Kefir grains

Sun 3 Mar 2019, 11:17

Feel the kefir and do it anyway!

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 00:12

Someone has just told me about this thread. I have been making kefir daily for about a year and always have spare grains to give away, you only need a few and it multiplies rapidly. Please contact me if you would like some. After the first ferment I always strain the grains from the kefir and add fruit to the liquid for a secondary ferment over the next few hours - this produces a softer tasting kefir which also has more bacteria. For a more savoury kefir you can do the secondary ferment with onions or garlic. Fermentation is at room temperature and just takes a few hours, so it is very easy to make fresh kefir part of your daily diet just for the cost of the milk. I got my grains from a friend last year - just started with about 1/4 tsp which fermented a small jam jar of milk. I will have spare kefir grains on my Charlbury Green Hub stall at the Farmers Market on 9th May so if anyone would like some free grains please just bring along a small jam jar of milk.

Thu 21 Feb 2019, 17:20

I called in at Oats in Chippy this morning and received a jar of happily fermenting kefir grains. Free! (Though you're asked for a donation to the Air Ambulance which I was pleased to do.) The grains are settling down in some fresh organic milk and I'm sure they'll have multiplied enough to share in a week or less, so if Simon or anyone else would like some, just send me a p.m.

Thank you to G Clarke for the solution.

Wed 20 Feb 2019, 10:56

@hannen - there is a company called Kombucha Kat who are just moving from Chipping Norton to Witney to bigger premises. I'm hoping to have some samples from them shortly with a view to getting it into the Deli... It comes in various flavours.  https://www.kombuchakat.co.uk/

Both Kefir and Kombucha are pretty easy to make at home from grains and a SCOBY respectively. I'm going to run some short courses on it probably in early spring.

Wed 20 Feb 2019, 09:50

Interesting.  I confess I'd never heard of Kefir.  I see that you can buy it from Tesco or Sainsburys.  I assume that's the made up stuff? 

I wonder if our lovely Deli might stock it one day?

Wed 20 Feb 2019, 09:22

Ha - reassuring to know that the kefir community has its own subtle, culture (!) distinctions. I started making some myself because it is so expensive in this country (in the Netherlands, where I am from, you can buy it in litre packs in any supermarket), but I now know that this is not the real thing.  I am not often in Chippy but when I go I'll try and find some. 

Wed 20 Feb 2019, 01:42

You can usually get some ‘community’ kefir grains via Oats in Chipping Norton.

Tue 19 Feb 2019, 16:09

I used the instructions enclosed with my original kefir grains from Happy Kombucha to make my first batch. (I tried to add a link to their web page but failed.) You can find them by Googling Happy Kombucha then searching for kefir instructions on their site. They're not well-written but they do give plenty of information. There are videos, which are easier to understand, if you search Youtube for Happy Kombucha and kefir.

Making kefir from the commercial drink doesn’t usually work because 1. it doesn’t contain grains and 2. it’s been pasteurised. Kefir and yogurt are produced from different cultures so I’m not sure what you’ve been drinking!

Although I bought my own first grains, this is frowned on by the kefir community:  kefir grains should be shared between fellow kefir-makers when necessary. However, this is perhaps over-optimistic.

Tue 19 Feb 2019, 14:23

Yay - I found my own kefir community :-). I have kefir questions, rather than grains, to offer. I recently started making kefir, for which I use shop-bought kefir and (lactose-free) milk. It works wonderfully well and tastes lovely (if slightly different to the original). My question is, have I made kefir? Or is this yoghurt? Do I need to keep on adding the grain culture to continue to reap the benefit of the fermented grains? Or can I just make more with some of what I have already made? Does the kefir culture alter over time because of (particular) added milk? What does the lactose do? If one does have kefir grains how does one keep it alive? The internet seems relatively quiet on the topic of kefir, for once. Thank goodness for the Charlbury forum.

Tue 19 Feb 2019, 12:51

I'd like some more too. Sadly I had some from Veronica, but I neglected them. I'd like to revitalise my gut again with some more Kefir... I suspect that there are quite a few of us here in Charlbury who "ferment"?

Tue 19 Feb 2019, 11:28

My kefir grains have died. If anyone has spare grains -- frozen ones are highly acceptable -- I would be grateful to receive a modest spoonful to get my fermentation going again.