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Kefir Making Equipment

1238 days ago

Kefir – probiotic heaven drink. And it doesn’t taste that bad either. Quite a number of people I know would not have dared to taste Milk Kefir since it has this slight rotten egg smell but once you drink it, it isn’t so bad. If you have taken plain yogurt before (unflavoured), it tastes a bit like that except that you can feel a slight alcoholic twang at the end. Overall, I like the taste of yogurt better but this Milk Kefir is supposed to provide more health benefits. Well, as you guys know my health has taken a nosedive and I am trying ways and means to improve it. And thus, every morning, I have been drinking about half a cup of Milk Kefir.

However, I realized that I don’t have the necessary equipment to properly make Kefir. The strainer I have is made of stainless steel and is just too small. The curds will often choke the holes in the strainer and it will take very long for the kefir to strain out. And the food grade plastic container which I used to ferment the Kefir in seems to be a bit out of place. I was also recommended to use a glass container. Of course, I really wonder why food grade plastic containers like PET is not recommended. Beer brewers have been using PET “Better Bottles” to make their beer without the problem of chemicals leeching to their beers and they ferment their beers in these containers for weeks, even months. From what I know, food grade plastics should not be leeching significant amounts of chemicals to affect our health. But what can I say, if the experts tell you to go get glass, you should do it or else!

Okay, here comes the pictures! I purchased the Kefir equipment from Sheng Siong near my house.

Komax Tea Strainer and it cost me S$0.90. Best investment ever! This will be used to strain my Kefir and the Kefir grains. Cheap and hopefully lasting.

You cannot see from this picture but it is big and should be large enough for me to strain the Kefir grains from the Kefir. I chose the orange colour tea strainer because that is the only colour available there. Don’t envy me and don’t laugh.

Another picture of the tea strainer. This is where the Kefir will drip down to the bowl or container. All you have to do then is to throw the Kefir grains into another container, add milk and let it ferment for another 24 hours. For the Milk Kefir, you drink it. Or let it “age” for 24-48 more hours. According to Dom the expert in Kefir, aging your Kefir provides some additional health benefits. However, due to space and time constrains, I normally just drink the Kefir immediately after straining.

Glass container. This can contain about 1.5 litres of liquid. You may wonder why I didn’t pay the strainer and the glass container together. Well, first of all I actually only wanted to buy the strainer but afterwards I saw that they have the glass containers in stock as well. So I went back and bought it. For S$6.50, the price is quite reasonable too.

Amazingly, this is how the glass container was wrapped up by the sales lady. What we have here are some Chinese female cheerleaders and what not. Look at the picture of the women on the left. Makes you forget all about the Kefir and the glass container. I like to note for the record that I never drop this wrapped glass container even once during my walk home even with smiling, happy looking cheerleaders.

Yes, that’s the glass container I purchased! Looks quite good isn’t it? It comes with a rubber seal to ensure tightness. I like the design of this container. It looks like those you will find in the high end grocery stores catering to Ang Mo like Jason’s. That’s the rubber seal in the container.

And if you look carefully at the newspaper on the background (which was the newspaper the glass container wrapped in), you can see that it is the obituaries! Sad.

Okay now, it looks much better without the obituaries in the background. I have added the rubber seal and it is ready for use to make Kefir. Just imagine how the container will look with the Milk Kefir inside. Just heavenly! The major problem I foresee is regarding the seal. Will it be able to last, especially after it is soaked it water and/or Kefir for some time? The last thing I wanted is ants attacking my Kefir grains and they can get through small cracks or leaks in the seal easily.

By the way, this glass container is made in Italy! I love Italy.

There, it confirms that the glass container is made by Fido, Bormioli Rocco in Italy. Oh, the correct term for this glass container is Hermetic Jar. I shall remember it.