I make what would be considered fairly good kefir. I have read much about the process and one bit confuses me.
To make a new batch all literature talks about straining the grains to start the new batch. I started to experiment and simply took a large gob of the solid material and used that for starter of the new batch. It worked just fine. Then I went further and just used the whey for starter. That worked fine also.
My conclusion after many trials is the culture is present throughout the material and straining out the grains for seeding the new batch is absolutely unnecessary.
Here is my process in pictures.
http://durgan.org/2017/December%202017/31%20December%202017%20Kefir/HTML/ 31 December 2017 Kefir
Kefir new batch 24 hours fermentation. Pictures depict process.