Guest guest Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Hello there... I was away on a trip for about a month. I stored my kefir grains in a glass jar (plastic lid) in the fridge. They were stored in raw milk. When I came home, the jar looked very strange. Liquid has rust colored and grey streaks and smelled spoiled. Must I now throw away the grains? What would cause this? Thanks a bunch. Holly Re: Refreshing kefir grains Ron- >I just re-read Heidi's pdf on kefir beer and was wondering about the comment >that kefir grains must be refreshed after 6 months. What does that mean and >how do you do it? Put them in milk and let them normalize their mix of organisms. - <HTML><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC " -//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN " " http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd " ><BODY><FONT FACE= " monospace " SIZE= " 3 " > <B>IMPORTANT ADDRESSES</B> <UL> <LI><B><A HREF= " / " >NATIVE NUTRITION</A></B> online</LI> <LI><B><A HREF= " http://onibasu.dyndns.org/ " >SEARCH</A></B> the entire message archive at once</LI> <LI><B><A HREF= " /join " >CHANGE</A></B> your group settings</LI> <LI><B><A HREF= " mailto: " >POST</A></B> a message</LI> <LI><B><A HREF= " mailto: -subscribe " >SUBSCRIBE</A></B> to the list</LI> <LI><B><A HREF= " mailto: -unsubscribe " >UNSUBSCRIBE</A></B> from the list</LI> </UL></FONT> <PRE><FONT FACE= " monospace " SIZE= " 3 " ><B><A HREF= " mailto: -owner " >LIST OWNER:</A></B> Idol <B>MODERATORS:</B> Heidi Schuppenhauer Wanita Sears </FONT></PRE> </BODY> </HTML> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 > I was away on a trip for about a month. I stored > my kefir grains in a glass jar (plastic lid) in the fridge. > They were stored in raw milk. > When I came home, the jar looked very strange. > Liquid has rust colored and grey streaks and smelled > spoiled. Must I now throw away the grains? What > would cause this? > Holly Your grains may be ok. They could have shut down from the refrigerated cold or low lactose levels. You could try gently rinsing the grains off with room temperature milk until the curds are gone and grains visible. Then make about 3 consecutive batches of kefir in small amounts of milk, say 1 part grains to 5 parts milk, at room temperature. Discard the milk each time. Use a clean, different container than the ones the grains were stored in and agitate the jar often. On the next batch use your regular ratio of grains to milk and taste the finished kefir if you feel confident about it and the grains look and feel normal and the color is normal. If you normally make kefir in the fridge, think about making a batch now and then at room temperature since I feel it helps the grains. Good luck, Ivan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 [Holly] I was away on a trip for about a month. I stored my kefir grains in a glass jar (plastic lid) in the fridge. They were stored in raw milk. When I came home, the jar looked very strange. Liquid has rust colored and grey streaks and smelled spoiled. Must I now throw away the grains? What would cause this? [MAP] Wow, I've never experienced anything like that before. I have stored grains in milk in the fridge for a few weeks, but probably not as long as a month. Nevertheless, it is my understanding that longer periods like a month are okay, just not optimal. The only idea I have is that maybe there were residues of something previously in the glass jar. What did you have in the jar before the milk and kefir grains? If it were me personally, I'd toss the grains for sure. At the very least, even if they're safe, the colonies of microbes might be seriously compromised or contaminated with unwanted species. Kefir grains adapt to the environment and there's a wide range of different microbial mixes out there in different people's kefir grains. Mike SE Pennsylvania The best way to predict the future is to invent it. --Alan Kay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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