Freezing Water Kefir Grains?

[welldone]

I'll need to store my water kefir grains while we travel for five weeks. What is the best way to freeze them?

I found this thread on freezing milk kefir grains; what modifications would I need to make to this process to store water kefir grains?

Thanks for your help! I'm determined not to kill my kefir grains this time.

[welldone]

Help? Please?

[Tcarwyn]

No help here...sorry, But I have been wondering the same...also if you can dry them like milk kefir grains... Did you check dom's kefir site?

Tanya

[welldone]

Yep, I checked Dom's site. Good info on freezing dairy kefir grains; nothing on water kefir grains. (At least that I could find--his site is hard to navigate!)

The regular kefir grain freezing instructions include covering the dried-off grains with dry milk powder to avoid freezer burn. What else could I use, instead of dry milk, to keep my water kefir grains from freezer burn?

[Tcarwyn]

I have never froxen milk kefir, just dried the grains and put them in the fridge, that worked fine....I guess I would give that a try...

Tanya

[welldone]

Thanks, Tanya. I will try drying off my grains and freezing them in a glass jar. I'll report back with my findings, in case anyone else ever needs this info.

I'd love to hear from someone with experience freezing and resurrecting water kefir grains...

[saratc]

Woops, sorry this is a bit late. Honestly, for 5 weeks, I would plop them into a giant jar of milk and leave in the fridge. When you get back, either you'll have finished kefir, or if it's still milky you can set them back out as is. If the milk smells good in that normal kefir way, you can consume the batch. If not, strain and add fresh milk and you should be good to go. The grains will be fine. The only thing that may happen is that the first couple of batches may take a bit longer.

I wintered my grains in a jar of milk that I only changed four times the whole winter. The first batch out of the fridge took three days and I started with 1 cup of milk. It smelled good enough to drink. I am back to about a day for 2 to 3 cups of milk and my grains are growing nicely again.

[Tcarwyn]

Hey, I just saw on ebay someone who sells water kefir grains and said that she ships them dehydrated....So my guess is that that would be a good way to save them!

HTH

Tanya

[saratc]

Doh, sorry just noticed it said water kefir grains. Same instructions, but plop in a giant jar of sugar water and stick in the fridge. I keep a backup of water kefir grains in my fridge and has not yet had issues with reviving them.

[welldone]

Thank you, saratc! That's just the info I needed. Though I just ran out of sugar.....doh! And, the one time I tried it your way, my grains didn't survive very well. But, I'm nearly certain I didn't use enough sugar water. So I'll look for my gallon size jar, and go from there...

Tanya, thanks for the tip on dehydrating. I think I'm afraid to try it, but I'm grateful for the tip!

[akoik]

Try dehydrating half and doing the sugar water for the other half. That way, if one route fails, the other is likely to take. Another thought, depending on your travel schedule, is to just take them with you and feed them along the way. Don't worry about making something you'd actually drink, or even really straining them. Just pour water off the top every few days, add sugar and water and ignore for a few more days. I bet you'd bring home a bundle of new grains that way! LOL
Melanie