These are the kefir grains my family has used for years! Homemade Milk Kefir takes the crown for the king of probiotic foods. It has over fifty different strains of yeast and bacteria that are amazing for gut health! This is compared to around seven in yogurt.
Making milk kefir is super easy and only takes around 5 minutes per day! Donna Shwank at Cultured Food Life has an excellent Kefir Tutorial that I would recommend checking out.
We've found that blending the finished kefir for about 20sec on low in the blender after you strain out the grains makes it really nice and smooth!
Note: In the unlikely chance that your kefir grains dies in the first couple weeks from a mistake, let us know and we'll give you a free replacement!
You can also learn more about kefir, as well as find info on Troubleshooting and FAQs
Starting off, you may want to add a bit of sweetener or use a shorter 12hr culture time for a very mild and thin kefir. You can also second ferment kefir with a bit of added fruit to make it lighter and creamier as well as add a bit more carbonation. Or throw it in a smoothie to get all the benefits into your family without any fuss!
You can also strain your kefir to make kefir cheese which can replace sour cream and even cream cheese in a lot of recipes!
Check out this video that walks you through how to make kefir, as well as second fermenting and making kefir cheese.
Note: Donna now recommends using 2-3 cups of milk per tablespoon of kefir grains.
Americans spend $2-3 Billion on probiotic supplements every year! Most probiotic capsules have just a few strains of probiotics and around 5-10 billion CFU (colony forming units). Homemade kefir on the other hand has 30-50 different strains and can have up to 50 billion CFUs per cup (with some sources saying 500 billion).
Homemade kefir gives you WAY more probiotics than supplement capsules and is an excellent way to promote gut health in a cost-effective way! Give kefir a try – your gut will thank you!
Kefir has so many amazing benefits. Following are the benefits listed by Donna Shwank at Cultured Food Life:
- Kefir contains 30 - 50 major strains of friendly bacteria (probiotics) not commonly found in yogurt. Kefir is a turbo-charged energy-anti-biotic-colonic cleanser drink. Yogurt is a mild nutrient-rich drink that pre-digests the lactose helping the body better assimilate the good stuff.
- Digestion - Kefir can help you digest everything. Kefir's active yeast, good bacteria, and excess digestive enzymes provide more nutritive value than yogurt by helping digest the foods you eat. Constipation is a thing of the past. If you drink Kefir at night, no acid reflux.
- Eliminates constipation
- Reduces or eliminates allergies
- Reduces or eliminates asthma symptoms
- Reduces or eliminates cold and flu illnesses
- Cures acne
- Treats yeast infections
- Promotes a natural “good” feeling
- Effective as the strongest natural antibiotic without side effects
- Replenishes the body with good bacteria after antibiotic use
- Treats diarrhea
- Aids lactose intolerance
- Promotes deep sleep
- Heals ulcers
For more explination of the health benefits to drinking kefir, Donna goes into more detail in her "10 Reasons I Have Kefir Every Day"
(Note: if you are needing to limit histamines, exercise caution as cultured foods tend to be high in histamines)