Kefir Grains - Living Probiotic Enriched "As seen on TV"

This is my second time buying from this seller. They deliver an excellent product! When you first get your grains they are going to look *very* small and nothing like the picture. There isn't anything wrong with them, this is how they are shipped so they survive the journey. You will need to spend a couple days to a week "healing" them before they're actually able to produce drinkable kefir. The way I "heal" my grains when I first get them is I put the grains straight into about two to three ounces of milk for 24 hrs and change out their milk every 12-24 hrs for about a week. For that first week the milk barely changes at all, it will be very watery and won't really ferment much. But after a couple of days, you will notice a change in your grains as they start to get plumper and grow. As they do, you'll start noticing the milk gets a bit thicker. How quickly your grains heal, grow and ferment will depend on the temperature in your home. The warmer it is the faster they ferment and vice versa. Once you get them going you will have kefir grains coming out your ears! I had jars and jars of them and had to find new homes for all the grains as I couldn't keep up! You can eat the grains as a way to keep their growth under control, it is a very cheap but potent probiotic "pill" if you will. I've been making kefir for about two years now and here are some tips for anyone interested (the seller sends some excellent directions with their product as well) Making Homemade Kefir What you need: - clean glass jars, quart size with wide mouth work great - a nonmetal sieve - Amazon sells a good nylon sieve here: [...] - a plastic spatula - freshly cleaned hands and counter surfaces - fresh non-homogenized milk The ratio of kefir grains to milk is 1:7. I usually use whole non-homogenized milk. Kefir can be fermented from 12-48 hrs at room temperature. You don't need any fancy equipment like a yogurt maker just some free counter space for your jar to sit. I usually use a 24 hr schedule for my kefir but you can experiment and find what you like, the longer it goes the stronger and tarter it will be and also the less lactose it will contain as you've given the culture a longer time to consume the lactose sugars. After it has sat undisturbed for 8 hours you can also stir it with plastic spoon to increase the fermentation speed. When you are ready to strain your kefir, wash your hands, the counter and make sure you have a clean quart jar, nylon sieve, plastic spoon (or spatula) and something to strain the kefir into such as a bowl or large measuring cup (2-4 cup capacity). Stir kefir with plastic spoon to break up the curd and make it easier to strain. Pour the kefir into the nylon sieve and tap firmly on the edge of the bowl or measuring cup to get the kefir to strain through mesh and into the bowl. The longer you've let the kefir ferment the more persistent you will have to be to get it to strain as it will be thicker. Continue filling the sieve and tapping until you only have kefir grains remain in the sieve. Place grains into your clean quart jar (I don't rinse my grains although some people do, I find my grains are "healthier" if I don't rinse them), add fresh milk and place lid lightly on top (don't screw closed). Set out of the way where the jar will not be moved or disturbed while it ferments (it needs to be undisturbed for the first 8 hrs, after which you can stir it to increase the fermentation process as noted above). Store your newly strained kefir in the fridge in a jar with a tightly fitted lid. Kefir should stay fresh for over a week at least. If you don't have a plastic sieve yet, you can use your clean fingers. Stir kefir with the plastic spoon as stated above to break up the curd then pour the contents into a shallow bowl. Use your fingers to "comb" through the kefir and fish out the individual grains and place them in a clean jar. Once you've found all your grains you can whisk the kefir left in the bowl to give it a better consistency which will help combining the kefir and whey. After whisking pour contents of bowl in glass container and store in fridge with a tightly fitted lid. Don'ts - Don't screw lid tight on jar, the kefir needs to breath, it is an aerobic culture! Set lid so it just covers jar and prevents fruit bugs and other foreign objects from contaminating kefir - Never place kefir grains in hot jar. Heat can damage and kill the kefir. If jar is hot out of the dishwasher, pour fresh milk in first before introducing grains - Don't use any metal objects with the kefir grains, only glass or plastic Dos - Do wash your hands and make sure you are working with a clean jar, surface, and plastic utensils - Only rinse grains if they get contaminated by falling on an unclean surface. Rinse in cool (never hot) filtered water - Drink kefir straight after straining while it is still room temperature, chilled and plain, mixed with honey and vanilla, or blended with honey, vanilla, and a combination of the following: coconut oil, peanut butter, dark chocolate and/or your favorite fruit! - Visit Dom's Kefir Making Website: [...] he's consider the "guru" of kefir making, you will find a lot of good info and history there There are tons of other resources out there but this is the system I found to work well with the kefir grains I bought from this seller. Hope you have fun and enjoy! :)

