Kefir Grains Have Arrived!
1249 days agoHooray, finally the Kefir grains I bought online have arrived. Well, it came all the way from Germany so it took about 9 days for it to ship all the way to Singapore. And this means that I can make my own Kefir. No more the powdered Kefir thingy but real probiotic milk Kefir with all the live cultures and yeasts! Yes, I have tasted the Kefir made from the powdered Kefir cultures but not the real stuff. I am quite certain that the real Kefir will taste diferent. Actually I really hope that it does.
Anyway, if you guys have no idea what Kefir Grains are used for, let me enlighten you. It is used to make Kefir. So you add milk to the Kefir Grains and let it ferment at room temperatures and it a few hours you get Kefir. Kefir is sort of like yogurt but is fermented from different cultures and yeast than yogurt. We all know that yogurt contains a few live cultures which are beneficial to you, but for Kefir, it contains much much more live cultures. That’s why I say that kefir is a probiotic food. The health benefits to Kefir is too numerous to list down here but you can never go wrong with Kefir. The milk Kefir is supposed to have a drinkable yogurt texture so just think of it as a morning cup of creamy milk. I supposed that a lot of people may be turned off by the fact that there is something like a grain fermenting sourish milk. If I didn’t know about Kefir, I would have never tried any sort of fermented milk. Heck, I only knew that Yakult or yogurt are actually fermented milk products recently! And Kim Chi which a lot of Singaporeans now like, they are also fermented products. Yes, these fermented produce are healthy stuff!
That’s the milk Kefir grains that was sent to me. Don’t look like grains to me. More like cotton wool being soaked with alcohol. And for god’s sake, look at the poor thing, been starving and was squashed for over 9 days now. Do remember that it is a living thing and like all living things, it will need food. It will also need some tender loving care like fresh milk to make it healthy again. The seller recommends me to give it a few days in milk for it to start getting active. I am not in a rush to drink milk Kefir, the most important thing now is to get the Kefir grains healthy. Without healthy grains, it is all for nothing right? I just hope that the Kefir grains are not dead from the transit. Anyway, I will be putting this in milk and letting it do it’s work for 3 days and see what is the result. I read that the first few batches would taste a little weird and unpleasant, which I need to avoid by NOT drinking the Kefir that is produced.
Well, in about 4 days time, I will report back with the taste of the Kefir. Wish me luck.If you are thinking of buying Kefir grain, please visit Mr Michael-Paul Patterson’s website – Timeless Health.
finally get to see your kefir grains.. congrats!
i m facing such overpopulation of grains now that I took a few to eat last night…. yeah… they look like blobs of cauliflowers actually…. taste like sponge… hehe. and since i have spare grains, i wash 2 of them to take a good look… first time that i actually look at it “naked”… without all the milk and curd… very cute blobs of fluffy things…
It tastes like sponge? lol! I read that the actual Kefir grains are also a healthy snack. Bu I wonder how many people actually eat the grains, seeing that it really look like wool.
May I know what kind of strainer you are using? The strainer I am using, the curds cannot go through and seemed to take forever to strain.
Dear Sir,
I am interest to culture some of the kefir grains myself. Are you selling it and how much?
Kindly reply at my address above
Thanks
I would like to culture some kefir grains for own consumption. Kindly let me know whether you are selling it and how much and where can i get it in Singapore ?
yah… i read that kefir grains are very nutritious… but they really do taste like sponge…lol! so i guess i probably wont eat them… unless really too much spare grains and i can’t beat to waste them. haha
i m using the normal plastic strainer. to make straining easier, do stir well b4 straining. and while straining, what i do is to use a stirrer (rem my wooden spatula? haha… but i finally got a ceramic one… so i threw the wooden one away). use a stirrer to kind of gently scrape at the bottom of the stirrer so that the thicker curds will make way for the liquid…just scrape the inner bottom of the stirrer and not crush the grains ah. this shld make straining much easier for you.
Jasmine, please contact Cindy. She has excess Kefir grains.
