#102 

But he didn't drink it immediately did he? I had to say drink up. While I was drinking, he was looking at me with that face - do i have to? We normally drink the 2nd kefir drink before dinner and when i said, i want to film it, he's like all super awkward lol. What do i do with the leftover watery kefir after i scooped out the thicker part on top - i drink it hahah. I don't scoop all the kefir up, i just scoop like half. So there's still plenty kefir left but it will be like milk watery. That is why you can see some of my kefir looked quite watery. I'd either drink it as it is or use it for breakfast smoothie. When i strain kefir to make kefir cheese, i'd end up with a good amount of kefir whey - i will throw that into my smoothie too. Few times i used the whey to ferment fruit juices to make kefir soda (I learnt that from Donna. She didn't have a video on how to, but she mentioned it and have a blog on how to do it) U know what - since May, my strained kefir does not separate like in my video anymore. I kinda miss it because...i can't make desserts anymore! All my bottles do not have separation anymore and it's thick, but not super thick like separated kefir with whey at the bottom. Not thick enough to make layers like triffle. I don't know what happened but a few things i can think of - 1) i switched to closed lid fermenting like Donna sometime in Feb/March instead of the open lid with cloth on top 2) i dropped the temperature of my fridge so that it is colder 3)I keep eating my grains as they grow, maybe i ate the bacteria or yeast that causes the separation These days, when I open my lid to strain the kefir, it doesn't have crater-like curds floating on top anymore, as per my kefir making video. The top is now smooth, slimy like silken tofu. I could have killed some yeast that caused the floating curds with my anaerobic fermentation. How did your bottles of strained kefir looked like in the fridge?

@@lebooshdiaries When I got on to that certain kefir-fermenting routine I finally hit on, which worked out to give me the same results just about every single time, I stuck with that, because I was going for the uniform-thickness kefir without breaking down into watery whey. I would watch the clock and check on it to make sure that when I first saw the very beginnings of that bubble-look down in the lowest inch of the jars, it was time to strain it. Sometimes I didn't catch it at the exact moment and it would just start to break down and separate more, but if I waited much past that, then it would go on and break up into the really liquidy whey. I didn't want that because it changed the consistency and flavor that I was going for. I also found that it depended on which season it was as to how long I had to leave it until time to strain. In the hotter summer months, it would ferment too quickly and would be separating before 24 hours even elapsed, whereas in cold winter it could be several days until ready! But most of the year, it stayed about the same without extremes, which I think was 2 days until it was time to strain. For me, the environment temperature had everything to do with how long it took before breaking down and separating. I never did try the open lid with cloth on top; from the beginning I always used the full lid screwed almost all the way down, but not quite. Huh, I can't quite picture what you described when it's time to strain now with a smooth, slimy top. I always had the bumpy thick curds floating on top. My bottles of strained kefir in the fridge would last ages and ages, it seemed, without anything bad happening. So sometimes I would collect too many finished mason jars in there that I needed to get through. What I ended up doing to keep from having to make more kefir (keep the grains alive and going) that I would then have trouble drinking, was to put the strained grains into a very small glass jar, add just about a half-cup of milk, tighten the lid down all the way and store it right in the coldest part of the fridge. I would check on it in about a week's time to see if they still looked OK, but if the milk began to have that separated look, then I would just add more fresh milk to last longer if I still wasn't ready yet to make more kefir. Once I was finally ready to use those grains to start more kefir, then I would drain off that fermented milk, put the grains in new clean mason jars, and add fresh milk to start the new fermenting process. I never wasted the small amount of fermented milk that was kefir-like that I drained off; I would put it in the dogs' meals like 1 Tablespoon at a time. They loved kefir very much. It's hard now to remember exactly what that drained liquid was like; but I believe it was mostly like kefir, except not quite as thick, and the flavor was a little different and not as good as what I was normally going for. So I suppose the grains were doing the same thing, making kefir, out of that small amount of milk, but since it was in the cold fridge at the time, it just did it very, very, very slowly. About your last question, my bottles of strained kefir in the fridge were always, to me, about perfect in consistency for drinking - not too thin and not super-thick either. (Super-thick would be really good, but they just weren't like that.) I would always shake the bottle and then open it and pour, and it came out with the consistency of a milkshake, medium in thickness.

@@SunrayStar It's great when u have cold season and it ferments slowly. Here, i can't even watch the clock. I strain in the morning, put in fresh milk and when I wake up at 6.30am, it's already separating. But I can't strain till later at 8am because I have to feed the cats, scoop litter boxes, bring them down to the garden and watch them. When I had been boiling my utensils and jars, i had to let them cool down, which meant i could only start straining around 8.30 or 9am. By that time, the kefir had separated even more.The beginnings of the bubble starts somewhere at 4am. I can never catch that. Only time i can catch it is on Sunday, when I bring out my kefir from the fridge from their resting state at 3pm to pour fresh milk and start the fermentation process for the new week. I normally ferment from Sunday to Thurs. On thurs after the final strain, i will put them into the fridge with an adequate amount of milk and keep them there thru fri, sat and sunday till 3pm. That gives me some rest time and allow me to focus on house cleaning. Just imagine smooth/silken tofu. U never had it before? It's just so soft and silky. That is what i have now vs the bumpy curds i had before. i believe it's because i mainly do anaerobic fermentation now instead of the cloth on top open style.... so prob some or most of the yeast has died. Sigh. Do I want more yeast or bacteria? I chose bacteria. But I know there are some really beneficial yeasts in there. I guess if I want to have best of both worlds, i need to do one with close lid and another one with open lid. 2 fermentation jars at the same time! My husband would think i've gone crazy because the amount of milk we need to buy.... When your kefir grows, do you eat them?

Hey! Are u back from your cruise? Haven't had time to check out your videos yet. I hope you and family had fun! Kefir is a very old method of fermenting milk with grains. The grains are billions of microorganisms that eat the lactose and then produce probiotics that is easily digestible by our body. Once you convert milk into kefir, it has almost no lactose which is great because it's sugar free and doesn't hurt the stomach for those who are lactose intolerant. If you find it in the stores, try one! It's like yoghurt, but in a drinkable form. But homemade ones are the best as the probiotics are fresh and most potent. Not a fan of coffee too, but strangely, once in a while it's ok. le Poo always makes me smile when she sits like a human lol.

@@lebooshdiaries Yep, we're back from our cruise 😊 I'm going to be alternating between our USA holiday videos and the Disney cruise holiday. That way the cruise will still be uploaded within a decent time frame.... lol

@@OurBusyAussieFamilyOBAF2 that is a good idea! looking forward to see what is in the cruise by this coming weekend!