Kefir

[Steveam]

I’m thinking of adding (milk) Kefir to my breakfast (replacing the yogurt).

Does anyone have any advice, views or experiences they are happy to share?

I could buy the Kefir grains but wonder whether it is possible to use shop bought Kefir as a starter.

Best wishes,

Steve

[gpadsa]

I had a small bottle of plain kefir from Lidl and kept it going for months in the fridge by topping up with milk as I used it. There were no grains & It worked fine but somehow it would have been more satisfying if some lumps had grown in the bottom of the bottle. Not being a big yoghurt/kefir consumer I eventually finished up the bottle & stopped doing it.

gpadsa

[Dicky99]

I’m thinking of adding (milk) Kefir to my breakfast (replacing the yogurt).

Does anyone have any advice, views or experiences they are happy to share?

I could buy the Kefir grains but wonder whether it is possible to use shop bought Kefir as a starter.

Best wishes,

Steve

Last summer I bought a small bottle of Kefir, about 300ml, and a 4 pint bottle of milk. Tipped half a mug full of milk out of the bottle to make space and replaced it with half the kefir, so about 150ml.

Put the lid on loosely then every couple of hours tighten the lid, give it a shake, then loosen the lid again.
In warm summer weather you'll have thick creamy kefir in 24 hours. In cooler weather it could take anything from 36 to 48 hours depending on what consistency you want. You can save 150ml of your kefir in the freezer for the next batch because freezing doesn't kill the cultures.

I make a reasonably thick batch of kefir like this and once done I line a colander with a (clean) hankie, pour the kefir in, season with a bit of salt, and place on top of a bowl to catch the strained whey. Stick it in the fridge for 24 hours and you have a lovely philadelphia style soft cheese. Lovely on toasted slice of sourdough

[Urbandreamer]

I bought grains in the past off ebay and they are easy to look after.

Just one problem, I decided that I didn't like Kefir. Oh well.

[jaizan]

I microwave 1 litre of UHT skimmed milk for about 90 seconds, then mix with a couple of tablespoonfuls of Kefir. I just leave that for 8 or more hours and have Kefir.
When that tub is nearly empty, I warm another tub of milk and use that to rinse the Kefir out of the original container into the new one. Then leave for 8 hours again.

I used to make yoghurt, but that requires higher temperatures and I haven't got around to replacing my heater pad yet.

[Fluke]

I've been making water kefir from the same small pack of granules I bought online a couple of years ago. The granules grow and multiply and I just scoop some out and throw on the garden every few weeks. I have a 2 kilner jar set up so I feed the granules in the first one with cane sugar and a litre of filtered water (tap water damages the granules apparently), and after about a day I strain it into the second jar and give it a few saltanas or some other dried fruit, for a second fermentation. The result after another day or so is a slightly sweet fizzy refreshing drink. I have just never got bored with it and it takes no more than 5 minutes every day or two to refresh.

I've been thinking of trying kombucha for a change and for a different set of bugs for the gut but haven't got round to it yet.

[Dicky99]

I microwave 1 litre of UHT skimmed milk for about 90 seconds, then mix with a couple of tablespoonfuls of Kefir. I just leave that for 8 or more hours and have Kefir.
When that tub is nearly empty, I warm another tub of milk and use that to rinse the Kefir out of the original container into the new one. Then leave for 8 hours again.

I used to make yoghurt, but that requires higher temperatures and I haven't got around to replacing my heater pad yet.

I've also made yoghurt in the past but I found it a bit of an a*se ache in that if the starting temperature wasn't optimal the end result could be too lumpy, too runny, too sour, to bland etc. Making Kefir at room temperature removes the inconsistencies

[MrFoolish]

Interesting. Does it ever go off or can you keep adding milk forever?

[Dicky99]

Interesting. Does it ever go off or can you keep adding milk forever?

I only used a previous batch for the next one a couple of times so I can't draw on experience but if reports are to be believed sourdough starters can be nurtured and used for bread making for a generation as long as you keep it alive.

As for "going off" well I guess making kefir is the process allowing milk to go off in a controlled way by restricting exposure to a particular culture which results in a pleasing sour taste and texture as opposed to the rather nasty result of milk being exposed to random naturally occurring cultures.

[Urbandreamer]

Interesting. Does it ever go off or can you keep adding milk forever?

I believe that it's like sourdough bread, beer or wine. You have a culture that you maintain by using a small amount of the culture in a new growth medium, disposing or using the surplus old culture. It WILL go off unless you refresh it by constantly using some to make a fresh culture.

Some sourdough cultures are known to be 100's of years old and those interested in the history of beer are well aware that the same yeast culture is used in a well known brand as was 100's of years ago.

Of course with bread, beer or wine we are use to opening a packet of dried culture. But just how is that produced? The answer is the same way it always was, just in a very large container. You can get dried sourdough culture, I did. However once you have some you are supposed to keep the culture going. Although you can deliberately process and dry the culture if you want. You can apparently do the same with Kefir.
https://www.yemoos.com/pages/dried-milk-kefir-guide

Ps, I'm fairly sure, that like bread, beer and wine, kefir is actually produced using multiple different cultures, which will taste different.

[jaizan]

Interesting. Does it ever go off or can you keep adding milk forever?

My Kefir eventually seems to go off, although usually after 20, 30 or more cycles. It ends up with quite a sharp taste. I start with a fresh batch.

What I now do is when I buy a bottle or tub of Kefir to start me off, I use some of it as a starter and freeze a couple of small tubs for use in future. This seems to work fine after defrosting, despite being separated out. I suspect it's a bit slower to start after freezing.

Obviously I don't defrost it in the microwave. Well, for all I know that might work, but I assume it doesn't.

[MrFoolish]

I've seen people on youtube using kefir "grains". DAK the difference between using grains and a tub of kefir?