Washing Kefir Grains – Rinse
It sometimes happened that my milk kefir batch was sour with a distinctively sparkling sensation on my tongue. I then discarded these batches. It took me quite a while to figure out that this mostly happened after I washed my kefir grains in cold tab water. So I stopped doing that almost completely and since then it only extremely rarely happens that one of my kefir batches turns sour.
If you want to rinse kefir grains with cold water, then you can. My milk kefir grains have always survived it. However, be prepared to discard the first batch after washing them, as it may not be tasty. If you are still thinking about washing or rinsing them, then consider using milk instead of water.
Another thing you can do to clean your kefir grains is to shake them in a plastic strainer, so that most of the old milk will fall of.
More information about milk kefir can be found here:
How to Make Milk Kefir
Freezing Kefir Grains
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Um, you say that your Kefir “sometimes happened that my milk kefir batch was sour with a distinctively sparkling sensation on my tongue”.
Isn’t kefir spose to be sour from the sugars having been fermented out by the bacteria and the ‘sparkling sensation’ is the carbonation from the fermenting action of the bacteria. Sounds all normal to me as that is what I have always got and had everyone else describe.
Hi David,
thanks for your comment. I searched the internet and indeed many describe kefir as sparkling. My kefir usually is only slightly sparkling and somewhat sour. The “distinctively sparkling sensation” I tried to describe in the article was much stronger than that, it was just like taking the first sip of a new, cool, strongly carbonated water.
Thanks a bunch. I was wondering why my kefir was turning extremely sour and and just fstigue inducing. Now I know, washing I with cold tap water lol.
Tap water containing chlorine may cause problem to grains. Boiled and cold water is good. The best way is washed with cold milk prior to making second batch.