Anyone giving this a go?
Had been buying Kefir milk in cartons from a Lithuanian shop and decided to give it a go at home. Bought the grains and have been changing the milk every 24 hours. Nice to have another sour drink on the go!!
I made some kombucha a few times alright, not sure if the process is the same. Enjoy that and it seems to settle any tummy problems the kids had
I see the milk is readily available but where can you buy the grains?
I would think also that you could use some of the milk to culture up your own grains?
I have been making kefir for a while, you just add a few grains to some milk and leave overnight, grains multiply so have some spare if needed
Quote from: Will_D on March 24, 2016, 11:16:45 AM
I see the milk is readily available but where can you buy the grains?
I would think also that you could use some of the milk to culture up your own grains?
I also thought this but then read that the commercially available stuff is fermented with a few of the main bugs (for consistency) and grains contain many more. Bought some grains online (think here - Kefir Shop (http://www.kefirshop.co.uk/shop.htm)) and am getting to the same point of
gazz where they're starting to multiply.
So this afternoon off I went to Swords.
Parked up at the Old Boro and into the Pavillions to the "Health Store".
Yes they had the milk at €5.30 for 500 ml (FFS)
Also had the grains, bag of 6 by 5 gm starters for €28 (FFFFFS)
But I only need one says I! Tough Titty says shop!
Long story short, Bought the milk, into fridge for 2 days to let the solids settle and then step up a culture.
" the commercially available stuff is fermented with a few of the main bugs (for consistency) and grains contain many more" Err how come??
That means that the commercial milks are not the real deal?
Can post you grains will_d if ya need em
Cheers Gazz, first off I will do the cultureing/upscaleing bit!
I will put the milk on the stir plate and see what happens.
Quote from: Will_D on March 24, 2016, 08:32:48 PM
Yes they had the milk at €5.30 for 500 ml (FFS)
The Polish section in Tesco/Sainsbury's will do it for a couple of quid.
Quote from: Will_D on March 24, 2016, 08:32:48 PM
That means that the commercial milks are not the real deal?
It's still a probiotic drink but from what I've read there's way more diversity in Kefirr from the grains than from commercial Kefir. Guess it depends whether the manufacturer uses grains or not.
Will be interested to see how your culturing experiment goes!
They are on adverts for about a fiver I think
I used to do it for a while a few years back but went on a holiday and got out of the practice.
It's weird stuff, fizzy yoghurt takes a while to get used to.
Once you get used to it it's quite nice.
The homemade stuff has very little to do with the commercially bought, the cartons would expand and blow up if they were the real thing...
You can also use the water kefir grains to make a beer of sorts.
So after a few days to settle, poured off the milk and we drank it. Not bad at all.
So with the bottom of the bottle I grew up 250 ml on the stir plate. After 48 hours there had been some activity, allowed to settle poured off 200 ml and tasted it. A bit thin but the taste was there.
Made up to 500 ml and back on for 48 hours.
After 24 hours already looking much thicker.
Quote from: Will_D on March 30, 2016, 10:18:02 AM
So after a few days to settle, poured off the milk and we drank it. Not bad at all.
So with the bottom of the bottle I grew up 250 ml on the stir plate. After 48 hours there had been some activity, allowed to settle poured off 200 ml and tasted it. A bit thin but the taste was there.
Made up to 500 ml and back on for 48 hours.
After 24 hours already looking much thicker.
Come back to us when you have gelatinous grains floating about in it, it'll start as a slimy mess, but that will turn into grains eventually.
The ethos of kefir is generally free exchange for postage by the way, you shouldn't really have to pay for grains, there are groups all over the internet.
There's a person in Cork offering starters as well on boards (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=99086956&postcount=22).
Have a few starters spare if anyone wants em, send me Addy and I'll post out
So after another 24 hours there was certainly the "slimy mess". Much thicker.
So poured off some for drinking and pitched more milk.
No sign of Scoby's though, I will let this run for a few days now as I believe that after some time you will get Kefir cream cheese or even a Kefir cheese?
I must say my "gut health" has improved a hell of a lot since experiment started!
Once you have the pedio style ropy slime then the scobys should be on the way.
The first phase of kefir tends to be a fizzy yoghurt, the next step, it starts to seperate out into kurds and you're getting into some more solid and very sour yoghurt, eventually as you say you will end up with something pretty solid and cheesy.
If you strain it through a sieve you should eventually start to catch the beady gelatinous grains and when they step up to sufficient numbers you'll have an overnight turnaround in your kefir production.
It certainly does have a good effect on the stomach and is great if you are lactose sensitive.
I tend to be on the kimchi and sauerkraut these days for my probiotic kick.
Was going to add something about how it develops over time, but Eoin said it all.
