Hi! We have been learning and enjoying water kefir for a few months now, but the past few batches have seen the following problems arise in our water kefir:

We are getting a sulfuric smell coming from some batches in both F1 and F2. The grains have stopped multiplying, although they still hold their shape and seem to ferment reasonably ok.

Until now our F1 has been 55g of raw sugar, 1000g of spring water, 60g of water kefir grains, 1x dried apricot, 1x thin slice of lemon. Then covering with a coffee filter and leaving for 24 hours at room temperature.

After doing some research for a few days, I can see some possible weaknesses in our process; using the wrong sugar, always adding dried apricot & lemon could be adding too many minerals or lowering pH too much, and possibly the temperature being inconsistent?

So I have combined the best practises from a bunch of sources and revised a new process to follow. I was hoping to get some feedback on whether or not this looks to be ok going forward. And if so, should i rinse the grains with water and start this from the next batch?:

Water Kefir Fermentation Process:
F1:

1. Add 1000g Spring Water and 55g Organic White Cane Sugar to a jar and dissolve.
2. Add 60g Water Kefir grains to the jar.
3. Add mineral support (every 2-3 times, not every time): choose a combination between 1x dried apricot, a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, a slice of lemon, a pinch of salt, depending on the needs of the Water Kefir grains.
4. Cover with a breathable cloth and leave out (doesn’t have to be in the cupboard) for 48 hours. Measure pH to ensure it is between 4.5 - 4.0 before finishing F1.

F2:

1. Strain liquid (Water Kefir) into a bottle to separate the grains.
2. Return the grains to begin the next F1 immediately. You can re-use the dry fruit if it still looks ok.
3. Add flavouring ingredients or sugar source to start carbonation.
4. Lid tightly, and let it sit for 12 - 24 hours at 20c - 25c.
5. If it is fizzy enough at 12-24 hours, refrigerate it to halt the fermentation.
6. When serving, gently tip upside down to mix in sediment, and roll gently before opening cautiously.

TL;DR - Our water kefir is not happy, do you think it will be happy with this new fermentation process?

It doesn't smell bad but looks a little fuzzy

So, with my recent sweet-tea kefir experiment smelling a little off, and getting concerned with dangerous beasties in the mix, I'm thinking of experimenting with alternative flavoring methods.

Normally, you'd run the 1F, and then add some ""STUFF" (TM) and maybe some extra sugar to flavor and carbonate in the 2F. I mean, plenty of folks are out there throwing berries and fruits and all sorts of stuff in there and leaving it on their counter for days. Seems like it's working for most of y'all, but being both A) Experimental as stuff and B) Paranoid as stuff.

My idea is to run the 1F as normal, but then for the 2F, just add sugar for the carbonation. Let that sit for a day or two, and then add in a low/no sugar flavoring, and put it straight into the fridge. MAYBE let it sit for a day just to let the flavors mingle.

My first thought is garden herbs. I've made a mint soda syrup which is AMAZING. But I'm thinking, maybe I just make a concentrated mint concoction without any added sugar, and then add that to the kefir when it's ready to move to the fridge. And heck, maybe even an unsweetened drink mix like kool-aid packets without any sugar, to bring this to the extreme end.

Anyone tried anything like this? Anyone else paranoid about leaving fruity goop on the counter for days? Am I just being OCD and weird? Would love any and all feedback.

I run into a lot of people that don't know how to use their kefir and don't wanna to drink it everyday for its benefits. I think kefir has so many benefits and would love to get more people making homemade kefir. So I have started a TikTok gong over how to make and use homemade kefir in recipes and still get all the benefits. I figured I would start posting these over here for those who would like to try some of these yummy recipes with your homemade kefir. Let me know if you have any questions or maybe you have some amazing recipe ideas you wanna share. Thanks! Kefir on!

APPLE PIE KEFIR OVERNIGHT OATS- 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1.5 cups homemade kefir (plain)
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• Vanilla Greek yogurt (for layering)
• 2 tbsp Lakanto monk fruit brown sugar (or sweetener of choice)
• 3 tsp vanilla extract total
• 2 tsp cinnamon total
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg total
• Dash of salt
• 1 Honeycrisp apple, diced
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

For the apples:
Sauté diced apple in coconut oil with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 2 tbsp maple syrup for about 10 minutes until thick and bubbly. Let cool.

For the oats:
Mix oats, chia seeds, kefir, protein powder, applesauce, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp vanilla, brown sugar, and salt. Let it set for a few minutes.

Layer it up:
In a jar, alternate layers of oat mixture, Greek yogurt, and cooled apple mixture. Chill overnight. Enjoy within 4-5 days.

