Fermenting without grains?

[gregoriocortez]

Hello,
I have been making keefir for about 5 months now (about 8 oz batches). Some how my grains have been disappearing (Not sure exactly how this is happening). For the last month or so I have found one small grain and made sure it made it back in each time, but now it has disappeared as well. The weird part is that the milk I put in every day is continuing to ferment into Keefir each day. I dont rinse the fermenting vessel (I do scrub it out once a week), and there are always little bits of keefir left in the jar when I put in the fresh milk. I use a nylon strainer and a small wooden spoon with a mason jar to ferment in. Any ideas on what could be happening? I have noticed a light brown film on the top which I didn't before but after reading a bit that is probably just some sort of yeast (it smells yeasty as well, but I have just been eating it). Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if I need to start over with new grains? Not sure if what is being fermented is actually still keefir or something else? I would rather not have to buy more grains but that might be my only option?
Thnaks for your help

[Frankie1]

It's probably just the little bits of kefir and what's left on the jar that's fermenting the milk. It's amazing how much it can ferment without any grains. It's still mostly kefir, but its likely more yeasty then what's typical and will get more yeasty overtime. I would recommend new grains as it probably won't last forever doing it that way.

[puddleshark]

Hi,

I thought I'd comment as I've also noticed grains are not required to make kefir.

I recently bought a small bottle of ready-to-drink kefir (in the UK), and as I remembered from childhood that you can make yoghurt that way, I put about two teaspoons of kefir into a pint or so of skimmed milk and left it at room temperature (or rather below that at certain times of day as I live in the UK, it's winter and I don't heat much).

At first it didn't seem to be working, as the milk hadn't thickened after more than 48 hours. I tasted it, and it hasn't gone off (just tasted like lukewarm milk) so I left it a bit longer. Another day or so later it had turned into a beautiful kefir which smelled and tasted exactly like shop bought kefir. I'm now on a roll producing large amounts of kefir with different types of milk (from skimmed to full cream, also goat's). So far the kefir doesn't seem to have deteriorated, if anything the opposite. I'm quite vague with the amount I use but usually a couple of teaspoonful seems to be enough for a large amount of milk. I suppose if there's less culture it just takes a bit longer, which can be an advantage - I can barely keep up with consuming all this kefir. I'll be giving some to friends.

As bacteria and yeast cultures naturally grow and multiply I don't really see why this could not go on indefinitely. It also means straining is not required. Any thoughts?

Danni

[Happyflowerlady]

When I started reading about how beneficial kefir was, I orderd some Yogourmet kefir culture starter and used that to see if Kefir was something that I would want to keep drinking. Once I got the starter, I discovered that I could save the kefir in the bottom of the quart jar, and add enough slightly warm milk to refill the jar, and it would culture just fine, even though there were no grains.
After a few times of using the saved culture, it seems to get an off-taste to the kefir, and then I would start over with another packet of the starter culture.
Now, what I have been doing is saving the first quart that I make, and then using a bit of that each time I need to start with a new culture. This makes the starter packet last even longer.
Now, I just started a quart of kefir using my last packet (there were six in the package) , and I am going to order some grains and start making kefir with regular grains.
The nice thing about using the packet is that you do not have to worry if you decide to stop making kefir for a while, since the starter culture packets will keep until you are ready to make more kefir.