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I'm two months into my daily cup and have already started to see improvements in my post-infective IBS that I've had to manage since a nasty bout of food poisoning back in 2000. What else can I expect? A friend says a year in, that they've not had a cold or flu since starting

Is there any machine available that can save me time seaving the kefir? Just an electronic shaker or so.

I am thinking of adding powder whey protein and milk during fermentation process, bacteria can eat up the lactose in the whey powder and I have a kefir with much higher protein content

Have anyone tried this approach?

I have been making kefir for a few weeks now. I've read that I only need about 1 tbsp of grains for 2-3 cups of milk. I probably have 2-3 tbsp of grains in my jar just because it's been growing and I haven't taken any out yet. I'm using regular milk from the store, not low fat or anything. I ferment it for 24 hours at room temperature, stir usually 2-3 times as it separates and the bottom of the jar is water. I've seen videos that the kefir is supposed to be yogurt like consistency, and mine is always very watery, liquid texture. I'm wondering how can I thicken this up?? I was thinking overdoing the grains like I have been should over ferment it and make it thicker, but even before it seemed not very thick so. Any advice is appreciated thanks!

I've been making kefir about one year now almost always anaerobically, meaning I just out it in a jar and close it. Recently started running it aerobically about two times, leaving the jar opened and covered with a cheese cloth.

The taste of aerobic is much cheesier. It takes a bit longer to complete the process and the grains multiply. With anaerobic it takes longer and I get maybe like a 5% increase in grains and a more acidic taste.

My problem is that aerobic always hits my stomach hard it almost always leads me to going to the bathroom about an hour after. I'm not sure if the milk is going bad before it ferments because it does take longer or if it's just my stomach not used to it.

What do you guys think?

Also a side question, my kefir is never fizzy, which I hear often about on here. Or maybe I don't know what I'm looking for. I'm expecting a fizz like a kombucha I guess.

Is store bought kefir kefir or is it runny yogurt or are they the same thing?

Hello! Bought milk kefir grains from Cultures for Health. I have never made kefir before, but have done other ferments.

I have been working on activating the grains by following the directions that came with them. It’s been over a week now, and my kefir is just not thickening. It is staying the same consistency as regular milk, even after refrigerating. The milk will eventually start to smell sour or spoiled. Thus far, no batch has been appetizing.

Anyone know what this is a sign of and what I should do to get things moving in the right direction?

Is drinking kefir when sick with a cold or flu good or should it be avoided?

Does this look normal for 36 hours? 3rd batch. Used whole milk.

If you need to toss grains because they have multiplied too much, which ones do you keep? The old, big ones or the new, little ones? I had a big chunk, almost the bigger than a golf ball today and it made me a bit sad too see her go, but I also have so many small pods.

Hey guys, been making milk kefir from regular uht cows milk. Wanted to add some mama powder and seamoss to it too improve the nutritional profile. How should I go about this?

I recently bought some grains from the internet and my first few batches of kefir have been fine. Kefir-y...so that's good. It's also good that I've had store-bought kefir before this because I know what it's supposed to smell and look like.

My problems are only because the inconsistency varies wildly from batch to batch. My first attempt with the new grains turned into custard. I've had a couple of batches that were creamy and were very similar to store-bought. But my recent endeavor was fully layered: curdled-like milk on the bottom, whey in the middle, and the grains floating on top. The top looked foamy. It smelled much stronger than the others...kinda sour/barnyard-ish...but I tasted some and it did not taste like it smelled. So my questions:

First, letting milk sit out at room temperature for 24+ hours is against everything I've learned about milk. How do I know the milk has not gone "bad" so that I should throw it away?

Second, the grains aren't bigger, but they seem to proliferate. What started out as a tablespoon is now more than a cup. Are they supposed to grow in size...or just volume?

Third, I started saving my grains in the fridge, and then by reading posts here, I decided to let them sit out. I've rinsed them once. Again, allowing a dairy product to just sit out in a room is a bit scary to me. Granted, it's cooler now (house is at about 67-degrees), but 67 is still room temperature for dairy. How do I know when the kefir grains have gone bad? Do they ever go bad (keeping with a sterile environment as much as possible).

Fourth, how often do you rinse the grains?

And finally, the info I got with the grains said that they "liked whole milk." I use Fairlife milk and I usually get the fat-free kind. Sometimes the 2% kind, and very rarely the full fat kind. The current batch (that's a bit smelly) is from fat-free milk. Do kefir grains really have a preference for one kind of milk over the other?

Thanks!

