Kefir grains getting sluggish - did I kill them?

[Taedareth]

My kefir grains used to culture milk really fast, like in 24 hours the milk would be curdled and separated. But now they've been sitting in milk for 2 days and it's turned gelatinous but not curdled. I thought maybe there were too many grains for the jar size, so I divided the grains. But that hasn't helped. I previously used pasteurized, non-homogenized milk but now they're in raw milk.

Do you think I killed them somehow? I did temporarily store them in the fridge (in fresh milk) when I ran out of milk and wanted them to slow down production. Is that it, or could something else be the problem?

[quietserena]

They might have gone somewhat dormant after being in the fridge also they might have to used used to the raw milk. If the kefir smells and tastes ok, I'd still drink it (the slippery stuff is the kefiran) but if it's 'off' I'd toss it and start another batch.

I've had mine go a little dormant after being in the fridge (for three weeks) and it took them a few batches to get back on track. The kefir kept smelling 'off' and i kept tossing it but then it all got better.

[saratc]

It takes awhile for the grains to get used to a different type of milk. I think it took at least 5 batches when I switched to raw milk before my kefir would get thick. It's even worse when switching between cow's and goat's milk.

I've noticed that even with water kefir, the grains don't culture as well if I've been using one type of sugar for a long time and then switch. I recently switched from one brand of sucanat to another and my water kefir took 5 days instead of 2 to culture for the first few batches.

[Chicharronita]

My first set of kefir grains came from someone who only used P & H milk. The grains never "took" to raw milk; it would only make good-tasting kefir with P & H milk. It was so bad, I stopped making kefir and the grains died.

A couple of months ago I got grains from someone who only uses raw milk, and I only use raw milk to make kefir. What a difference! I'm surprised that it affects the taste. Maybe some of the good bacteria get lazy or die off when you use P & H milk.