Understanding Kefir Grains

I think I'm starting to understand why everyone says that it may take a few cycles to activate some sleepy kefir grains. My vendor told me that they needed to start to reproduce before I would get satisfactory results. Now, my grains are multiplying and my kefir is much more palatable.

I added some strawberries to my batch a couple days ago, and it was rather good. I didn't need to add any other sweetener.

Notice how the kefir is getting thicker.

I think the idea is that until the grains are very active, I have just been making sour milk, instead of kefir. No wonder it tasted so bad.

After straining the grains for this batch, I separated out about one teaspoon for the next batch (about half of the grains) and ate the rest. After the next cycle, I ended up with about twice as many grains. It's not obvious from this picture. I'll be more scientific next time.

The batch that is working, now, used all the grains from the photo above. I'll post an "after" picture tomorrow.

I'm glad that I didn't give up.