DIY kefir

drypowder

drypowder

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Anyone make their own kefir? I bought some powdered culture and have the first batch fermenting. Will report back on consistency and taste.
 
Kefir you ferment yourself is supposedly more probiotic than store bought kefir. Not to mention a lot less expensive.

Especially if using kefir grains which can be cultured indefinitely. At that point you're getting kefir for the price of milk and a small amount of effort.

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Had to Google this one, My first reaction was EEEeeewwww but then I eat/drink some pretty strange stuff from time to time myself.

So do it taste like buttermilk? Cause I love me some ripe buttermilk.

And do you eat this or drink it?

 
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It's like yogurt but without all the sweet crap they add to yogurt so American kids will eat it. I always buy some after a round of anti-biotics. It's good stuff even if your family will never agree on how to pronounce Kefir. Is it Ka-FEER or KEE-fur?
 
I thought this thread was going to be about making Kafirs. But that would be in the basement.
 
OK so again YouTube is a friend with something I knew nothing about.
Where do Y'all get your raw milk? or do you use store bought whole milk?

Edit: Don't post where you buy raw milk in NC cause, Evil Gubermnt.
 
Mikew said:
And do you eat this or drink it?
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So kefir is supposed to be more probiotic than yogurt; in terms of consistency, it's thinner than yogurt, so typically, you drink it as opposed to eating it with a spoon as you would with yogurt.

I'll report back on taste when this batch is done, but I suspect I'll have to add something to make the taste more appealing. Examples: add berries and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg; or substitute it for milk that I'd blend into a shake with eggs, banana, protein powder.

I'm not using raw milk. That may be something I look into later, but for now, store bought pasteurized milk will have to do. One benefit of pasteurized milk is you can just let it get to room temp then add culture. With raw milk, I think you're supposed to heat it first to kill whatever is in it, then let it cool, then add culture (the idea being you don't want microorganisms in the raw milk to compete with the culture you're adding).
 
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This came out pretty good. I (almost) filled a 1qt mason jar with pasteurized whole milk and let it sit out until it reached room temp. Measured temp with a food thermometer was 76*. At that point I poured a little of the milk into a cup, mixed in powdered kefir starter (this stuff), then poured the inoculated milk back into the mason jar and mixed well. Covered jar with coffee filter, using rubber band to keep the filter in place, and let it sit in a cupboard for 24 hours. After 24 hours, it's ready, so I removed the coffee filter, put a lid on the jar and refrigerated. Culturing time would be more or less, depending on ambient temperate (warmer = faster fermentation) and how much you want it fermented (go for a bit longer if lactose intolerant so that the lactose is fully broken down).

It smells and tastes quite a lot like yogurt; consistency is somewhere between milk and yogurt, so you would drink it, not eat it with a spoon.

I substituted the kefir for milk in a shake containing banana, eggs, protein powder and berries. Taste was somewhere between the taste of the shake with milk vs with milk and yogurt.

Since it tastes so much like yogurt, I'd bet it will go well with anything you usually pair yogurt with to sweeten/enhance the flavor; the difference being it would be a drinkable concoction rather than spoonable. So next I'll try blending kefir, frozen berries, powdered cinnamon and maybe a dash of cane sugar.
 
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You inspired me so I bought some at wally world yesterday. Tastes like Good Ripe Buttermilk awww that was yummy. Time for some cornbread.
For those of you that don't know how, bust up said cornbread in a bowl ad buttermilk or in this case kifer and enjoy, the sharper the buttermilk\kifer the better.
 
Mikew said:
You inspired me so I bought some at wally world yesterday. Tastes like Good Ripe Buttermilk awww that was yummy. Time for some cornbread.
For those of you that don't know how, bust up said cornbread in a bowl ad buttermilk or in this case kifer and enjoy, the sharper the buttermilk\kifer the better.
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Mission Report:
Dang that was good, I think I'll have some right now a an early breakfast.
 
