Ask Allie!

Ask Allie is our advice column, where you can ask all your food-related questions to get digestible answers! No question is off limits!

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I just received my water kefir grains, when you say unchlorinated water I want to make sure that I understand correctly...I bought Natural Spring Water. Looking closer at the lable it says ozonated non carbonated Natural Spring water.
Then I looked at the analysis lable and the PPM (parts per million I assume) say Mg 26, Ca 72 SO4 4.8 Na 2 HC03 330 NO3 2.3 and Cl 4.4

I assume these are really small levels and it's ok to use this water but I just need to be sure before I start. I am going ahead to heat the water with the sugar and let it cool, but I will wait for your email to proceed. Thanks Allie.

BTW I made 2 of your yogurts so far...fantastic results, the filmjot said it would have long ropes, it does have ropes but not very long can I assume that will come with the more times I make yogurt.

— Sophie

Non-chlorinated water is generally just going to reference water treated with chlorine, rather than water that happens to have some chlorine in it, so yes you’re correct it’s fine. I forgot to say this in the email, but I do sometimes use tap water for water kefir. It will get fussy from it over time if you do it a lot, but it’s okay to do sometimes if you need or want to.

Yep! In my experience, ropey yogurts get ropier over time. 

You’re welcome!

So I had a family emergency and forgot to refrigerate my ropy yogurts before I left. They separated and smell like cheese. And seem to not be ropy anymore. Can they be saved or should I order more?

— Don

Ropey yogurts often do break permanently when they’re over-fermented. I would personally try to reculture from that cheese-like curd, but you may not feel comfortable doing so. If they reculture, it may be that you have some non-roping yogurts now, or they could be just fine! Without trying it out, we really can’t decide if your cultures are in need of replacing. Don’t use more than 1/2c of milk per culture until you’ve figured out the answer and gotten things back to normal if it does culture at least somewhat like it should.

Hi Allie. I am on my third batch after activating my European yogurt culture. Its still a little sour which I wasnt expecting. Would straining it to get it thicker make it less sour? Thank you.

— Tracy

Yes, it would, as whey tends to be more sour than curd. Also, try incubating it for a shorter period. It sounds like it may be more fermented than your tastes prefer, so scaling back 30-60 minutes on incubation time should fix that right up for you.