A Guide to the Kefir Art Form Kefir is one of the greatest foods on earth for healing the gut and ensuring a strong immune system, and ideally should be made from raw milk. If you don't have access to raw milk, using quality brands of pasteurized un-homogenized grass fed organic milk can still be healthy and valuable, just not ideal. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. There are many people who have experienced tremendous benefits from homemade kefir with pasteurized milk, along with variations like water or coconut milk kefir. Raw milk kefir will always be the best though in my opinion. Making perfect kefir will take some practice, but once you got it down, you will become so addicted to it and it's flavors. Often times people don't like it at first because it can be sour or tangy, but if they drink it few a few days, they will quickly find that they start craving it and loving it. I think this is the good bacteria populating the gut and sending signals to your brain for more of the goodness. Supplies you'll need -> 1/2 gal glass mason jars -> 1 QT mason jars (store grains) ->Cheese cloth ->Rubber bands or string to hold cheese cloth ->Strainer (Nylon mesh, metal can alter flavor) ->Wooden spoon (again, no metal) ->Kefir grains Optional supplies for consistency and perfection ->Heat mat or sous vide setup to control the exact temperature (I think the best kefir is made at 68-70F) Starting and maintaining your grains -> Before you start making kefir, you need to get some grains and wake em up. When you first get grains, you don't want to try and make kefir with them right away. it's going to take several batches to wake them up and grow enough to make your first batch of 1/2 or 1 gal worth of kefir. -> All you do to get your grains ready and growing is 3-4 batches where you let them sit in milk at room temp for a couple days, strain them, and then put them in fresh milk again to repeat the process. Do this a few times and they're awake generally. -> When you're done making kefir and you have grains left over, they'll continue to grow and grow as you make more batches, so you'll need to store them, eat them, or throw them away. You can keep them in a small amount of fresh milk in the fridge for 1-2 weeks or so before you want to replace the milk. Any grains you take out of the fridge for a new batch of kefir, need at least 1 tiny wakeup batch with a small amount of milk if you want to preserve the flavor, but honestly it still works fine straight from the fridge. All I've noticed with that is some inconsistency in the tangy flavor and thickness, but it depends on what time of year it is. If they were frozen, then you should do at least 2-3 wakeup batches bare minimum, or it will be much more yeasty than you will like. Fermentation -> The fermentation duration is contingent on the temperature and amount of grains in the milk. The warmer the temperature, the faster the fermentation, with a lesser likelihood of it being thick and separating too fast into cheese and whey. My perfect temperature for thick kefir is 68F for 3-4 days, but I like mine sour and tangy. Your taste preferences may like only 2 days of fermentation, while others like 5 days for it to be extra sour. This will take trial and experimentation to work out. ->For the amount of grains, you want around .5-1tbs per QT of milk, so if you're using 1/2 gal glass jars, you want at least 2-3tbs of kefir grains bare minimum. Make sure not to overfill the jars with milk and grains as well, as the kefir might expand and come out the top and make a mess. -> Never completely seal the lid on fermenting kefir, or you will bust a jar and make it more alcoholic. Use cheesecloth with a rubber band so it can breath and release gas, or just a lose fitting lid. -> After a couple days of fermentation, you will start to see streaks of whey throughout. This is a good sign and means it's propagating throughout the milk as it should. I used to shake my kefir lightly once I saw the streaks of whey touch the bottom on day 1.5-2 or so, but now I just tamp/mix the top with a wooden spoon, pressing down the grains and fat that has risen to the top and not disturbing the rest of the jar. If you shake the kefir too hard, it will sperate super fast into curd and whey and lose thickness. Straining -> There is some debate on straining immediately after fermentation or after it's sat in the fridge for a bit, and I prefer the latter. I've noticed my kefir ends up a lot thicker when I take it straight from fermentation into the fridge before straining out the grains, leaving it for a few days to thicken up. To do this, you'll need a decent amount of grains on a rotation, so you probably won't be able to do this at first if you want to keep a batch going all the time as you drink it. -> At the very least after you make kefir, let it spend 24-48 hours in the fridge, with or without grains. It'll thicken up and improve the flavor. Rules and tips -> Never wash grains under water unless something is wrong and you want to start over with their culture, requiring more wake up batches to repopulate. Never use tap or well water, distilled only. -> Avoid storing in plastic, only glass. Kefir is acidic and plastic alters the flavor in my experience, probably leaching microplastics. -> Once you got your kefir artform down and you are making it on a schedule, you may have the chance to bank some kefir in the fridge to age for longer. Some of the literal best tasting kefir I've ever had, has been from a longer fridge ferment/aging time. Similar to dry aging meat to improve flavor, you can do the same with kefir. Some might find it gross, others love it. Worth experimenting and seeing if you like it. My favorite batch of kefir of all time was a 3 month age. It tasted like liquid parmesan cheese and was insanely umami and delicious. I will be sharing affiliate links below for supplies if you want to support me, or you can buy most of them locally from the store. The only thing I 100% suggest getting is my link for the kefir grains. It's a really good lineage and everyone I've ever helped make kefir has started with this lineage with great success. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.