First time

[KellyB]

Hello all!
I am so excited to start my "healthy" project. I started making my own Bulgarian Yogurt for a few weeks now--and has worked out great! I wanted to start doing Kefir and so glad I found Yemoos, and purchased the full kit. I just started my first batch and it it is fermenting now, and hopefully, will be ready around this time tomorrow.

My question is: When do I start storing the kefir grains in the fridge or freezer? I see you just keep adding to them, with each new batch but then I see where it says to store, and I am unsure when I start doing this. Do I wait until the culture starts to grow bigger, and just continue leaving them in the glass with every ferment? I know this sounds dumb but I am so new to healthy cooking and eating and want to ensure I am doing everything right.

Thank you so much for any and all help and I hope I get to a point where I can help others with this as well.

Kelly

[Frankie1]

Hi Kelly

After you do a couple batches, the grains will grow and you can either keep adding more milk each batch if you are looking to make a lot of kefir or if you don't want to waste milk, store the excess grains in the fridge and continue to do the amount of milk you desire. Once you get going, you will get the hang of it! It's mostly just trial and error at the beginning.

[KellyB]

Thank you so much, Frankie! I got my first batch, which was small, to drink. Stupidly, I waited too long with the last batch and it overfermented. But, I got a huge batch of Kefir grains so, I just stored a bunch in the fridge, and started tonight's batch to add to my drink. I can't believe how fast mine grew!!!

TY for your help! I'm looking for recipes now so I can make my first drink from the first batch I made.

[Frankie1]

Hi Kelly

No problem at all! You will get the hang of it soon. Milk kefir grains don't grow very fast, so its possible you might be confusing the curds with the grains, especially since you mentioned that it was overfermented. Curds are like globs of fat that occur when there's a lot of fermentation, but they don't have any real shape, so if you put them in a strainer and push them around, they should fall through the strainer. Kefir grains hold their shape, so the grains won't fall through the strainer even if you try to push them through. Starting out, it is quite common to confuse the curds with the grains. If so, you may want to restrain the batch with the curds and see what is curds and what is grains.

[Gypsy]

KellyB, im in the same boat, my grains are multiplying like crazy, im giving grains to everyone i know and have now tried soy milk just to play with. My guess is you have a great enviroment, temp and location as well as the milk your using. Keep up the great work, it truly is very easy after awhile. Ill try dehydrating a little later this summer, to see how this will work, id really like to keep this particular strain of grains ive received, seem to be very healthy and active. Happy Kefiring