These grains grew so quickly, I can barely keep up. I love the taste of the kefir they produce. I was new at this, and at first approached the process very cautiously. I would keep them in the oven overnight with the light on to keep them warm, since I turn my thermostat down to 60 at night. I would start a new batch by putting milk in the mason jar and put it in a warm water bath in order to warm the milk to room temperature before introducing the grains. That went on for a couple of weeks, until I got lazy. Now I just toss them into a mason jar, pour the icy cold milk from my 36 degree fridge over them, slap on a mason lid & ring nice and tight, and put it on a dark shelf in my closet. 24 hrs later, done (sometimes sooner) No more pampering. They keep growing and growing. Sometimes I just put the extras in the blender with the kefir and fruit when I make a smoothie. If I leave too many grains in the batch, it either turns to kefir too quickly, or makes more kefir than I can consume as a single person. You have to get rid of them somehow. I frequently do a 2nd culture with fruit after removing the grains. The finished kefir keeps well in the fridge. I've made kefir "cream cheese"..... or something with that texture, that I've then turned into dip. I use raw milk, but have also used pasturized, unhomoginized milk. I imagine it would do well with any milk as long as it is not ultra-pasturized. These grains are great. You will have more than you know what to do with in a very short time. Update: January 2015 These little guys are still doing great, still multiplying readily and making fabulous kefir. I can't believe I've had the same kefir for nearly two years.

I ordered these Kefir grains due to the excellent reviews written on Amazon. They were shipped from Kentucky to Idaho. I received what looked like a 1/4 teaspoon of a milky substance in a tiny zip lock bag, wrapped in bubble wrap. I immediately put them in a cup of cold pasteurized whole milk. It took 7 days and 3/4 gallon of milk to revive the grains. I knew they were starting to perk up when they no longer smelled like yeast but smelled like kefir. They continue to be fragile but are growing. I am now leaving the grains in the milk for 48 hours before straining, pouring the 48 hour kefir into a clean jar and leaving the jar on the counter top to ripen for another 12 hours. Finally, the kefir is thickening. I emailed the seller and he responded quickly, even refunding my payment. I also emailed the Kefir Lady who gave me some very good advise and told me to keep trying because the grains are resilient and it takes time for the grains to recover. I wanted to purchase more grains from her because she mails you 2+ tablespoons (so you don't have to wait so long to produce kefir but she told me to give these a chance. I now have 2 cups of pleasant smelling/tasting kefir in the refrigerator and another cup fermenting in the cupboard. The grains have multiplied but due to the very small amount supplied, I only have about 2 tablespoons. I'm sure in another week I'll have more than enough. The seller told me to drink only small amounts until my system acclimates to the bacteria which was good advise because my tummy was rumbling last evening after drinking 1/2 cup. It is strong stuff so he does not want you to make too much at first because it may tempt you to drink more than you should, turning your bowel into an underground volcano. I am satisfied with the quality of the kefir. I do wish I had been sent at least two teaspoons because it really took some TLC to revive these grains.

I'm amazed by these little grains. I have made kefir from the powder before but i have never used the grains.I recieved them a week ago on Wednesday January 30th, 2013. They shipped them fairly quickly. When they first arrived I didn't know what to expect. I was a little worried because it looked like about a half tsp. of white creamy stuff in a little zip lock bag. I didn't see how that would possibly turn into any thing. However I just decided to follow the instructions. The first 2 days, nothing happened. I just had a half cup of warm stale milk. After day 3 every thing changed. I started getting thick milk like kefir, and the grains finally looked like they were growing, but I was worried about drinking it yet so I dumped it out one more time. This was saturday evening. This time I added a full cup of milk because the kefir seemed so thick on the 3rd day. On day 4 which was Sunday I had my first full cup of kefir. I drank have in the morning and half in the evening. Now it is Thursday february 7th 2013, and I have had 5 full cups of kefir. Today I actually had about 1 and 1/4 cup because I started adding more milk. Today I shared some with my youngest daughter. She loved it and, As soon as i have enough kefir grains, She wants to start making it for her and her daughter "my granddaughter". It has been just over a week since I received the kefir grains. I started with about 1/2 tsp of kefir grains, and I now have about 1 and 1/2 tsps of kefir grains, maybe a little more. I'm so amazed by these kefir grains. It is like a little miracle the way they work. I am going to take very good care of the grains. Thank you lifetime kefir:)

