Author Topic: Kefir Grain Storage  (Read 4099 times)

Offline Gobae

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Kefir Grain Storage
« on: August 03, 2013, 06:43:13 PM »
I've never done anything with kefir so I've got a real basic question that I didn't come across while reading the kefir threads here.

How long can I store kefir grains? And what is the best way? Freezing, refrigeration?

Thanks!

Spellogue

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2013, 03:06:29 AM »
Storing them in milk under refrigeration works best for me.  I dry off my goats in mid to late fall and they don't freshen again until April.  I've had viable grains after storing then in the same milk for 5 months, but it is better to refresh the milk every month or so.  I just don't like having to expose them to store bought P/H cows milk during that time because mine live off of raw goat milk the rest of the year.

I've also dried kefir grains in the past.  That's a good thing to do to have an emergency stash in case something happens to your working grains.  Like when your daughter throws the culture in the compost not knowing what it was. :(.    So far in reconstituting dried grains I found that they make good kefir, but they won't seem to grow and multiply.  Not sure if that will happen in the near future. 

I've never frozen them.  I don't know if that would work or not.

Offline Gürkan Yeniçeri

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2013, 10:06:37 AM »
Drain and rinse the kefir grains. Cover them with generous amount of milk powder in a glass jar making sure they are in the middle and not touching the sides of the glass jar. Freeze in the freezer. It should keep about 6 months or so.

Offline Gobae

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2013, 05:39:58 PM »
Awesome, thank you both very much. This gives me a couple of options in case I need/want to take a break from making kefir.

beechercreature

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2013, 07:58:49 PM »
Drain and rinse the kefir grains. Cover them with generous amount of milk powder in a glass jar making sure they are in the middle and not touching the sides of the glass jar. Freeze in the freezer. It should keep about 6 months or so.

I've done this in plastic baggies several times with great success. The last time i had it in the freezer for two years and it came right back to life when it was thawed.

Spellogue

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2013, 02:15:10 PM »
Drain and rinse the kefir grains. Cover them with generous amount of milk powder in a glass jar making sure they are in the middle and not touching the sides of the glass jar. Freeze in the freezer. It should keep about 6 months or so.

I've done this in plastic baggies several times with great success. The last time i had it in the freezer for two years and it came right back to life when it was thawed.

I don't normally keep dry milk on hand, but the successes you two have has with this approach warrants my picking some up to try this.

Just lately I've noticed my rehydrated grains growing a little.  They're still smaller individual grains than I'm used to having, but there are more of them.  On two occasions recently I left them culturing for over 48 hours at room temp.  The resulting kefiran was too sour for me to use, but it seems to have benefitted the grains.  Once the grow enough to split I'll try freezing some like this.

beechercreature

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2013, 04:29:09 PM »
if you have more than you need you can take one and convert it from milk to juice. just rinse it off and put it in a mason jar with some grape juice. i leave the lid on and drink it after about 24 hrs. it's slightly fizzy and super refreshing.

Spellogue

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2013, 07:58:58 PM »
if you have more than you need you can take one and convert it from milk to juice.

I had been wondering if I could convert milk kefir grains to use for water kefir.  Some say you can, some say it won't work.  I hadn't thought about using juice.  Sounds geat.  I'll try it on e I have some grains to spare.

Spellogue

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Re: Kefir Grain Storage
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2013, 08:12:55 PM »
Awesome, thank you both very much. This gives me a couple of options in case I need/want to take a break from making kefir.

You'll want to and should take a break from drinking kefir periodically.  It gives your system a chance to assimilate the probiotics.  Central Asian monks take a 10 day break from drinking kefir each month.  when I'm consuming it i I often do 3 weeks on and 2'weeks off, something like that.  Often times I drink less than that.  You'll also want to consume some fresh milk too so that the probiotic bacteria from the kefir that populate your gut have a good source of nutrition.