Grains not growing in milk

[Guest guest]

Hello!

I have been making Kefir for the past 6 months with Kefir grains from Marilyn

that came in a dehydrated form (unfortunately I do not live in the US but

Canada). The Kefir is excellent and effervescent, but the grains are not growing

in size. I read that for other they double every two weeks !

I grow mine in whole goat milk, do not rinse them on their daily change. I do

not warm the milk from the refrigerator. I faithfully change the milk every day

without fail.

Any suggestions to make the grain grow ?

Thank you.

Luc Chene

[Guest guest]

Hello Luc! I like to take my little grains and put them in a jar with only a cup

of milk and a bit (maybe an eighth of a teaspoon) of sucanat. The grains grow

like crazy.

Perhaps you are using too much milk for them? I got dehydrated grains from a

different source, wish I had found this group before, but they grew slowly at

first, but now they are going like crazy. Since you have had yours for six

months I would think that less milk and touch of sucanat, organic cane sugar or

a little blackstrap molasses in it will bring your babies back. I might be

wrong.

Happy culturing,

Karin

>

> Hello!

>

> I have been making Kefir for the past 6 months with Kefir grains from Marilyn

that came in a dehydrated form (unfortunately I do not live in the US but

Canada). The Kefir is excellent and effervescent, but the grains are not growing

in size. I read that for other they double every two weeks !

> I grow mine in whole goat milk, do not rinse them on their daily change. I do

not warm the milk from the refrigerator. I faithfully change the milk every day

without fail.

> Any suggestions to make the grain grow ?

>

> Thank you.

>

> Luc Chene

>

[Guest guest]

I have found that I get very rapid multiplication of my grains when I

allowed very thorough fermentation.

The stages I have observed have been:

1. just prepared - milk in a jar

2. initial activity - grains visible deforming the top of the mix

3. settling down - a bit if separation of a " foam " layer at the top

(about 10 hours in mild conditions) . I usually give the mix a stir at this

time.

4. clear separation - whey at the bottom of the jar, very soft curds

above this and then a quite firm foamy layer at the top of the mix

(currently at about 24 hours)

5. If 4. is stirred and left for at least another 12 hours then I get a

curdy layer at the bottom of the jar (about 25% of the volume) and then a

layer of whey above that with finally a very firm plug of foamy " curds at

the top

I consider 5. to be thorough fermentation and the product is quite sour but

I also get marked growth of the grains to the point that I had to leave the

excess grains in the mix after straining out my grains for the next mix.

This is when I add a portion of fresh or frozen berries and smooth out the

mix with a hand " stab " mixer before bottling and storage in the fridge.for

secondary fermentation.

I have now found that stopping at stage 4. which is a point many recommend

gives me a better tasting mix and a delightful yogurt like texture after the

24 hour secondary fermentation in the fridge after adding the berries and

stab mixing the components after removing sufficient grains for the next

fermentation. BUT I also find that the multiplication of the grains is much

reduced. I am sure that if I rinsed them I would have a net loss of grains

using this fermentation end point.

BTW - I consider rinsing the grains to be unwise as it would remove

partially formed (soft) matrix and throw away an important part of the mix.

Can you imagine rinsing with the water available 2 or 3 hundred years ago

when this was one of the few ways to preserve milk for tomorrow?

Regards = Rod

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 2:02 AM, lucchene <lchene@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hello!

>

> I have been making Kefir for the past 6 months with Kefir grains from

> Marilyn that came in a dehydrated form (unfortunately I do not live in the

> US but Canada).

>

... clipped for bandwidth....

>

Any suggestions to make the grain grow ?

>

> Thank you.

>

> Luc Chene

>