When deciding on a vessel for your ferment, it’s best to use a glass container. Plastic will eventually contain scratches that can harbor external bacteria that damage your culture over time. Plastic compounds are also more likely to leach into your kefir over time, due to the acidity of the kefir.

Avoid the use of metal when fermenting milk kefir. Over time, the acidic nature of the culture can possibly leach heavy metals into your kefir, just like with plastic mentioned above. Stainless steel is ok.

To strain milk kefir, we prefer a nylon fine mesh strainer. Stainless steel strainers can be a bit abrasive, and over time this can cause your big clusters of grains to separate from each other, lengthening the straining process. You might be able to tell we’re always trying to mitigate the straining process with milk kefir. That’s because it’s the longest straining process of all our cultures, and you actually have to be involved in the process. Worth it, but more work than the other cultures.

Technically, kefir is an anaerobic process where the bacteria and yeasts thrive without needing air to ferment properly. For our milk kefir, we opt for fido jars which reliably yield delightful kefir every batch. Though, the choice of how to cover your kefir varies based on personal preference – whether it’s with a coffee filter and rubber band or letting it aerobically ferment until the yeasty flavors mellow out. It’s all about finding what works best for you and your grains' settling process.

It’s because it’s new to your house. When milk kefir grains are activated in a new environment, they have basically become intrepid explorers to a new continent - your home! There are all kinds of indigenous microbes there that they’ve never met before, so your grains will have to get to know both the landscape and their place within it. During that process, yes, the kefir smells and/or tastes horrid. Just absolutely horrid. Some of us nearly quit milk kefir on account of it, and we totally get it if you’re sitting there thinking you got a bad batch of grains. DON’T THROW THEM AWAY!! They are literally just trying to get used to their new home.

So what can you even do about this nonsense?! Like you would with a newborn baby, find your calm and have patience. Your newly strained kefir can be tucked in the fridge for a day or two (even up to 2 weeks!), and it will mellow out while it’s in there. You also, if you just can’t bear the thought of actually eating this foul stuff, can simply bake with it, replacing the milk in any recipe with your yeasty kefir. If you’re a mashed potato kind of guy (as you’ll see throughout the FAQs that we are), use it for that. Funky dairies lend themselves to mashed potatoes (or rutabaga, or turnip, or whatever!) that are simply awesomesauce. For real - try this out and tell us if you don’t find that you agree!

Milk kefir grains get their nourishment from the lactose in milk. As long as the milk has that much needed lactose, you are pretty much good to go. There’s a ton of information out there as to how to properly feed milk kefir grains. Everyone has “their way” of doing things. You’ll hear things like “don’t use ultra pasteurized or lactose free milk.” Some say that ultra pasteurized milk is dead milk because all the bacteria in the milk has been killed off through the pasteurization process. While this is true, it can most definitely be used with milk kefir grains. The milk kefir grains have no competition from other bacteria when used with ultra pasteurized milk, so it makes their job a touch simpler. As for lactose free milk, technically it’s not lactose free. In fact, it has all its lactose and an added lactase enzyme to make the lactose easier to digest. Lactase is an enzyme that is a by-product of many organisms in the gut and small intestine. It helps break down the lactose in the milk, so it’s still a great media for milk kefir grains.

So in short raw, pasteurized, ultra pasteurized, and lactose free milk are all great options to help feed your milk kefir grains. We’ve tried them all, and they all work fine. Don’t make more work for yourself - use the milk that works for you!

This is where it can get a little bit sticky. When using non-dairy like coconut or almond milk, it’s very important to alternate back to dairy milk to help the grains get the correct nourishment. Non-dairy milks lack the lactose needed to feed the milk kefir grains. If used exclusively you are essentially starving the grains.

Lactose is sugar right? Can you not just add sugar or maybe something naturally sweet like date paste? The short answer is “sort of.” Lactose can only be found in milk or milk products like cheese and butter. Table sugar or other natural sources of sugar like dates are not the right kind of “sugar” for milk kefir grains. They only feed on the “sugar” in milk. LACTOSE. That said, there are people who boast long, long lives for their grains on date paste alone, just as there are (a larger number of) people who say their grains don’t do well. Across the board, people say that date-paste kefir does not result in your grains growing. So if you want to do this, grow some extras to experiment with - let us know what happens!

You’ve probably heard that grains make mad gains when you use cream instead of milk for them. This is, in general, true. What’s going on here is that cream has so much fat that it reduces the availability of the lactose it needs. Consequently, they grow and streeeeeeetch themselves out so they can eat. This might seem cruel to you, since you’re basically starving them out to make them grow. It’s not - your grains don’t have a complex nervous system that makes them “feel” the way we do. So if you’ve got a bunch of friends clamoring for grains from you, go on ahead and cream them. We would advise that you don’t do this all the time, as it will definitely weaken the health of the grains over time. But if you like your kefir a bit less drinkable and a bit more spoonable, add a splash or two of cream to your milk: this will help them grow without the long-term effects of giving exclusively cream. And it’ll definitely thicken your kefir up.

One quick note: if you’re using cream, expect that it will take longer for you to strain the grains. Also, don’t let it overferment or it will be a nightmare to strain those grains out. If this happens, shake shake shake, then strain.