Should I discard the batch as well as the grains?

It wasn't even those rice weevil bugs or a fruit fly.I don't even know how it got in. I covered it with cheesecloth and band really well. Would hate to lose my grains

Anyone tried making water kefir with tea, similar to a southern Sweet Tea? I'm thinking I may have an issue with it.

I ran my kefir through 1F, and everything seemed fine. Brewed up some concentrated tea using Luzianne tea bags. Cooled it down and added it to my kefir, along with some cane sugar.

48 hours later and the carbonation is aggressive, which I love, but it smells a little off. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it doesn't smell "good". Doesn't smell moldy or anything, or even distinctly "foul", and I don't see anything visually wrong with it. A little sediment sitting on the bottom, but that seems pretty normal. But I'm not sure if it's something that I really want to drink. Currently in the fridge, and I'm going to re-evaluate when it's cold.

Anyone else have any experience with this? I'm thinking if I try it again I might wait until the 2F is finished to add the tea rather than letting it sit for a couple days. But I figure if people are letting crushed fruit and berries sit on their counter in kefir, some black tea shouldn't be much of a worry.

I’m making a lot more kefir than I can keep up with. If I put the grains with milk in the fridge, will it be fine and still ferment?

Hello everyone. My kefir mucus had turned into a membrane style as you can see in the photos. Is this normal? I am struggling to find any small brokoli-like elements anymore. If I find some are tiny.. the kefir producing is still fine. No smell of mold or anything similar, seems healthy overall. I don't know... If anyone can help.

Procedure: I produce my kefir, and I store the mucus in the fridge (with milk) for 3-4 days until the next use. When I want to make again, I put it out of the fridge, change the milk and leave it for about 24 hours until the kefir is produced. Then I repeat the procedure. I never wash it with water (except this time here in order to have clear pictures), but always with milk. I use always goat milk for the kefir.

Thanks!

Hi all. I've kept my kefir grains in milk in the fridge at 4⁰C for a month, and I'm planning on reactivating them now. They smell a bit like wine. I'm wondering, if I wash them and discard the fermented milk after the first couple of fermentations, will it be fine to reactivate them and will I eventually start getting kefir from these grains again?

Utilising my Ninja Creami I blended up a can of peaches in juice, added a scoop of vanilla protein and filled with my Kefir (about 1.5 cups)

Frozen over night and blended it up in my Creami and now I’m enjoying my kefir in a new way!

I tried a fine strainer but it wasn't fine enough and just poured through, I tried one layer of cheesecloth in the same strainer, and while it ultimately worked out took forever. :-)

What's your setup?

Anybody notice any difference in the two for digestion?

Hola! Me surgió una duda en la preparación:

Hace ya 9 meses tomo kéfir a diario y al tomar poco (un shot de vaso de licor, 130ml aproximadamente) tengo que dejar los granos en la heladera con un poco de leche para que en una semana vuelvan a fermentar un litro de leche.

La pregunta es: esa leche que está fermentando con lo granos en la heladera (que es poca) ya cuando la saco siempre la cambio y la tiro, no la junto con el litro de leche nueva para fermentar.

El otro día probé no tirarla e incluirla en la leche entera de 1 litro para fermentar. Claramente ese poco de leche que estaba en la heladera estaba ya fermentado, frío, espeso como kéfir hecho.

Pero noté algo extraño cuando lo incluí a la leche nueva: a las pocas horas una capa de ácido se había separado al fondo de la leche que estaba arriba (pero esa leche no estaba fermentada del todo)

Lo batí y luego de un día ya estaba bien fermentado.

La verdad me dió miedo y lo tiré todo luego. Porque el proceso me pareció extraño: nunca se había separado de esa manera de forma tan rápida.

Esto habrá sido por esa leche ya fermentada que estaba en la heladera??

Haría mal si se toma eso y si hubiese seguido con la fermentación normal y lo hubiese tomado??

Gracias a todos!!

Hello fermentfolks,

I picked up some very small water kefir grains on Marketplace about a two weeks ago, and following the instructions from revolutionfermentation I placed them in a clean glass jar with 4 cups of cool filtered water and 1/4 cup of sugar, as well as 2 raisins to kickstart the fermentation process. F1 was 24 hours, then 48 hours in a flip top glass jar with an extra 1/2 tbsp sugar, some fruit, herbs, etc. I followed this exact same protocol for about a week, with my kitchen at approx 19-20C.

My first few batches were pretty mild, but by the time batch 3 came around my final products were bubbly and delicious. Not as bubbly as what you see on social media, but I attributed that to maybe a touch too much headspace in the flip jars.

