Yemoos Nourishing Cultures Forum

Yes you can combine grains, but its hard to predict the end result. Most of the time the more dominate, active grains will win out or they can become the best of both worlds. Try using just part of the grains to test it first if you are concerned. It sounds like your grains may have greater yeast ac...

For sure. Milk kefir grains usually combine well. The thing about milk kefir grains is even if you separate them, they generally will all adapt to your environment (your milk, temperature, etc) in the same way. I've had grains that looked and started out very different, but after a couple or weeks, ...

It's mostly personal preference, but generally an air lock will create more lactic acid bacteria and be less yeasty. While it may encourage some strains, it may also minimize other strains that like oxygen. Traditionally, kefir was done in an open air environment. One is not necessarily healthier th...

That sounds quite typical for second ferment with fruit. It's just a natural yeast byproduct of the fermentation. It's harmless, but you can possibly strain it out if its excessive. Cherry water kefir sounds delicious. I gotta try that soon.

Alex

Absolutely you can reuse the scoby. Technically you can reuse scoby's as many times as you would like. I think it does tend to get more yeasty with subsequent batches and it gets harder to grow good scobys, but it will usually still make great kombucha.

Alex

If you are using raw milk, the natural bacteria can overwhelm the viili strain after a few batches. I would recommend using some kind of pasteurized milk to store the main viili starter. You can still use raw milk, but you will need to get a new starter maintained in the pasteurized milk every coupl...

Sure you can drink it. Once milk kefir is fermented, its preserved for a very long time. It will just get more sour and less sweet as the remaining sugar gets used up. If it smells and tastes good, I would go for it. If its a little too sour, you could even add some sugar if desired.

Alex

Less starting sugar will ultimately lower the alcohol. The grains themselves keep the alcohol level low, so the biggest potential for alcohol to rise is after you strain it and you store it. Avoid adding any extra sugar or juice for the second ferment and drink it as fresh as possible. The yeast is ...

Hi, GBP is known for being quite stubborn to grow at times. More so than water kefir grains. I've noticed that heavy mineral sugars can eventually slow and stop growth even though can still produce a good product. I had GBP like that and I tried everything and the only thing that has helped to get t...

Honestly as long as its growing and does not smell or taste 'wrong' then its probably just fine. A white film can indicate yeast issues, but if its just a light film and everything else seems great, I wouldn't be too concerned. It's not that uncommon with water kefir and its much more common with gi...