I want to do this for two purposes:

1. might "train" the kefir grain cultures to break down lactose to a greater degree - the logic is that the bacteria and yeasts will find more lactose to break down, and this will train them to express more enzymes for breaking down lactose, leading to a higher amount of those enzymes present in the ferment and also an increased acidity of the ferment.

2. might cause an increased formation of prebiotic oligosaccharides (beta-GOS) from an increased concentration of lactose - the logic is that when there's a higher concentration of lactose, microbial lactase enzymes (beta-galactosidase), instead of breaking down ("hydrolysis") lactose, can sometimes end up combining lactose molecules ("trans-galactosylation"), forming galacto-oligosaccharides (beta-GOS, aka galactosyl lactose). This is a known prebiotic and is of great value to gut health, and is known to help with lactose intolerance as well as traveller's diarrhea among many issues.

For the second purpose, here's some research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21439558/

This shows that microbial lactase from a mold (Aspergillus oryzae) can form beta-GOS at 40-60% lactose concentration with around a 25% yield of the original lactose weight.

Obviously, this is way too high lactose concentration. For lower lactose concentrations, such as the usual concentration of lactose found in yogurt/milk as well as for seeing how well lactic acid bacterial lactase works, see:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12086039/

This shows that regular yogurt has about 0.28% beta-GOS in it. They also did special treatments of the milk with Bifidobacteria which increased the yield by a factor of 3. So, even with regular yogurt cultures, the beta-GOS output is about 5.6% of the original lactose weight.

My hypothesis is that if I add a few more grams of lactose to the whole milk before letting it get fermented by my kefir grains, a higher percentage of that lactose, instead of getting broken down to lactic acid and galactose, will get transformed into beta-GOS.

But before I try this, I would love to hear the opinions here. Could this go wrong in some way I'm not able to foresee? Obviously, the lactose concentration will have to be kept low enough that it doesn't cause osmotic pressure and dehydrate the kefir grain cultures.

Hello everyone,

Today, a friend of mine donated me water kefir but I really know nothing to do with it.

I don’t know if it’s dead or alive, or how can i revive it. Should i be consuming it or wait a little bit?

Thank you in advance!

So basically in the last year I have been fermenting my kefir in the fridge. Its been fizzy/bubbly etc and definitely smells and tastes fermented however its not very thick. My mom gave me some of her grains and her kefir that ferments in the fridge is kind of thick.

(I would usually leave it 7 days in the fridge to ferment and now Im wondering is the fizzing/bubbling a sign its been done a while)

So I figured maybe I had done something funny to my grains. I got new grains and followed the instructions on the package as best I could as I live in a cold house so it wasnt 22 degrees celcius (71.6F) the whole time. However, I started to ferment it on my countertop on Tuesday at 6pm lets say and then Friday 9am it seems to have over fermented (split) and does not seem too thick.

Is this just the grains I have? Or am I doing something wrong 😭 and is it still beneficial/okay to consume? Thank you in advance!! I tried to contact the people I bought the grains from and they havent replied

I recently started drinking kafir at night and I usually drink half to one litter before bed. I feel great and I have zero issues with kafir so far. I do consume a lot of cheese daily as well which was always part of my regular diet. I wonder if due to the high consumption of dairy with the increase of adding kafir to my diet, there would be any risk would calcium build up or kidney stones? I am a middle age male if that matters.

So, I am doing my first fermentation. I did not have a plastic lid, so I used the lid that came with my Ball Widemouth Jars. Did I mess up already?

The grains are on top right?

In the middle is kefir which I drink?

The bottom is whey which can be used for...yogurt or cheese?

Can someone explain in simple terms why fermented foods have an expiry date?

I've read some stuff that says that kefir should be consumed by itself, outside of your regular meal schedule.

Is this true?

I'm interested to know if I can still get the health benefits of kefir if I include it as an ingredient in a smoothie.

I have no idea what happened with my grains, first they turned disgustingly slimy. After a couple of rinses they are somewhat back to normal... only they produce THICK kefir, very similar consistency to greek yogurt, very creamy as well. A little too creamy, I would say, as I had to change strainers as the previous one wasn't doing its job. It's not tangy though, and I miss my tangy kefir.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Wanted to report that adding sugar that has been infused with the psychoactive components of cannabis

to the second fermentation has been a success.

I've been taking care of my milk kefir for the past week now I use whole milk and kefir grains my boss gifted me. She originally gave me 1 tablespoon of grains and a cup of whole milk. I've been consistently just adding 1 cup of milk each day after straining and today it separated into two very distinct layers with clear on the bottom. I upped the milk to 12 oz today and I weighed my grains at 43g.

Is this ratio okay?? I have no idea

Does anyone have a good kefir bread-machine recipe? I want to make it for Thanksgiving. 🙏🏻