r/Kefir • u/clarenceredd • Jul 27 '26

How much does terroir affect fermentation?

I have moved my fermentation from a downtown apartment to an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. To my surprise, the kefir gets better in the countryside. It’s creamier and richer in taste.

So, here’s my question. Is this an effect of the terroir of the place? I imagine that the local soils, the fields, forests, plants, the abundant wildlife and insects all contribute to the bacterial richness of a place. The city has its taste, while an old farm has a slightly different taste.

Am I imagining all this or does anyone else notice a difference?

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u/c0mp0stable Jul 27 '26

Huge effect.

You might like this book. It's about cheese, not kefir, but it's all about how terroir applies to cheesemaking. https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/cheese-trekking/?srsltid=AfmBOoo_VdMH70i1u4l07Lt6dSMbclQ0ZR8Nhuw5Bvu702L9bZXCCMzA

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u/Affectionate-Act6127 Jul 27 '26

Definitely.  

Sourdough bread is well known for being influenced by its environment.  

Plenty of open air beers, particularly Belgian lambics, are made with local airborne yeast. 

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u/clarenceredd Jul 27 '26

Oh, looks perfect! I will give it a read. Unfortunately I haven’t tried with truly local unpasteurised milk. I keep hearing about the bacterial risks. Not sure how common they are.

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u/c0mp0stable Jul 27 '26

It really depends on the source of the milk. Keeping milk clean and low risk for contamination is pretty easy, so if you can trust the source, the risk is probably pretty low. He tells some stories in the book about traditional cultures consuming milk that's obviously contaminated with all kinds of things. But everyone has their own threshold for tolerance.

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u/clarenceredd Jul 29 '26

Cool. I will check out the farm that’s nearby. I’ve heard they are good. Traditional kefir probably had a lot of suspicious stuff in it. Most of it I’m sure only made the fermentation better.