Fermentation Support Forum

Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum so hellooo everyone! I've just started making kefir about 3 weeks ago (milk kefir, after buying grains off the internet) and the grains, which started off like little bits of rice have grown considerably. The problem is, it is just me in the household drinking it, and I feel really wasteful to keep changing the milk every day.

I'm using organic milk and making it faster than I can drink it, as I wanted to build up gradually to give my body time to get used to it, so I'm getting through loads of milk and having to keep pouring some away or finding I'm leaving it to ferment for 2-3 days so it's gone really sour rather than keep adding it to my last lot (I'm running out of jars!!) before I'm ready to drink it.

Could I do the whole brewing process in the fridge so it takes longer? I don't want to damage the grains. Or should I take some grains out and then what would you do with them? I don't feel qualified enough to put them out there to pass on to anybody else as I don't even know if they are healthy or not or have any advice to offer!

Any suggestions welcome! Thank you

I ran in to that same problem, so now make my kefir in 2 quart batches. I store my kefir grains in jars of fresh milk at the back of my fridge, and I only pull them out when I am almost out of finished kefir. Sometimes I leave the grains in the fridge for a month or more before I put them back to work again.

The grains ferment the milk into kefir in 2-4 days after they are removed from the refridgerator. Then I seperate the grains from the finished kefir, put them in jars of fresh milk, and back in the fridge they go.

I know a lot of sources recomend NOT doing this way, for concerns of damaging your culture, but I haven't found that to be a problem. I have been doing it this way for about 2 years now, and my grains are still viable. The grains do reproduce a lot more slowly, but if I let them sit at room temp for about a week, and change the milk every day or two they begin to multiply like crazy again.

You could always use fewer of the grains. Give some away, eat them, feed them to your pets or compost them.

Oh the grains multiply like crazy that is for sure The more you use for a batch the more sour the taste of kefir is. So that how much you use is up to your taste.
If you have too many grains then give them away to friends, family or just throw them away. They will grow again anyway