My kefir grains never grow.

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My kefir grains never grow.

Postby carfreefamily on Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:31 pm

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?
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Re: My kefir grains never grow.

Postby spaceralph on Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:07 pm

They should be growing, at least a little bit.

If you refridgerate them often they will grow very slowly, almost to the point where it seems like they aren't growing at all. If that is the case then leave them out at room temp and they will pick back up.

If you almost never refridgerate them, and they aren't growing then something might be wrong with them, and they may need to be replaced.
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Re: My kefir grains never grow.

Postby music on Fri Jan 03, 2014 4:15 pm

They should be growing, I have to give some away every week at the very least. Some strains never grow into the big colonies, but continue to reproduce small units, but all should grow.

Do you secondary ferment? Place the strained kefir liquid in a sealed jar outside the fridge. Give it a shake every now and then, then check it in 2 days time. If it is thick and foamy and a bit like beer (but still white!), then it most likely is kefir. Try using it to get a sourdough culture started, if it starts to make a culture rapidly, chances are even higher it's kefir.

Do you use metal or chlorinated water in any part of the straining, rinsing process? Both metal and chlorine may work as retardants for the grains. Do you rinse them off between ferments?
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