I used a prepackaged starter packet and made kefir for a couple of months and all was well. I would take about 1/2 cup of the batch and use it to start another batch. I went out of town and the batch was spoiled so I stopped making it. Now I want to start all over with a new culture packet to make another kefir batch. I was wondering if you take some of the previous batch to make the new batch, won’t it eventually spoil over time? I don’t understand how continually using the previous sample that the milk would not become rancid. Maybe it is like sourdough starter and it never goes bad. Please help me understand the science behind this query. Thank you! Kathleen in Florida
Hi Kathleen,
The videos here explain the process well.
This video explains the fermentation process
This explainer is about the Kefir so click here to learn more
This explains how to reculture
In a few words, you simply need to grow the mix of the lactic bacteria and yeast. For this, you need to supply that live mix with the right conditions(food, temperature) for a certain time as in this way control their live cycle. You also need to protect the mix from contamination.
If your previous batch is off, you can start a new fresh one. The fresh things having the requirement to be fresh, so if you start fresh keep it like this. Later when the first batch is ready, you can reculture. We always advise our customers to get a few spoons from the first batch and keep this separated from the batch for consumption, so you will have always some ‘‘mother culture’’ to recultivate a new batch. Using the mother culture as a starter makes things easy as when reculture you can skip the first step of the fermentation which reduces the time for incubation.Every single starter can go off when contaminated.
Please have a look at the video animations, blog or website and post below as a reply if you have questions.