, do not put in sugar or fruit while you still have the grains in there. You can do a secondary fermentation when you take the grains out; leave the result on the counter and then you can put in whatever you want but remember if you put in anything that contains any kind of sugar the strains of kefir like the sugar too and may stop digesting lactose in favor of what you put in.....

You can ferment soy, rice, and any kind of nut milk but remember that milk kefir grains need mammal milk and if you don't cycle them back to mammal milk they will weaken and eventually die

You will need to check the volume of the grains as they grow and reproduce in order to create a proper ratio from you milk to your grains. Milk kefir grains naturally grow in size and large grains are inefficient so you may need to pull apart some of the large grains every other week or so. an efficient grain should be no bigger than a jumbo pistaccihio nut.

Flat grains are a natural occurrence in you kefir colony. Sometimes they right themselves back into proper grains but sometimes they don't and they can grow very large, they can have a very large surface area and they can quicken fermentation to a point that is undesirable so you will have to go into the colony and throw them out. They can grow to the size of your hand,

Forget about dehydrating or freezing you grains for storage. Leave them in the refrigerator in milk if you have to store them. If you have to store them more than a month, throw them away and buy new ones. That is what I am here for.

Get it down pat and then just enjoy it

To see pictures of kefir at different stages of the fermentation click on "Kefir Pictures"

For an intense complete fermentation of milk kefir see the link below

When your kefir grains come in the mail and you open up the package they are not going to smell like flowers or like midnight on Saint Marks Place in 1967. They are going to smell terrible. The grains have been fermenting a small ratio milk for their whole trip in the mail to your house, maybe 4 to 9 days, the grains are not dead and that bad smell is a sign they are alive and well.

Put he whole bag of kefir grains and whatever else is in the bag in some milk say about 8 ounces of milk and then take another 8 ounces of milk without kefir and place it next to the 8 ounce of milk with kefir. Now we have milk with kefir grains and milk without kefir. We have a little experiment and we are going to watch both jars and see what they do. I get a lot of people who are sure that their milk kefir grains are dead or just bad because of the smell or because the grains have been in a hot mail box. Kefir grains are tough, they will not die in a hot mail box, they send strains that live in our large intestines that are always at over 98 degrees, it takes about 190 degrees to start killing bacteria, that is why we boil things in water to kill bacteria, anything less will not kill them. kefir grains are tough but they are also sensitive about other things like soap residue or fluoride or chlorine. Tbat is one of the reasons we dont want to wash them in water

We put the milk kefir grains in about 8 ounces of milk and we watch for a reaction. In about 6 hours the grains should be floating on the top of the mix all swollen with milk and the area around them will be thickened. At this time the grains are sending out strains of kefir to acidify the milk. Don't forget to shake or stir your brew. Next strains of kefir will begin to digest the lactose and you will see in about 10 hours you will see a yellow or clear liquid that is called kefiran and that is a good thing, stir the kefiran back into to the mixture. The next reaction will be the yeasts and odor producing strains finishing your result. There should be a sourish kefir smell that is different than sour milk. Don't drink this first cycle of kefir result but gently strain the grains out of the result and put them into a new batch of milk. Your ratio of milk to grains is by the volume, 10 milk to 1 grains. Check on the reactions, stir the solution. In 18 to 24 hours you should have a result that is not separated curds and whey, it should be smooth like a pourable yogurt, like butter milk and if you don't have this you have some adjusting to do with the ratio and or the amount of time of the brewing or of the health and type of grains. You can have grains from Bulgaria that have been fermenting raw goat milk but if they are flat stringy grains your kefir result will be one that is not optimal..

It is also good as your grains grow and expand to cull the grains of flat and or stringy grains as they speed up the reactions in the fermentation to a poing that is not good for the result. It is also good to take the large kefir grains and pull them apart as large grains are not effective grains and not good for the result. You will have too many grains soon anyhow so get rid of the grains that are not good for a long fermentation with out separation. Get rid of the flat stringy grains and pull apart the large ineffective kefir grains; otherwise, you will have a mess of curds and whey that don't remix when you stir your solution.

