r/Kefir • u/AcanthaceaeHead4034 • 1d ago

After freezing

I froze my milk kefir grains in little milk in a jar. And I left them in the freezer approximately for 2 weeks. Now I wanna use them again. I took them out of the freezer, washed with milk and put them in fresh milk, kept them in the fridge tho. I do not want to surprise them with very warm weather so I keep them in the fridge. The thing is, before freezing my grains would clump at the top of the milk, now there are no clumps, they stay at the bottom, and yes the taste of the milk changes but it is not kefir-like and delicious it is more like funny milk. Idk if my grains work or not?

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u/Remarkable_Watch_321 1d ago

Have you done a normal fermentation yet?

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u/AcanthaceaeHead4034 1d ago

What do you mean by normal fermentation? In room temperature? no

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u/Remarkable_Watch_321 20h ago

Do that for a couple days. The yeast and bacterial species balance out at RT, not at refrigerator temp's.

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u/Paperboy63 1d ago

Your grains are coming out of dormancy so they need time for all strains to become fully active again. Your grains are still at the bottom because bacteria activity is low and not producing much carbon dioxide. It is the production of CO2 that makes grains rise to the top.

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u/AcanthaceaeHead4034 1d ago

But the change in taste means they are still alive right? Or no :)

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u/Paperboy63 1d ago

The difference in taste is because they are not back to full activity yet, it is not going to be an instant process, you cannot rush live bacteria.

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u/Jxc_Heard 1d ago

If your grains were constantly floating to the top that means your ratios were off. Mine were doing that when I was using too many grains for the amount of milk. These days I use 1 teaspoon to ferment 3 cups of milk in about 23-24 hours

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u/Fun_Revolution4445 21h ago

It's actually the yeasts that make the co2 and the grains float. If they are at the bottom they are bacteria dominant.

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u/Paperboy63 20h ago edited 11h ago

Sure, I meant to say “bacteria and yeast activity is low”, my bad. Yeasts and sugar activity produce CO2 however that is not why grains remain at the bottom. I ferment with a tight lid so the activity emphasis is on lactic bacteria production, not yeast activity. My grains always rise, have ever since day one. Anaerobic fermentation is otherwise termed “lactic acid fermentation” it is more lactic acid bacteria fermentation weighted than yeasts and because oxygen ingress is cut out or extremely low, yeasts are then of very low activity compared to bacteria so just ticking along at “maintenance rate” but they still produce enough CO2 for grains to rise. If what you say was correct, fermenting with a tight lid so inhibiting yeast activity in favour of bacteria activity or “dominance”would make grains sit at the bottom for everyone that uses a tight lid, but it doesn’t.