How much milk to support kefir grains?

[mama-a-llama]

We can only get a gallon of milk a week, and want some of it uncultured. Would that be enough? I get this impression that once the grains start multiplying you end up with LOTS of kefir.

[Tcarwyn]

sure, but you dont have to *keep* all of it


I think 1 T per cup and a half of milk or so.

What I do is I make 2 cups twice a week and keep the grains in the fridge in between...thats plenty for us...


Tanya

[Chicharronita]

My dd likes to eat the grains, which is fine since she seldom drinks kefir. When my grains grow out of control like a science experiment gone wild, I make a smoothie and blend the extra in with it.

[mama-a-llama]

Originally Posted by Tcarwyn

What I do is I make 2 cups twice a week and keep the grains in the fridge in between

Bumping this up again now that I have my grains. Could you post more detail of your schedule and method for this? How long do the grains stay in the fridge--is this like the resting protocol on Dom's site?

[tboroson]

Kefir grains are extremely durable. You can totally abuse them, and they'll keep rockin' along. You can store the grains in a small amount of milk in the fridge for weeks and they'll be fine. You can freeze or dry spare grains - in fact, it's advisable to store some backups like that just in case something weird does happen. You can leave it culturing much longer than you should, and the grains will still be fine.

I do kefir in a quart jar. Between the volume of the grains (about 2-3 tbsp worth) and the head space I leave in the jar (about 3/4"), I use about 3-1/2 cups of milk. My house isn't very warm most of the year, only in the summer, so it cultures slowly for me. It usually takes about 2 days. Then I strain it, put the strained kefir back on top of the fridge for it's secondary fermentation, and move the grains to a fresh jar of milk. If I have more finished kefir than I need at that point, I'll put the grains in a small jar with a little milk (a little more than I need to cover them) and store them in the fridge for a day or three until I'm ready to start again. Then I dump that, milk and all, back into a quart jar and top off with more milk.

When my grains grow to about 4 tablespoons in volume, I divide them in half. In the summer, that happens weekly. They grow like mad when it's warm. In the winter, I'd say they double about every two weeks. I'll take what I split out and dry them, or freeze them, or give them away, or throw them in my smoothie.

So if you're getting one gallon of milk a week, you could do a schedule like this:
Monday: take grains from fridge, put in quart jar, top off with milk, put aside to culture.
Wednesday: Strain, put grains in fresh jar with milk, put aside to culture (jar 1). Put strained kefir in another jar for it's secondary fermentation (jar 2). (Remember to shake jar 2 a couple times a day, it tends to separate a lot. And give it lots of head space - it builds up a little pressure.) You can use the kefir from jar 2 while it's secondary-fermenting if you wish.
Friday: Strain jar 1. Add that kefir to jar 2 and leave that to continue to ferment. Put grains in a small jar in the fridge with a little milk to wait for next Monday. Continue to shake jar 2 whenever you think of it.
Monday: Start next round of kefir same as last week. If you have any kefir left in the secondary-ferment jar, move it to the refrigerator.


Look back in this forum for info on the secondary fermentation. Many people don't do it, but it improves the nutritional value, and IMO improves it's palatability. It also makes it fizzy - it isn't fizzy from the primary fermentation. I use a 1/2 gallon jar for the secondary, which provides plenty of head room and allows me to add more kefir from finishing primary batches. I will keep a jar fermenting for a week, both topping it off and using from it regularly.

I do all my fermenting on top of the fridge. It's slightly warmer up there in the winter, which helps. Also, I see the jars all every time I approach the refrigerator - that helps me remember to shake the secondary fermentation jar once in a while.

[mama-a-llama]

double post

[mama-a-llama]

Thanks a lot for that! So far mine is culturing REALLY fast--quite separated at about 30 hours, so I'm feeling a little frantic keeping up with it. I think maybe I was overenthusiastic with the amount of grains I used for 2 cups of milk.
My house may already be pretty warm, too. Would the basement be too cool?
And I do plan to do secondary fermentation, as folacin and reduced lactose are important to me.