A Foray into Food Fermentation: Continuing with the Kefir

Everyone says that making kefir is easy, and that is true. Making it taste good is still a challenge. Let's review my progress.

Growing the Grains

I've been told that my kefir will not be satisfactory until my grains start to reproduce. I think I have achieved that state, but I'd like to prove it scientifically. I've tried eyeballing the growth of my grains in photos like these (in chronological order)

First, using the strainer for scale

Then, using a tablespoon measuring spoon for scale

That last comparison looks like they shrank. I don't think that's the case, so I've started using a kitchen scale. The scale is showing the weight in grams to one decimal place.

The next day, I noticed that the wax paper weighs about 1/2 gram. I didn't tare that off in the picture above. Now, starting again, and working with the theory that my grains might not be getting enough to eat, I ate half the grains to start my next batch with 7.1 grams of grains. I used the tare function on my scale to subtract off the wax paper weight.

Types of Fermentation

There are three processes that I have used for fermentation.

One stage ferment

This is the basic ferment where I add the grains to milk, let it sit for 24 hours and strain the grains out. I haven't found this product to be too palatable, but it is OK if I am doing something else with the kefir, like

adding honey and/or fruit
mixing it 50-50 with orange juice
substituting it for milk in cooking
making overnight oats

Double ferment

This method is recommended by many kefir makers to make the drink more potent, enhancing B vitamins, and adding flavor to it. Some say it makes the kefir more sour. Some say it makes it less so.

The process is to follow the one-stage ferment process and set the strained kefir out for another 6-24 hours. I've only tried 24 hours. Some suggest that if my kefir separates from the whey like mine always does that I might be fermenting for too long in the second step.

Many people suggest adding flavors to the kefir before the second ferment. I've tried

coffee beans--not bad
vanilla beans--not that special, and they are rather expensive
sliced strawberries--pretty good. I still added a little honey

Some ideas for the future

cocoa powder
orange peel
banana

Charlsie ferment

Charlsie is the person who sold me my grains. She suggests combining the grains and milk as in the one-stage ferment, then she stirs the kefir and replaces the loose lid with a tight lid and puts the jar in the fridge for another 12 hours. At that point, she strains the grains, and the product is ready to drink. I've found this method to give a more pleasant taste than the one-stage ferment, but I still don't like to drink it straight.

Ratio of Grains to Milk

These three sources from the resources list below give quite an array of recommendations:

Dom suggests a 10:1 ratio of milk to grains by volume.
Crohn's Babe suggests 1-2 tablespoons of grains to a quart of milk.
Cultures for Health suggests 1 teaspoon of grains for up to 4 cups of milk.

There are 192 teaspoons or 64 tablespoons in a quart (thanks Google), so there is some controversy here, but I think we can conclude that a grains to milk ratio between 1:10 to 1:192 is about right. Thanks guys and gals. I've been using about 1 tablespoon per cup of milk. That is a 1:16 ratio. Perhaps I should try cutting that back. Maybe my grains aren't getting enough to eat.

Continuing with my careful measurements of the grain growth, my next batch has 7.1 grams of grains and 240 grams of milk (1 cup). That's a 1:34 ratio.