Don't rinse your grains with water or even milk as the grains have natural bacteria defenses on the outer areas of the grain whose job it is is to protect the grain from invasive foreign bacteria and if you wash them off they will not be there to do their job. I have asked and I continue asking for one reason why you should wash your grains except getting them ready for dehydration, why would you wash your grains? Why would someone tell you

It is my estimate based on many years of brewing kefir that the best kefir grains are the ones you have in your home. The best grains are not the ones imported form the Ukraine or Bulgaria, the better grains are not better because they have been fermenting raw goat or yak milk. The best grains are the ones that have been actively brewing in a constant cycle and the grains that have been stirred or shaken regularly, the grains that have been culled to rid the grain batch of stringy or flat grains or grains that are too large, these are the best grains.

Grains from Europe or Russia basically are the same as American grains They have the same basic kefir strains and yeast strains, all the grains sold on eBay are basically the same. What shape the grains are when you get them may vary, Flat and stringy grains are not good, large grains are not good and that is what makes some batches of grains better than others. The grains have evolved to have certain strains in certain places in the grains, some are in the middle and some are on the surface, it is all for a reason and if there is no center of the grain as when the grains are flat or stringy then the grain is imbalanced,

It is not where they came from or the fancy milk they have fermented. It is the care they have received. Are they washed or stored in water? Never wash your grains in water, never even wash them in milk. Want to know why, Email me and I will tell you. Do they rest in the refrigerator too much? Are they cycled constantly? Are they stirred and shaken enough? Do they ferment with enough milk? These are the differences that make better grains. The care and the knowledge of the brewer.

Kefir grains should be a no bigger than a large pistachio nut. Large grains have a smaller surface area and are less active than smaller grains. You need to pull apart your grains if they get too big. Want to know how to do that ? Email me. The grains should feel slightly hard in the middle like they have a center. they should be as though they would be chewy if you put them in your mouth and chewed on them, flat grains have too much surface area and speed up the fermentation process way too much, they have no center. Brew alot of grains and you will notice this. Throw away your flat and stringy grains and you will notice a better more even brew that ferments longer without curdling, there are reactions in the kefir frementing process that must to take place within a certain order within a certain time frame for your brew to be ideal, that is why your milk to grains ratio must be within a limit, not 60 to 1 as I have seen suggested. If you are doing water kefir take your flat and stringy milk grains and soak them in spring water for 24 hours and then put them down the drain. Use the bath water for your water kefir grains. They love it.

Flat kefir grains are not some kind of special rare grain as one seller proclaims, they are the result of not stirring your brew and or not have a big enough ratio of milk to grains. Give grains lots of milk and stir them often and you will not have flat stringy grains so often. Flat grains can grow to be the size of your hand, you don't want that. Just look at the grains, do flat grains look to you what a kefir grains should look like.

Grains proclaimed to be made from yak or goat or raw may be better if the seller culls his grains of the flat and stringy variety but I would rather have grains from an experienced grower who knows what the real value and nature of kefir grains are. Besides no seller on eBay is certified to be organic, all these sellers claim this and that, don't pay extra for claims. When you get your grains home and ferment with your own organic yak then you will know what your grains are fermenting til then there are only claims, don't pay extra for claims.....happy brewing from the bacteriapimp

I'm gonna hit you fast and hard here and I'm not gonna waste any time. There are links in the links place to fill in information about brewing that you may not be aware of; but, I am not gonna waste time with that right now.

I believe no one has put this information out and I think this information is very important. Dom may mention this information in passing or as an option but you have to spend all day going thru Dom's site to get to what he might just touch on and; of course, all praises to Dom.

