This is a splinter thread off the Yoghurt thread.
Kefir is a smooth, thick cultured milk drink made using kefir "grains" that are a symbiotic culture of yeasts and bacteria. It's related to yogurt but has different cultures and different mode of preparation. Yogurt usually has two or three probiotic microorganisms, but kefir has up to 50 species that can recolonise the gut. It tastes like a thick creamy buttermilk with a slight fizz.
It originated in the Caucasus about 2000 years ago.
You can get kefir powdered culture that contains around a dozen species of micro, but won't form the grains (see later photo) so you have to keep buying the culture. By obtaining the genuine "mother culture" grains you can make the stuff indefinitely, just adding a good milk each time.
Equipment:
Jars (Mason jar style)
A dedicated strainer, plastic or wire, but no smaller than 1/16 inch gaps.
A dedicated glass bowl.
All can be starsanned. Similar hygeine and sanitising regimes to beer brewing.
Here's a jar that's been fermenting milk for 24 hours. You are looking at around a litre here. The yellow flecks are butter fat - I use Manning Valley unhomogenised milk. The kefir "grains" look like lumps of cottage cheese, or cauliflower pieces and are fairly solid and jelly like and float up to the top of the drink.
Strain off the kefir into a bowl, leaving the grains behind.
Pour the kefir into a sanitised jar, return the grains to the original jar and top up with a fresh dose of milk. I wash and sanitise the primary fermenting jar every third time. There's about 900ml of milk in each jar in the photo.
Kefir needs to be in a warmish place but out of direct sunlight. Unlike yogurt the milk doesn't need to be heated first.
The strained kefir can then be left for a further day or two, out of the fridge, to develop extra yogurt-like sourness, if you like, or put in fridge and drink as a milder version.
Feckin lovely, nowadays I just have a schooner of kefir for breakfast, full stop.
Kefir is a smooth, thick cultured milk drink made using kefir "grains" that are a symbiotic culture of yeasts and bacteria. It's related to yogurt but has different cultures and different mode of preparation. Yogurt usually has two or three probiotic microorganisms, but kefir has up to 50 species that can recolonise the gut. It tastes like a thick creamy buttermilk with a slight fizz.
It originated in the Caucasus about 2000 years ago.
You can get kefir powdered culture that contains around a dozen species of micro, but won't form the grains (see later photo) so you have to keep buying the culture. By obtaining the genuine "mother culture" grains you can make the stuff indefinitely, just adding a good milk each time.
Equipment:
Jars (Mason jar style)
A dedicated strainer, plastic or wire, but no smaller than 1/16 inch gaps.
A dedicated glass bowl.
All can be starsanned. Similar hygeine and sanitising regimes to beer brewing.
Here's a jar that's been fermenting milk for 24 hours. You are looking at around a litre here. The yellow flecks are butter fat - I use Manning Valley unhomogenised milk. The kefir "grains" look like lumps of cottage cheese, or cauliflower pieces and are fairly solid and jelly like and float up to the top of the drink.
Strain off the kefir into a bowl, leaving the grains behind.
Pour the kefir into a sanitised jar, return the grains to the original jar and top up with a fresh dose of milk. I wash and sanitise the primary fermenting jar every third time. There's about 900ml of milk in each jar in the photo.
Kefir needs to be in a warmish place but out of direct sunlight. Unlike yogurt the milk doesn't need to be heated first.
The strained kefir can then be left for a further day or two, out of the fridge, to develop extra yogurt-like sourness, if you like, or put in fridge and drink as a milder version.
Feckin lovely, nowadays I just have a schooner of kefir for breakfast, full stop.
