They will culture your milk and turn it sour and thick within 24 hours. Make sure that you have enough grains for the amount of milk that you are using or it will separate into whey and curds which is still ok to drink but not as thick.

If you are making kefir every day, your grains should be growing and multiplying. If they aren’t, it is because the temperature in your house is cooler than usual, slowing down the grains, or your kefir grains have died. If your milk is turning into kefir by becoming sour and thick, your grains are still…

I always culture my kefir with a lid on. I use a one-quart glass canning jar with a plastic lid, but a metal lid is also fine.

The milk that the grains were stored in is not really kefir. It won’t hurt you to drink it, but it probably won’t taste very good. Milk needs to culture at a warmer temperature to really turn into kefir.

Probably not. Kefir grains eat the milk sugars (lactose) out of the milk to live and to make their bacteria. This is why the milk gets more sour. When the grains run out of food, they begin to die. They’re living organisms and need food. Treat them like a pet and make sure you feed…

If you don’t want to make new kefir and want to store it, place the grains in at least 2-4 cups of milk, remembering the “1 tablespoon of grains to 2 cup of milk” rule. Then add a little more milk. I like to store mine in at least 4 cups of milk to make…

This happens for one of two reasons: Your grains have grown, but the amount of milk you’re using hasn’t increased; or your kitchen is quite warm. If the former, either remove some of the grains or add more milk for the next batch, so the grains to milk ratio remains correct. If a too cozy…

It has cultured faster than expected. This is not a bad thing. It just means that your kefir is ready. Remove the grains, and shake or stir the kefir to mix it together again.