How to Store Milk Kefir Grains
Like other cultures Milk Kefir Grains requires a favorable environment to sustain, you should keep some precautions to ensure the health of your culture.
Short-term storage
If you have excess kefir milk or if you need to a break from regular fermentation. You can follow these steps:
Storage
- Store Milk Kefir Grains in a small container with half a liter of milk and place this container in the fridge, now you can keep it refrigerated for a week.
Reuse
- When you need to reuse these grains, first you should take them out of milk, then leave them in another half-liter of milk for 24 hours at room temperature. If there is no problem occur in fermentation, you can do the next with more milk. initially, fermentation may get slow but eventually, they will start to multiply and reproduce in a short time.
Long-term storage
If you plan to store kefir grains for long term in a dehydrated form. You can follow these steps:
Storage
- First, you should rise your milk kefir grains with drinking water until it appears to be like yellowish fluffy grains,
- Dry it with a paper towel and store it either in milk powder or in a deep-freezer in a refrigerator bag.
Reuse
- For re-use, you will first let it thaw in the refrigerator for an hour.
- As grains look fluffy again add a cup of milk and leave it to ferment for 24 hours at room temperature.
- Ferment milk using these grains for every 24 hours for 3-15 days. For the first three batches use a smaller quantity of milk,
- They gain their real strength in 1-2 weeks and start to multiply after 3 weeks.
