Non-growing grains

[Guest guest]

I have 2 sets of kefir grains. They both were from the same, original

grains. One set was left for an extremely long time out on a cabinet

counter, with milk. Probably about 2 months. My husband was ill and I just

didn't take any time to deal with them.

The second set was from when the first grains were multiplying. I had taken

this second group out, and they have been in the fridge in milk for the same

amount of time the first set was out on the counter.

So lately I have been reactivating them with fresh unpasturized milk (which

is all they've ever been in)

The set from the fridge is making kefir and the grains are growing. But the

first batch, that sat on the counter, is acting strange. They are making

kefir, but super thick kefir, and not growing any new grains nor getting

bigger. They make kefir in the same amount of milk as the second set but

MUCH faster and thicker. This has been going on for about 2 weeks.

Yesterday I put a quart of milk in each bottle and after about 30 hours the

second batch made a nice normal kefir. The first batch made super thick

cottage cheese like kefir. So thick that the whey down below couldn't pour

through the upper " cheese " and I had to poke holes in the cheese just to

allow the whey out. I live in south Texas and our house is kept around 82

degrees.

It was extremely hard to try and find the grains in that cheese. I did find

a few because they were more yellow than the curds, but I wound up rinsing

and rinsing the cheese in water so as to be able to tell the difference

between the grains and the curds. As it was, it was still hard to tell the

difference, so I wound up putting some of the cottage cheese like curds back

into the jar with the grains I had found, as an experiment.

So--any thoughts on this batch of grains? Why they are not growing, yet

making such odd kefir so quickly?

Thanks