Kefir Questions

[boadhagh]

Hello! I'm new here, as well. I've been making milk kefir for
several months now and have two questions that I hope someone more
experienced will be able to help me with.

First, my kefir has turned to something like jello. For a while, I
had the perfect thing going -- thick, creamy, tart, etc. But now I
seem to have a choice between thin and tasteless or gelatinous and
tasty (but impossible to eat because of the texture). I just can't
find a middle ground in timing where I have kefir that is edible. Any
ideas?

Second question: should I have different batches of grains for
different milks? I usually make my kefir from unhomogenized,
pasturized whole milk, but sometimes I like to use skim milk (also
unhomog & past), and would like to also use raw milk every once in a
while.

Thanks! And I'm excited about this group!

[peter]

Hey,

My experience has been that the qualities change when grains are
subject to different environments.

Mine seems to go like yours when I store in fridge because I am away,
or last time if I ferment something too long. As I leave milk I'm
going to separate curds from whey for a few days instead of changing
every 24 hours.

I'd imagine that you kept diff. cultures for specific things it would
avoid this but for myself I find just doing one every day can at times
be relentless. Also seems that mine will go back to normal after a
week or so of back to the every 24 hr. schedule.


I think that the active culture change quite quickly to suit their
environment.

cheers

p