Kefir is mass produced in eastern Europe and sold in cartons; it's drinkable, but it's an industrialized version. Less diversity in the culture, pasteurized, probably no viable organisms in it, less taste, quite stable (it'll go bad but not develop). The same story as yoghurt, butter, buttermilk and all the rest.
You might succeed in making more of it by using it as a clabbering agent: just adding something more acidic to milk will cause it to change.
The real deal is lovely, but like all of these thing, you need to get into a rhythm with it. I think I found about 8 days enough to get from milk to the level of kefir I liked. The grains grow with each cycle, too, so there should be lots of free grains floating around.
Quote from: Beermonger on April 01, 2016, 06:00:39 PM
Less diversity in the culture, pasteurized, probably no viable organisms in it,
But surely you can't sell a probiotic that's been pasteurised!
No, but was the one you bought sold as a probiotic? In, e.g., Poland this stuff appears in every little shop and supermarket and most of it is pasteurized and not sold as a probiotic. Maybe we get the fancy stuff here!
Bought a small bottle in my local health food shop last week after reading this thread, also bought one in Tesco during the week. Health food shop one was Irish, definitely advertised as probiotic, Tesco one was Polish. Huge difference between the two. When we are talking about gut health here, are we talking about blowing the trunks off yourself?! Eh a friend was wondering.....
Quote from: googoomuck on April 01, 2016, 09:01:57 PM
Bought a small bottle in my local health food shop last week after reading this thread, also bought one in Tesco during the week. Health food shop one was Irish, definitely advertised as probiotic, Tesco one was Polish. Huge difference between the two. When we are talking about gut health here, are we talking about blowing the trunks off yourself?! Eh a friend was wondering.....
Haha, we're really talking about just feeling good in the stomach department.
I presume if you had other issues that it would help you too.
If you were to take a course of antibiotics, kefir would be great to take alongside the pills to ensure that the balance remains, I often get a very sick stomach from antibiotics as it messes with the stomach so badly. Kefir seems to have a lot of the stuff that a healthy gut system needs so it's like regularly innoculating yourself to ensure your stomach cultures work well.
There's a great program on netflix called "cooked" by Michael Pollan which is not your average foody show, the 4th episode in the series is about fermented food and he covers this stuff nicely in it.
Highly recommended show by the way, it's more about the development of food with humans and for humans than a real foody show.
I was told that if you are on a course of antibiotic's that you should not take yogurt as it will neutralize the antibiotic but do take after the course is finished. :-\
Antibiotics kill all the biotics hence why you should take pro biotics afterwards
@Eoin my "friend" must have had something else going on that day cause he has drank some since and experienced no I'll effects.... Watched that episode of "cooked", really good show. Gonna catch up the rest over the week. If I were to make kefir, how long do the grains last? Say if I made a batch this week how long do the grains last and how are they stored when not making kefir?
The grains last for ages. Once you're making kefir once a month you're good. Just feed it a bit of milk now and again, a bit like a sourdough starter with less maintenance.
Quote from: gazz on March 31, 2016, 02:58:58 PM
Have a few starters spare if anyone wants em, send me Addy and I'll post out
I'll take you up on that offer please gazz.
Quote from: googoomuck on April 04, 2016, 01:59:36 PM
@Eoin my "friend" must have had something else going on that day cause he has drank some since and experienced no I'll effects.... Watched that episode of "cooked", really good show. Gonna catch up the rest over the week. If I were to make kefir, how long do the grains last? Say if I made a batch this week how long do the grains last and how are they stored when not making kefir?
If you want to slow down the kefir you just put it in the fridge in milk, can last weeks..When you get your kefir multiplying freeze some grains then if anything happens to your culture you have a backup.
Quote from: gazz on April 05, 2016, 01:33:30 PM
Quote from: googoomuck on April 04, 2016, 01:59:36 PM
@Eoin my "friend" must have had something else going on that day cause he has drank some since and experienced no I'll effects.... Watched that episode of "cooked", really good show. Gonna catch up the rest over the week. If I were to make kefir, how long do the grains last? Say if I made a batch this week how long do the grains last and how are they stored when not making kefir?
If you want to slow down the kefir you just put it in the fridge in milk, can last weeks..When you get your kefir multiplying freeze some grains then if anything happens to your culture you have a backup.
Cool, I've just replied to your message, thanks again!
I picked up a bottle of Polish Kefir yesterday in Tesco. Initial taste wasn't great but I got used to it after a gulp or two and was looking forward to finishing the bottle today. Going to take a run over to the Polish shop and see if they've any grains there.
Lad in the Polish shop hadn't a clue about the grains. Picked up a different brand there in a 1 litre carton. It's a bit different to the first one, less sour/yoghurty and a little sweeter.
Anyone here got spare grains? :)
Yeah! Need to grow them up first but should have some to send you next week.
Sweet. Sure I can pick them up with my medal at the Belfast comp. O0
;D Sounds good!!
Good write up on the BBC website on Kefir:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977)