I was brand new to kefir grains when I purchased these, but after following the directions (and I only used raw organic dairy milk), within one week, I had great quality kefir milk that separated into whey in the glass jar and smelled like yeast. The first few batches (which I used a baby food jar for) were the "readusting batches" and I threw those out, but I'm excited to keep these little grains healthy and strong. Things I've learned from online forums: 1) NEVER wash your kefir grains. 2) Put the grains in room temperature milk, not cold, as this will shock them. 3) Give them fresh milk every day (even if you don't want any kefir right now, just give them enough to fill a babyfood jar). Think of them like a pet. You have to feed them every day or they will misbehave or even die. 4) If you are going to be gone for more than 2 days and can't change their milk, put them in the fridge. They can stay this way for up to a month. When you come back, it will take about 3-4 batches of baby food sized milk batches (just like when you got them), to revive them. 5) If you want to hibernate them, put them in a glass container in the freezer. They can store this way for up to 4 months. It can take up to two weeks to revive them after you take them back out. Hope this helps! I would definitely recommend this brand and will be sharing my kefir grains with friends, family, and neighbors as they grow! Spread the love of kefir... UPDATE 1/31/13 My kefir grains are thriving and doing fantastic! I share them all over our region and am happy to report that there are over 10 different families making kefir daily because of this one batch of kefir scobies. The work like clockwork. I even take them on vacation with me.

I ordered two different brands of Kefir grains, to see if they would grow or behave differently. This one looked fairly unimpressive when it arrived. However, within 24 hours it became apparent that the type of Kefir formed from these grains would be potentially much thicker and creamier than what I was producing with the other brand. The grains have certainly grown significantly. The other brand had a little bit more visible growth of the Kefir grains, but the Kefir from the other brand tended to be runny, and tended to separate more aggressively into milk curdles. The Lifeway Kefir has some visible milk whey when it is done, but the rest of the drink is incredibly thick and is almost like yogurt. The curdles are very fine and not offensive. It really does seem to be a far superior product! The Kefir is also a bit less sour, so easier to make into a smoothie for my kids. While I will continue to experiment with both products, this one after only 2 batches has risen head and tails above the other brand. (The other brand I made 4 batches so far, producing a usable kefir beverage, but with qualities much less desirable). A+

Funny story...My son was looking for something on the counter and by seeing my mason jar with kefir fermenting on it, said "Mom, how many years have you had these kefir grains for? ". So I came here to look and it turns out these little soldiers (their babies and grand-grand-grand-grand-grand ++++ babies) have been making great healthy homemade kefir for me since Ocrober 2014. It is now 6 years 1 month later and these grains have produced multiple generations of new babies and have been going strong for years! They are very hardy. There are times when I have placed the mason jar I culture the milk in with the grains in my fridge and kept them in there for a month or two (I don't recommend it but life happens) and they still come out to the counter alive and ready to eat lactose and provide rich probiotic ferment for my immune system. I have given baby grains to numerous friends and colleagues because the colonies increase continuously. There are many excellent videos on YouTube, but here is what I have learned after 6 years of continuous kefir fermentation: *** I culture my kefir in a mason jar on the counter (see picture). Strain out the kefir in another container, grains remain in jar (I use a mason jar strainer cap which is usually used for sprouting - the orange cap in the picture), add a new batch of milk to the jar, put a coffee filter on top to prevent debris, secure filter, let ferment overnight. Voila! More kefir. Easy peasy! *** Kefir grains hate metal. Strain in plastic strainers, keep in glass or ceramic. *** Kefir grains should never be rinsed. Water washes out the protective coating around them and they need their protective coating. *** The warmer the environment is, the faster the colony will eat lactose and the faster the kefir will sour. Keep checking, but give them time to do their job, at least 12-15 hrs at 70 degrees. *** The grains are hardy in cold. You don't need to warm up the milk before you put the grains in. Hot milk is a no no, these are living things that could be destroyed by hot temperatures. *** The fattier the milk, the better. The kefir grains love milk fat for some reason, even though what they eat is lactose. I use whole milk. *** A cup of milk per TBSP of grains is about the right ratio *** Homemade kefir is not going to be like store-bought. It may have a different texture due to the fact that the store-bought is sometimes thickened with starch or other. It is not yogurt, either, so don't expect a yogurt texture from it. *** Kefir has over 40 strains of beneficial bacteria as compared to yogurt, which only has 4-5. You get a greater benefit from kefir. *** I've been known to mix mine with fruit in the blender for a sweet treat. Well, this turned into a novel...lol. Best of luck to you on your quest to healthy probiotic kefir fermentation.

I ordered Kefir grains from The Atlantis Group on April, 9th and my purchase was delivered on April 17th. It arrived smelling yeasty, yellow (???) and moist. The tiny package had only one small grain with a tiny bit of milk, the entire amount fit in half a tablespoon with room to spare. For a little over $10 including I was hoping for at least a couple of spoonful with a few grains to get started. However, I placed it in very small plastic glass to get it growing anyway. I know how to handle the grains but your product seem to be too little and very bad quality. I used several batches of milk - none of which can be drunk and finally I realized this product doesn’t work: when I did put a few drops on my tongue to taste and it was bitter and just plain gross. This is not kefir at all, just sour milk with bad smell. I just sent e-mail to seller, lets see if he is going to issue refund.