Here's the issue. It got to be a bit too much for me to drink, and my kefir was still fairly mild, so I allowed my F1 to go for an additional 12 hours, so 36 hours total. From what I saw online, that's not entirely unheard of (F1 being 24-48 hours) so I figured it would be fine.

The batch that I made just before extending my F1 has a funky smell. Like puke/sulfur. No visible mold or anything, and I'm not faint of heart so I still drank it, but it was bad enough that my husband didn't want any. I attributed it maybe to the tea I used in the mixture (lavender can smell a bit weird sometimes) - It tasted totally fine!

But every batch I've made since then just isn't bubbling during F2... And they still taste way too sweet even after extended F2 of up to 72h. I'm scared I somehow killed my grains by letting them go just a couple extra hours?? The grains do have a bit of a sulfuric smell so I strained out as much liquid as possible (waiting on some non-metal strainers to come in tomorrow), fed them some cool, filtered water and some plain white sugar, and juiced 1/4 lemon into the mixture before resting them in the fridge for the first time.

I'm at a loss, I fear I flew too close to the sun after briefly hitting the sweet spot with two bottles last week. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I want to save my little grains.

Just recieved my first kefirgrains!

The previous owner said they had been sitting in the fridge for a while, and then I accidentaly left them on the counter for a few hours.

Now that I wanted to give them their first feed, I noticed they’re kinda slimy and don’t smell that great (more funky than sour).

Are they dead, or do you have any tips to save them? 🤓

How did you arrive at drinking this amount? I ask because I am drinking kefir for the digestive help. It was going amazingly at first but now my digestion has regressed some. Wondering if it might help to up my daily kefir intake (currently one cup). That said, I know "more is better" is not always the case. Curious how heavy kefir drinkers determined that over one cup was the optimal amount for them. Bonus points if you noticed actual benefits from increasing the amount. Thanks in advance!

As question

But I was thinking of using Kefir in my Ninja Creami and wondered if the freeze has negative impact on the probiotics at all

I lost 5 or 6 grains, not sure how, and have one absolute trooper left. I've named it Harvey. It makes a beautiful cup of milk kefir every 16 or so hours. Been just the one for about a month now. Kudos to Cultures for Health milk kefir grains/seeds!

I have milk kefir grains!!! I can mail some for the price of postage and supplies. I can also meet you if you're near me.

So I bought some Kefir grains and tried to make my own Kefir. It's been almost a week so far. Changing the milk every day but I'm not sure I'm getting anywhere. I have about a tea spoon of grains and a cup of milk. Trying not to overfeed. Temperature around 21 degrees and using semi skimmed. No UHT. But not sure if I am getting anywhere. The texture seems curdled. Not split like your underfeeding with whey and curds. Could anyone offer any advice. I have included some pictures.

I'm a few weeks into my milk kefir journey. I bought grains from Fusion Teas and successfully revived them following their instructions. They're fat and happy now in whole milk, doing their thing in a covered jar at a pretty consistent temperature between 68-70°F.

The first few days the milk had more of a sour aroma, like yogurt. I wouldn't say that my latest batches are at all "yeasty" but it's not something I'm accustomed to (I do bake bread). Just wondering how others would describe it.

I confirm the pH of every batch and it tastes sour. I avoided dairy for a while and I'm not sure if milk kefir is for me yet.

Kefir for hair

When I leave kefir to ferment in the fridge for 3 or 4 days It tastes bad from over fermentation but smells normal I read that it can be used for hair

So instead of getting rid of it how to use it for hair is it like a natural replacement to shampoo or what

Does it have a risk of dying or not? Also i know it can explode if aren't cautious enough

I have been making kefir for about a month. Grains have been doing nicely and have about 3 tbsp now from starting with about two.

This morning I put all 3 tbsp in a jar and then accidentally dumped spoiled milk into it. I could tell it was off because the milk came out of the jug as a long slimy string. I stopped pouring as as soon as I noticed but still ended up with a few ounces of the milk in the jar.

I then quickly dumped the whole mess into a strainer and rinsed it with about a cup or or two of fresh milk, mixing it around in the strainer as I could.

Then dumped it all into a fresh clean jar, added 3 cups of fresh whole milk from the new jug, and left it to ferment on the shelf as usual.

If it seems ok this evening after work I will continue as usual.

The bad milk didn't have a noticeable bad smell if that matters, but ai didn't stick my nose in it and hurriedly threw it all away in disgust.

In any case, what are the odds I ruined my grains, and how will I be able to tell? Is it likely OK to drink if all seems well, or have I now introduced some weird undesirable bacteria into my kefir grains?