Re: Re: Milk Kefir Grains Troubleshooting FAQ

[Guest guest]

Strain the liquid (kefir milk) what is left is your grains. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerrySender: RawDairy Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:47:55 -0000To: <RawDairy >ReplyTo: RawDairy Subject: Re: Milk Kefir Grains Troubleshooting FAQ very timely post as i'm just trying to rehydrate milk kefir grains for my 1st time. i'm having a really hard time finding the grains in the strained milk, which now looks like cottage cheese (i'm on my second day). any suggestions on how to easily detect the grains within the strained mass?susan>> http://pakagri.blogspot.com/2011/06/milk-kefir-grains-troubleshooting-faq.html> Q-Farms> http://www.pakagri.blogspot.com/>

[Guest guest]

Greetings,

Yes, that is very normal. I stir my kefir before picking my grains out.

Bright Blessings,

Garth & Kim

www.TheRoseColoredForest.com

Bedias, Texas

> but my problem was that i have a big lumpy mass left in the strainer, not just

grains. the grains are in there but there's a lot of curds i guess. not sure if

this is normal or not.

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http://pakagri.blogspot.com/2011/06/milk-kefir-grains-troubleshooting-faq.html

>>> Q-Farms

>>> http://www.pakagri.blogspot.com/

>>>

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[Guest guest]

I went to Walmart and bought a 4 pack of nylon strainers, and when I filter the Kefir, I use a pair of chop sticks to stir the grains to get all off the Kefir out. Mine is ready in 24 hrs. Are you using raw milk?Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerrySender: RawDairy Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:49:10 -0000To: <RawDairy >ReplyTo: RawDairy Subject: Re: Milk Kefir Grains Troubleshooting FAQ > but my problem was that i have a big lumpy mass left in the strainer, not just grains. the grains are in there but there's a lot of curds i guess. not sure if this is normal or not. I get that if I leave mine more than about 12 hours. I usually just strain through a slotted spoon and break up the " jello-kefir " into the milk. The grains don't go through the slots. I tend to ferment shorter times and it's much more liquidy.Although I forgot about a jar of kefir over the weekend, and I came back to a jar with this weird swirly almost etched pattern on the top. What causes that? I dumped that batch ;-)

[Guest guest]

we had a friend who left his on the front porch in AK for 18 months in the warm in the cold sun blazing through the window etc, etc. He found it and said I wonder if it is still good. His wife told him it would kill him and he had better not drink it..........he did anyway, it was strong he said, but was by no means bad. He said it was not unpleasant at all. I think the stuff does not ever spoil really. Its all you taste and how you like it that determines the culture time.

matt

Re: Milk Kefir Grains Troubleshooting FAQ

> but my problem was that i have a big lumpy mass left in the strainer, not just grains. the grains are in there but there's a lot of curds i guess. not sure if this is normal or not. I get that if I leave mine more than about 12 hours. I usually just strain through a slotted spoon and break up the "jello-kefir" into the milk. The grains don't go through the slots. I tend to ferment shorter times and it's much more liquidy.Although I forgot about a jar of kefir over the weekend, and I came back to a jar with this weird swirly almost etched pattern on the top. What causes that? I dumped that batch ;-)

[Guest guest]

Just thought that I'd mention that we had the same problem with our kefir grains. I say "had" because we finally gave up on making kefir. We used fresh, raw milk from our own herd of cows, and cultured the kefir for 24 hours. All that we got was this big mass that we could not really filter any liquid out of, let alone find any grains. We have no idea what happened to the grains, or maybe the big mass was the grains? Anyway, you are not alone in your kefir problems, , and I've been reading the replies hoping to find answers to my questions.

~Naomi FournierEnderby, British Columbia, CanadaBirdsong Farm http://naomisbirdsongfarm.webs.com/Enderby WAPF Chapter http://enderbywap.webs.com/

To: RawDairy Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 8:49:10 AMSubject: Re: Milk Kefir Grains Troubleshooting FAQ

> but my problem was that i have a big lumpy mass left in the strainer, not just grains. the grains are in there but there's a lot of curds i guess. not sure if this is normal or not. I get that if I leave mine more than about 12 hours. I usually just strain through a slotted spoon and break up the "jello-kefir" into the milk. The grains don't go through the slots. I tend to ferment shorter times and it's much more liquidy.Although I forgot about a jar of kefir over the weekend, and I came back to a jar with this weird swirly almost etched pattern on the top. What causes that? I dumped that batch ;-)

[Guest guest]



Hi Naomi,

Maybe I can help you and with that puzzle of making kefir.

First, I brew my kefir in 12 oz. glass for 24 hours. Next morning I steer the cream in first then turn the finished kefir out on the plastic strainer. It does come out as a "big mass". Then I work the mass with soft spatula to push the thick kefir out but keep the grains in the strainer. Grains are tough, they can be treated quite hard so no worry about them to fall apart. When I have nothing but grains on the bottom of the strainer, I put them in another 12 oz glass and then put cold raw milk over them. This will brew till next morning.

To the strained kefir I add one raw egg and a sweetener. I use stevia but you can use anything you like. Then you can add any fruit or berry for the added taste or add nothing, just kefir and egg and sweetener. I use a stick blender to mix everything together.

Hope this will help you.

Barbara

Just thought that I'd mention that we had the same problem with our kefir grains. I say "had" because we finally gave up on making kefir. We used fresh, raw milk from our own herd of cows, and cultured the kefir for 24 hours. All that we got was this big mass that we could not really filter any liquid out of, let alone find any grains. We have no idea what happened to the grains, or maybe the big mass was the grains? Anyway, you are not alone in your kefir problems, , and I've been reading the replies hoping to find answers to my questions.

~Naomi FournierEnderby, British Columbia, CanadaBirdsong Farm http://naomisbirdsongfarm.webs.com/Enderby WAPF Chapter http://enderbywap.webs.com/