It is also a total mystery to me. And I have been making my own yogurt for years, not counting all the years we made it while I was growing up. I am not new to fermenting milk. This is just a different beast...
I bought some dried milk kefir grains. They were packed in powdered milk. So my first task has been to rehydrate and prepare the grains for use. This is supposed to take a week or so.
I added a cup of cold whole milk, per instructions, covered it with a coffee filter, and set it in the water heater closet. It's cold in our kitchen.
Twenty-four hours later, I strained it (in a non-reactive strainer), put the grains in a fresh jar and added more milk. All was going according to plan.
Well... Next day I pulled out the jar, and it had completely separated into curds and whey. Smelled sour and yeasty (which it's supposed to at this stage), but it's not supposed to be like this. I had to stir it all together and strain it about a hundred times, adding a little fresh milk, before I could separate out the grains.
Thought maybe it was too warm. Put it in the cabinet with the dishes, but it still separated quite a bit. So I thought maybe the grains are growing faster than expected and need more milk. That seems to have helped. The last time I changed it out, it had a layer of yeasty foam and was smelling cleaner. Less separation. Hopefully, we're almost there...
Will continue to update as we go...
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