Cleaning the ferment jar?

[acron]

Hello,
I'm quite new at this and have found so much good information on the site.
One question I have that I cannot find anything post about is the jar you use to ferment the kefir in.
Each day do you wash this jar out or just strain the milk out keep the grains in and add more milk?
If so, do you ever have to wash the jar, like once a week, or should it really be done once a day?
Thanks

[AlexP]

That's a good question and I don't think there's a right answer. Some people use a perfectly clean jar every time, some do quick rinses while others wait until the build up gets so bad that they have to clean the fermenting jar. It likely doesn't matter too much, but kefir residue on the jar does speed up the ferment, so if you are looking for a slower ferment then a cleaner jar is better. Otherwise the grains will adapt to your preferred method.

Alex

[Robinstar]

I have a funny story with this. One time when I was fermenting milk kefir, I was doing a couple jars and I accidently doubled up the grains in one and left out the grains in the other jar. But because the jar wasn't clean and had kefir on the sides it fully fermented the milk without any grains! It even had whey separation and everything. So I think just having a little bit of kefir residue on the jar does a surprisingly amount of fermentation by itself!

After seeing that, I prefer to keep it mostly clean but not perfectly clean. I give it a good rinse every batch and if it ever builds up significantly I will do a complete clean or use a new jar.

[acron]

Thanks Alex and Robinstar,
I like that the residue helps and has some purpose, I'd prefer not to wash the jar each day. I did think of doing a quick rinse but wondered:
When you rinse, do you use just tap water? I was worried about the chlorine affecting the grains. Maybe the small amount left will not hurt them.

[AlexP]

If the grains are not overly strained, there will still be quite a lot of kefir residue around the grains that will help protect and kick-start the next batch. It's probably not necessary to have any residue on the jar, but at the same time it doesn't really hurt either. So whatever is easier or works best for you, is probably the best option. As far as rinsing, non-chlorinated water is ideal, but many people do use tap and it shouldn't be a problem. Like you said, the small amount left shouldn't affect the grains and if you are concerned, you can dry the jar.

Alex