Thanks for the tip, Cindy.
I can’t find a plastic strainer in the stores, even in NTUC. Where do you get yours? I had no choice but to use a stainless steel strainer. Hopefully nothing will happen to the grains. I had thrown away the kefir that was produced in the first batch, but for the next batch I will probably drink it all. Smells quite okay to me.
hmm… i got my plastic strainer from cold storage…. strange, i thought the plastic ones are the common ones? hmm….
anyway, to jasmine, if you are keen on having some spare grains, do drop me an email to tycindy@gmail.com. however you will have to wait a wk or 2… as i just gave some spares to my sis… will not sell you the grains…. but will be happy to exchange them with a bottle of HL milk.
hear from you soon.
That’s what I thought as well. I remember seeing them in the supermarkets but now I can’t find them. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
Hey, maybe this will become a meeting place for Kefir lovers to come and exchange grains in Singapore?
Hmmm….it seems that my kefir grains are dead! The first batch ferment okay, there were curds and whey and they looked fine. I threw out the first batch and now, I am trying the second batch but it has been 48 hours and still no Kefir. There is a thin layer of curd on the top where the Kefir grains are but other than that, no curds were formed.
Do you think that I have killed the grains somehow?! Maybe because I am using the stainless steel strainer?
oh my…. how can that happen? i have read about avoiding metal stuffs with kefir grains…. but Dom did mention that stainless steel seems ok…. and he has been using it himself too…
furthermore, i think kefir grains are hardy little blobs… they don’t die so easily….hmmm… why dun you change the milk more frequently? like every 12 hours? and give your flask a gd shake whenever you pass by it? (that’s what I normally do when I am culturing mine)
do try again and let me know the results ok? really hope that all is well for your little ones there…
hey, how are your kefir grains coming along? if they are still not responding well, maybe you can try to change the milk you are using? Coz I just realised that the milk makes a BIG difference….
What happen is that I used another kind of milk (Magnolia Fresh Milk) instead of my usual HL milk this time. I did not purposely change actually… just that I ran out of milk and went to the nearest convenience store to get and they actually don’t sell HL but they do sell Magnolia… (strange though… as Magnolia is so much more expensive).
When I used Magnolia Fresh Milk with my grains, the first time round, they look different… I can’t pinpoint the exact difference though… in fact, so different that I did not drink my first batch of kefir milk using Magnolia as I thought something is wrong with my grains… haha! However, I decide to culture it again today and after I drank the milk (even though it still looked and smell a bit different), I was so shocked! it is soooo YUMMY! haha! Now, I am contemplating to change to using Magnolia instead of HL… then again, I might try different brands of milk to experiment… hehe
ok… keep me posted of your grains yah?
Yes, they woke up! Yesterday evening when I got back home, there were curds and whey! Hooray. However, I didn’t drink the Kefir. I strained them and use another batch of milk. I think I will drink this batch.
I was wondering whether the slight sourish smell is normal? I have been smelling this weird smell since the first batch. It smells a bit like rotten eggs but not very overpowering. Just a slight whiff.
Hoohooohooo, it’s time to experiment eh? Perhaps you should start your own blog and write down your experiences with the different types of milk on your Kefir? That would be soooo cool.
Yay! I am happy for you.
yah… the smell is normal.. in fact, when I used HL milk, it smells like the milk has gone bad after culturing… with Magnolia now, the smell isn’t so strong though..Are you using UHT milk?
hmm… blog ah… i am a little lazy… will see about it. hehe. let me know your experience with your first batch of kefir milk.
