Help?! My milk kefir grains have been colonized by Viili
How To Fix Contaminated Milk Kefir Grains
What is colonized kefir, how does it happen, and how do I fix it?
Colonization is basically cross contamination. It can be accidental or part of your master plan. Most times this occurs if you ferment different cultures too closely. Ideally, you should keep a four foot distance between ferments to avoid cross contamination.
How can you tell if your kefir has been colonized? Well one way is you go to strain your milk kefir grains and it’s oozing from the jar or it may just plop out in one huge blob. Now first, you need to troubleshoot and make sure that the “ooziness” isn’t from kefiran production. For example, if you don’t culture Long Viili, Långfil, or Long Skyr it’s then most likely kefiran production and absolutely normal. If you do have a ropey yogurt culture and are not sure if your kefir has been infiltrated it can be difficult to determine the cause.
This fix will help in both colonized and/or too much kefiran production. (Is there such a thing?) It’s actually a very simple process.
What you’ll need to do is strain your kefir and run the grains under non-chlorinated water. Drain off the excess water and place in a clean container and fill with milk. Let ferment like normal. You may have to do this a few cycles. Make sure to use a clean container every time you strain until you have achieved results. Afterwards you may go back to washing your jar every week or so.
Viili can be a beast and sometimes this isn’t enough. You may need to rest your grains in non-chlorinated water for a cycle. Here is how you do that.
Strain the kefir like normal and rinse the grains in non-chlorinated water until no kefir remains. Place the grains in a jar and fill with more non-chlorinated water and rest the grains for 24 hours. At the end of 24 hours, strain, rinse the grains and place in milk. Ferment as usual. This drastic step usually does the trick.
These are two of my remedies for colonized kefir. To avoid this problem in the future, try to keep a distance of 4 feet between ferments and you should ok.
If you have a creative solution to colonized milk kefir grains I’d love here it. Leave a comment below!