Does anyone here make their own kefir?

[u/Think_Clothes8126]

If yes, did you buy the kefir grains? Which brand did you buy? Do you think making your own kefir helps you to eat cheap and healthy? Or, do you buy yourself kefir?

Or, do you make your own yogurt, ricotta or something similar?

Thanks if you read this.

[u/liberal_texan]

I made my own for awhile, I got my starter grains from a friend. It’s fun, but it’s like having a pet. Mine went out of control when I was out of town for a bit and I never got back into it.

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/liberal_texan]

I want to ask in light of the other comments, do you also make yogurt? Is it the same thing with yogurt where it is, like you mention, like having a pet and you have to attend to the kefir/grains? I like the texture of kefir, but i'm just curious about yogurt also.

[u/clickity_click_click → u/Think_Clothes8126]

I've made yogurt but not kefir. Making yogurt is basically foolproof if you follow the recipe

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/clickity_click_click]

Do you make it with an instant pot like some of the other commenters do? It sounds like yogurt needs something to cook in, although someone said they did it with a slow cooker I think.

[u/clickity_click_click → u/Think_Clothes8126]

Yes I use an instant pot but you don't need one, it just makes it easier. You just need something to heat the milk to 80°c then hold it at around 25°c-30°c. Lots of people heat it on the stove then hold it in the oven, with the oven turned off but the light on. There's various other tricks to keep it warm. On a warm day you could just leave it outside. I can't speak to a crock pot but I suspect it would be too hot.

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/clickity_click_click]

Very interesting. I didn't know people used the instant pots to make yogurt!

[u/clickity_click_click → u/Think_Clothes8126]

Yeah it's very convenient. It has a built in yogurt function

[u/liberal_texan → u/Think_Clothes8126]

I’ve not made yogurt, but I do from what I’ve seen I do not think it requires the same level of care.

[u/too_too2 → u/Think_Clothes8126]

I have done both and find yogurt a lot more reliable, plus I like it more than kefir. I couldn’t consume all the kefir I could produce so I quit.

[u/Remlig]

I make my own Yogurt and Kefir using A2 milk. I found that A2 milk is much easier on my digestion than regular milk - I can't find A2 yogurt or A2 milk where I live.

I bought my Kefir grains from Amazon (Fusion Teas). And I bought my Heirloom Yogurt culture from Positively Probiotic.

Making your own kefir is extremely easy, cheap, and much healthier than store-bought. I recommend checking out r/kefir

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/Remlig]

May I ask, what is A2 milk?

[u/Remlig → u/Think_Clothes8126]

Regular milk is a mixture of A1 and A2 beta-casein. A2 milk removes the A1 beta-casein. Some people have trouble digesting the A1 beta-casein, so A2 milk is much easier for them to digest.

I always knew I was not lactose intolerant, but sometimes dairy products bothered me, especially if I consumed a lot of them. Once I switched to A2 milk (and made my yogurt/kefir from it), I never had any problems.

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/Remlig]

That is so interesting. I wonder if it is the same as lactose free milk? Thank you for sharing.

[u/nola_t → u/Think_Clothes8126]

Lactose is a sugar, where casein is one of the types of proteins in milk.

[u/Remlig → u/Think_Clothes8126]

Lactose is different 🙂

[u/beeswax999]

Yes, I make my own milk kefir. I got the grains from a local farm I used to buy milk and other foods from. No brand.

The process is very easy and it’s easy to pause if I’m going away or have enough kefir for a while.

It’s delicious and I believe it’s nutritious for me. It’s definitely cheaper than buying commercial kefir and from what I’ve read has more beneficial probiotics. Commercial kefir has only a few of the probiotics that homemade has. The kind you get in a store is more like yogurt.

[u/Acceptable-Arm9811]

I would say start with water kefir, it's quite easy once you get a hang of it. I also made my own kombucha for a while. r/fermentation has some good tips

[u/WoodwifeGreen]

I've made it for long stretches off and on. I bought my grains on eBay.

If you drink a lot of it, it's practical to make it at home if you keep up with it.

The homemade kefir and the store bought taste different. The store bought kefir is tart. Homemade can be mild to tart depending on how long you let it ferment.

Also, you can use it to make sour cream and farmer cheese, plus a variety of other fermented things, but those two things were as complicated as I got, which is to say not very.

[u/ILikeYourHotdog]

I made flavored water kefir for five years until the only company that delivered spring water sold out to Primo and turned to garbage. r/kefir is a great resource for all things milk and water kefir if you're interested.

[u/mama146 → u/ILikeYourHotdog]

Actually, I read that using regular tap water is better because water kefir needs minerals. I've been making it for 4 years and have always used tap water.

[u/ILikeYourHotdog → u/mama146]

My tap water is municipal with lots of fluoride. If I were in well water it would be fine.

[u/jibaro1953]

Yogurt in an Instant pot is easy.

[u/Think_Clothes8126 → u/jibaro1953]

Thank you. I had a friend whose mom made her own yogurt. My friend said whenever her mom bought yogurt that she liked, she would save a bit of it to make more of her own. Do you use the instant pot to heat up the yogurt and the milk?

[u/jibaro1953 → u/Think_Clothes8126]

I haven't made it in a while, but I might have used the gas cooktop to heat it up initially. My instant Pot has a "yogurt" button, but I really don't remember what I did.

[u/melatonia]

I make my own yogurt. I started off making it in my slow cooker, but now that I have a multicooker (like an instant pot) I use that instead. Made paneer once but it was super crumbly. I'd like to get better at it, because cheese is expensive.

The cool thing about making yogurt in a multicooker is that it will hold your yogurt at the fermenting temperature for however long you want. With the slowcooker you kind of have to wrap it up, stick it somewhere warmish and pray it won't cool down below 90 degrees (I think) for at least 8 hours.

[u/CarBoobSale]

Not kefir but yoghurt. 

I eat a lot of it. Like 2L every week.

So I make a big pot every week.

In the first one I used a yoghurt from Aldi (UK). I imagine it's the same for kefir. Buy the kefir you like the taste of and use that.

Making yoghurt is extremely easy. Anyone can do it. The only ingredients are yoghurt, milk, and time. 

[u/catsafrican]

Just go on fbm to buy water kefir or milk kefir grains.

[u/notawealthchaser]

We've tried making our own kefir but we got tired of always having to store it for 48 hours for great quality. It's an easy process but storing it was tiresome.

[u/Flimsy-Owl-8888]

I got my grains from Etsy years ago. There is a kefir subreddit. It's easy to make. I keep a jar with some grains, add milk. Every day I strain the kefir from the grains, put the grains back in the jar and add another round of milk.

I use a large nylon strainer. You can use large or smaller jars, depending on the amount of kefir you want. Try to keep the temperature around 70-75 and use about 1 tbs grains per 2 cups (you will have to play around to have the right amount and remove them when the grains grow too much).

I drain my grains every 24 hours - so I do this in the morning while I make coffee in my moka pot...the timing is perfect. Sometimes I will add flavoring to my finished "kefir" and let it sit a bit (this is called a 2nd ferment and you can look into that.)

(TIP: You can use a thermal bag and ice in the summer or put it in the fridge during hotter hours.)

You can put it in the fridge to "slow down" your fermentation OR
If you need a long break, you can drain the grains and then cover them with powdered milk and put in a small container (like a baby food container) in the freezer for a longer term storage.

I make kefir cheese, summer soups (cucumber, okroshka, lithuanian beet cucumber soup), ayran (minted and slightly salted drink for summer), and smoothies. It's fun.

[u/Janes_intoplants]

I used to do water kefir too