I've been making kefir for many years now. For the past couple of years, my kefir grains have not grown. (Ironically it was right after I told a friend I would be happy to split my grains with him when they got big enough).
The kefir continues to come out fine. The kefir grains haven't disintegrated or anything, but they remain the same roughly tablespoon amount.
I'm wondering if they might have expired - or largely expired - and the kefir keeps propagating from the bits of the last batch of kefir. Or maybe, what I'm ending up with is not kefir at all, but some other ferment.
I've been thinking of ordering new grains from GEM, but I don't know if I really need to.
Has anyone else experienced this?