So when I had about 1/5 of the original quart of kefir remaining, I added that to some room temp milk to make another batch - no powdered starter culture necessary, you can use kefir to make more kefir. From reading the reviews on the starter culture (linked earlier), it seems you can do this several times; this is only batch #2 from the starter culture, so I'll see how far I can get, and how to tell when you've reached the end of the line. With kefir 'grains', you can re-culture indefinitely, though the 'grains' require daily maintenance.

Made myself a light smoothie with kefir, banana, frozen blueberries and cinnamon. Between the banana and berries, there is enough sweetness that no added sugar was necessary. Because the kefir is coming from the fridge and the berries from the freezer, this makes for a frosty drinkable snack, perfect for a hot afternoon (can chill it even further by putting the banana in the freezer several minutes beforehand). And quite a bit healthier than coffee and biscuits/cookies/brownies/[insert favorite diabetes treat].
 
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My wife has been making Greek style yogurt in an "Instant Pot" pressure cooker. It's much much tastier and healthier than any store bought stuff. My kids even like it with just a touch of Torani vanilla syrup.
 
This has been working out pretty well; I consume kefir every day now. I'm on the 3rd batch made from the first pack of powdered starter, and the 2nd batch from the second pack of starter (have to keep two batches running so that I always have some to consume every day).

Once I'm out of powdered starter, I think I'll switch over to kefir grains (need to find a good source), which can be cultured indefinitely.
 
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Won't the batches you are working with now eventually make their own grains?
I just got in a starter pack from Amazon today.
 
Mikew said:
Won't the batches you are working with now eventually make their own grains?
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I don't think so. If you look at videos of kefir grains, you'll see those can be strained out, which is how people capture the grains from the freshly prepared kefir - the kefir then goes into the refrigerator for consumption, and the grains go into milk to make the next batch. With kefir made from powdered starter, I'm not seeing anything solid like that.

I assume the starter you ordered from Amazon is powdered freeze-dried culture? If you look at the reviews, you'll see that people mention you can re-culture it several times, but that's all, though no explanation of why there's a limit is given. I may let a batch ferment for longer (until it really separates into curds and whey) to see if anything can be strained out.

Once I've gone through all the starter packets (6 packets), re-culturing each as long as I can, I'll get some grains, probably from an Amazon seller. Or I could get them from someone on Craigslist - that's not strange, not at all, lol.
 
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So it seems the claims that there is a limit on how many times you can re-culture, when starting with powdered starter culture, is true. The fifth batch from one starter pack was clearly different in taste, and I decided not to make a sixth batch from this line.

Not sure why this is, but my guess is that each subsequent batch is weaker, allowing other competing bacteria to gain a foothold, which might explain the difference in taste. And I guess with kefir grains, you have so many of the desired bacteria, that they effectively out-compete other bacteria.
 
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Catfish said:
It's like yogurt but without all the sweet crap they add to yogurt so American kids will eat it. I always buy some after a round of anti-biotics. It's good stuff even if your family will never agree on how to pronounce Kefir. Is it Ka-FEER or KEE-fur?
Click to expand...

KA-RAP
 
I got some kefir grains, so I'm now using the grains to culture kefir.

Still have a couple of packets of freeze dried kefir starter (this stuff) if anyone wants it (just have to pick up).

Once the grains start multiplying at a decent clip, I'll probably have excess grains I can give away.
 
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drypowder said:
I got some kefir grains, so I'm now using the grains to culture kefir.
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I'm really enjoying this kefir. It tastes a bit different from the kefir made from freeze dried starter; it's more yeasty, but the initially strong yeasty flavor when I first received the grains has subsided as the bacteria has flourished. And because I'm making a new batch every day, the grains are growing quickly.

Offer on the freeze dried starter packets as well as on the grains still stands. If anyone wants grains, I'd just ask you bring a 1-qt wide mouth ball mason jar to swap for a similar jar with grains + milk (otherwise I'll run out of jars). You'll want a fine mesh nylon or stainless steel strainer to strain the kefir and capture the grains, and a spatula to speed up straining. And you'll want to ferment in whole milk, not low fat (I use regular, but organic milk works well too).

Great for smoothies, shakes as well as my new favorite snack - brownies and kefir (ridiculously tasty!).
 
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