I've made a lot of kefir, went on a run of making a few quarts a day for a year straight. It is very easy once you get the hang of it, and imo tastes much better and has a nicer consistency than what you get in the store. Of course you can double ferment it too to make it a thicker consistency - more like greek yogurt - and some even ferment it into a kind of kefir cheese.
The time it takes to ferment it depends on a few factors. The temperature of the room you have it stored in (cooler temps take longer, warmer temps take less time), how much milk to kefir grains, the quality of the milk (raw vs. pasteurized).
I originally bought my kefir grains online from a seller on Etsy who had great ratings, feedback and showed they cared about what they were selling. Generally when you first buy the grains you get a couple tablespoons of them. From that, after the course of 6 months, I had so many grains that I have frozen a couple quart jars full of them... and still have grains in use. You can take some and put them in a mixer to blend with other things, but keep in mind it is live bacteria so too much of a good thing can make you feel not so hot in the beginning.
Obviously raw milk is best if you can get your hands on it. The next solution is pastuerized... DO NOT USE homogenized or ultra-pasteurized. If you get it to ferment at all it will be a really poor quality of kefir. That's IF you get it to ferment. Every time I tried with either of those I only ended up with soured milk. Also use whole milk, anything else you're just paying for water-filler that won't help your milk ferment.
Thanks so much for the info you provided. The very first batch I made came out amazing and the second batch was a little more watery than I liked it, but my third batch and so far it's getting better and better. I like it thick and more similar to yogurt.
I got a question, do you use cold milk or room temperature? I started warming up milk, because the instructions I got said to use warm milk and online I read mixed things about the temperature of milk. Last night I tried cold milk for the first time so I'll see how that comes out though.
I've also read that you should consider not washing the jar you used last and reuse it as it will help the fermination process better and if you can put a little bit of the kefir milk in the new batch of milk it will help it process faster, so I started adding just a little bit of the kefir milk.
I'm using whole milk right now without rbgh. I'll be honest I keep hearing about raw milk being healthier and it's probably my ignorance, but raw milk makes me a little nervous. I guess it being illegal kind of makes me nervous, even though I hear other countries that's all they consume. Below is what it says in the state of Florida
STATE of Florida where I live
Raw milk sales for human consumption are illegal. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services interprets the definition of “sell” in the state administrative code to extend the ban on raw milk sales to any cowshare agreements as well.
Department of Agriculture policy permits the sale of raw milk for animal consumption even though there is no state law that covers this issue. The state permits raw milk sales for animal consumption either on the farm or in retail stores. Containers should have a label clearly stating that the raw milk is for animal consumption only.
One question is how long does frozen kefir grains last? I've read that they last a week in the frigerator, but wonder how long can you keep it frozen?
