Kefir Questions

[paisleypoet]

A friend gave me some kefir grains that she grew in goat's milk. Is there any way I can convert these to make water kefir? Can I make kefir with soy milk? I don't know much about this and I'm a bit intimidated, but I really want to try it.

[FairyRae]

If you rinse them and throw them into the soymilk, they may work. I've been using juice w/ milk kefir grains for 6 months and it's worked for me. We are talking in the allergies forum right now about milk grains (possibly--I hope not!) having casein in them, so it's got me crazy as we are dairy free...I'd look deeper into this if you are casein free...

Dom's Kefir site might be of help:
http://users.chariot.net.au/%7Edna/k...nativekefir%20

Scroll down the the heading "Transfering Milk Kefir-Grains to a Sugar/Water Media".

When transferring milk kefir-grains to a sugar/water-media for the first time, there is an initial lag phase [unbalanced growth] lasting about 4 days. During this phase, little activity is evident as the organisms stop reproducing while they fatten up by storing energy, until the organisms adjust metabolic pathways so as to be able to utilize the new source of energy [different forms of sugar and concentrations of, over lactose found in dairy milk]. However, after about the third or so batch onward, it should take 24 to 48 hours to culture a ready-to-drink form of water kefir beverage prepared with milk kefir-grains.