First a couple of things that meed to be cleared up about kefir, just straightening up some misinformation that is going around about kefir and kefir grains. Don't wash or store your grains in water. The proper ratio in volume of milk to grains is anywhere from between 7 parts milk to 1 part grains and possibly all the way up to 14 to 1 you find what works best for you, best start at 10 to 1. I do my fermentations at about 8 to 1.

Kefir is ready when you think it is ready as any kefir you drink is better than not drinking it at all. Some people say kefir is ready when it "separates". Others say it is ready when rivers appear on the sides of the jar. Take your pick; but kefir is fully fermented when all the lactose has been digested by the kefir and all the yeasts and the other bacteria strains have done their thing and that is what I am going to tell you about right now.

When you put your kefir grains in milk a reaction will begin. Put one small grain in a million gallons of milk and a reaction will start as wel,; but, it will not be a proper fermentation. Here is what has to happen. If there is a proper ratio of milk to kefir grains at a proper environment temperature in a proper glass jar is happening the grains will begin to acidify the milk, If the acidified milk is stirred and proplerly distributed among the milk the next reaction will be allowed to start properly. That will be the strains of Lactobacillus breaking down the lactose creating; among other things, kefiran which is a yellowish liqiud people mistake for whey. At this point in the reaction the kefir grains are swelled and large, mixing or stirring the milk and grains is hard to do and my large plastic stirrer can stand straight up on it's own. The kefiran may be in the middle or bottom of the mix. There may be rivers on the sides of the jar, you may think the mix has separated and you may harvest the mix straining the grains from what was once the milk. That is ok if that is what you want; but, if you want full benefit from a full fermentation the reaction is not over. The kefir yeasts have not fully come into the reaction and many of the acetobacters which give the kefir; among other things, it's taste and smell haven't even started.

There is an order that must be played out fully if allowed. Some one wrote and said their fermentation smells like old gym socks and I said "Great, you finally got it right" if you want warm and fuzzy kefir then ferment it up to the point that you like it, that is better than nothing or you can just buy the store bought kefir, it is not real kefir but if you can drink that and you can't drink fully fermented kefir it is better than no kefir at all, Activa is good also.

I will eventually write about what store bought kefir really is because it is not real kefir; but, more about that at another place.

When you see the yellow kefir in your mix, continue to ferment, don't end it yet. Mix the kefrin back into the solution and continue to ferment. Keep mixing and do it until all the milk sugar is digested. When all the lactose is digested the kefiran will stop showing up and the grains will stop being all swollen and they will go back to their original size, it will get easier to stir your solution. Now the smelly strains of kefir will have the final reaction... According to the temperature of the brewing environment and the original ratio of milk to grains volume the time it takes to get to this point will vary. Forget about all this 24 hour stuff when the milk kefir grains stop being swollen and go back to their original size and stirring the solution is now as easy as it wss when you first started, optimal kefir is almost here. let it go for a few more hours to get the benefits of the final kefir reaction and then you will have a fully fermented kefir result if this is what you want and if you are doing the kefir thing for the full benefits welcome to the instructions to tell you how to do it...Next strains the grains from the mix and place the result from the kefir fermentation on the counter and leave it there for an secondary fermentation. You can drink this result anytime you want

it will be the most powerful kefir you can make and if you mix in some blue berry and or pomagranate juice, you won't need a blender just spoon mix it at any ratio you want, this mix will be drinkable. Start slow becsuse this is not store bought kefir it will have a kick in terms of its killorr in you gut. It will be a major battle as the kefir strains will kill lots of bad bacteria in their effort to take their place on the colon wall. Start with 2 ounces of the kefir and lots of juice and work your way up to as much as you want... you will notice a difference right away about the way you feel and you will feel better and better the more and more you drink... Happy brewing

Now, check the links below for more information on the do's and don't on brewing with milk kefir grains. There are also links to buy grains and the supplies and accessories that are necessary to do the job correctly, plus there are other interesting links to other interesting things to learn or become aware of or to buy... thank you very much and any questions you may have about any of this ... I can be reached at bacteriapimp@yahoo.com