My Milk Kefir (Real This Time)

1238 days ago

My Kefir grains arrived about a week back and I have been meddling with it and attempting to create a good (or at least acceptable) Kefir drink for me to enjoy....

My Kefir grains arrived about a week back and I have been meddling with it and attempting to create a good (or at least acceptable) Kefir drink for me to enjoy. It has not been easy. Although the steps to make Kefir seemed easy enough – add milk to the Kefir grains, strain after 24 hours and add more milk to the Kefir grains and so on. But we must realize that without the proper utensils, you might find it rather difficult. Your strainer must be big enough or it will take hours to properly strain the Kefir out. The container where the Kefir is fermented must be air-tight covered slightly loose (not air-tight as the grains need to breathe) or ants (or other insects) will invade your Kefir. Of course, it is recommended for the container to be glass.

Anyway, after a few tries, I managed to get a reasonably good tasting Milk Kefir. I was told that the type and quality of milk will also affect the taste of the Kefir. I am very tempted to use fresh milk to make my Kefir but it is a bother as fresh milk usually don’t keep well. UHT milk which I have been using all along seemed to be the best solution. I normally would make about 200ml of Milk Kefir per day and I drink it all. When the grains first arrived, I had to throw away the first few batches of Milk Kefir due to the grains being starved. The journey from Germany to Singapore took about 10 days, so I can understand that the Kefir grains may be stressed and may not produce the best of taste. And after the fourth batch, the resulting Milk Kefir was quite delicious. And now, the rather strong alcoholic aftertaste is very much reduced. You can hardly smell any alcohol when drinking. Yes, it is a bit sour but most fermented milk drinks are sour due to the lactic acid being created by the live cultures. Just that companies selling these drinks added sucrose or fructose to the drink, making it less tart and more appealing to consumers.Take for example Yakult. It tastes just like sugar water.

I normally ferment my Kefir for 24 hours. I like my Kefir to be more sour but due to the time contraints  of work, family and friends, I usually stick to the evening when doing the straining of the Kefir. So it is normally 24 hours or 48 hours. 48 hours would probably make a Kefir which is overly sour and tart.

The view of the milk Kefir from the top.

Milk Kefir!  Doesn’t it look delicious?

Can you see the Delta rivers? This is one of the indication that the thickness and consistency of the Milk Kefir is just right for drinking.

I can see that my Kefir grains are starting to grow. There are a few big ones which had growth quite significantly since I got them. It was very heartening to see my grains growing. All my hard work in caring for the grains seemed to pay off and soon, I can hopefully share the grains with others. If you guys are interested in Kefir, please give me a hoot and I will see whether I can spare some grains.