<p>Yes, thank you. And at long last I tasted the Milk Kefir. Well….it taste a bit like yogurt but less sour. Very different from yakult but it’s hard to say since yakult have been sweetened with fructose. And I can feel the alcohol in the Kefir! It sorts of warms my stomach after drinking! lol.</p>
<p>I am still smelling the rotten egg smell but as I said, it was just a whiff. I am using different UHT milk, seeing which is on offer currently. A bit low on budget this month.</p>
<p>I think I will continue to drink kefir. Tastes pretty unique and I like it.</p>
To make Yakult, we can get the information from Yakult’s website itself!
http://www.yakult.com.au/resources/documents/Yakult_PrimaryKit.pdf
It ferments at 37°C, slightly below the fermentation temperature of yogurt cultures.
great that you are enjoying kefir there! do experiment with different milk… and see which one u like, if u have got time. hehe… i just bought a pack of UHT milk today… the cheap price is too irresistable… the price is almost half of the fresh milk… i wanna see if there is a great difference in taste… if there are not too much difference, then i will use UHT milk instead since it is soo much cheaper…
and thanks for the info on culturing yakult… looks a bit troublesome though… being lazy old me, i think i will just get it off NTUC shelves if i ever want to drink it… but then again, ever since i m on kefir, i never tough yakult already… lol! but it’s still great info to know, so thanks a bunch for sharing!
p/s: u shld try magnolia fresh milk one day… it’s soooo yummy… hey, i m not advertising for magnolia… i just cant help coz i m enjoying its yummy creamy kefir milk everyday…
I just made some home-made Yakult. Well, the taste is a bit like Kefir but more sharp and has this sour aftertaste you can feel in the tongue. Other than that, it does not have much of any taste. And I used the wrong type of milk. The full cream milk I used made the Yakult look a bit like yogurt with a good amount of curds. I guess if I used skimmed milk, there will be less curd and more like what we see from the stores.
Yup, cheap right? And they do keep very well. Very good for an emergency as well. Just buy 1 or 2 packs as spare just in case.
I will try Magnolia soon, once I have the money that is! Hahahaha, expensive stuff you know.
Kefir grains are valuable and difficult to come by. That is why they are NEVER thrown away. If you have too much, you give them to someone. If you are going for a vacation, you can put them in fresh milk and leave them in a fridge. They will be fine for weeks. You can also put them in a plastic bag and leave them in a freezer. They will hibernate for as long as you want them to. It is not recommended to wash them.
If you put them in the freezer, it would be better to rinse them with un-chlorinated water and air dry them first. The freezing process will create ice crystals which might damage the grains.
Hi, I just bought some kefir grains on ebay. They were supposed to come with some guide/instructions, but that was missing. I’ve been reading up since I received them this afternoon.
Please correct me if I am wrong – place kefir grains together with milk in a jar (glass or plastic), leave it for a few hours and it should turn thick. THen strain the mixture using a plastic strainer, retaining the liquid (which is kefir and can be drunk) as well as the grains which can be used to make the next batch.
Have I got this right? Any other tips/pointers
This thread may be old but I thought I’d share my view about what I’ve just read here. I trust that when you’re culturing the grains, you have taken every precaution to boil or sterilize the thermos, bottles, beaker, glass, or anything you’re holding your milk. Your milk should be pasteurized once more to kill any foreign bacteria and left to cool and kept in a warm place once the grains have been introduced. Remember, the slight chance of any foreign bacteria can change the whole taste and give your product a sour smell (almost rotten). This can be the bi-product of other gasses that bacteria emit that can contain sulfur.
Once you’ve pasteurized, introduced the culture, you immediately refrigerate to slow the growth of the active kefir bacteria. I hope this helps. I am baker by trade, but I majored in biology at university. I make yogurt as a hobby and also for it’s health benefit. Enjoy.
help. my kefir has been left in the fridge for weeks with some milk . I have been feeling very bad abt that but I simply had no time to attend to them for the last couple months. And I just managed to take them out again a few days ago and tried making kefir. It does have the smell of kefir, but what is worrying me a lot is that, after a few days it still hasnt separated (the whey etc) which is very unusual, last time it would be done in 24 hrs. And the other part is that it has this funny looking texture on the surface of the kefir, that looks powdery/leathery. Any one has any idea? Am trying to do some research on web now . Pls enlighten if you can.
I would like to culture some kefir grains for own consumption. Kindly let me know where can i get it in Singapore ?
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