This is fantastic, thank you for sharing!! I got into water kefir at the beginning of the year (as an alternate to kombucha). My grains did die after a break in the fridge while I was traveling (maybe three weeks?). I've been hesitant to start again as I expect to need weeks-long breaks over time, do you think the grains were not mature enough to handle the time in the fridge?
Thank you for the kind words and I am so sorry your grains died. It definitely is something that seems to happen more frequently with kefir grains than SCOBYs. The grains might have already been unhealthy by the time they went in the fridge or maybe next time adjust the sugar ratio to be a little higher, so there is more food for the grains when you travel for longer periods of time.
Last time I was away for about 4 weeks, I increased the sugar % to 15%. It took a couple of feedings to get them back on track, but usually they come back to their regular activity once that feeding schedule is restored.
Sometimes the kefir grains we get are already unhealthy, how were they behaving before your left? Were you getting consistent results?
I recently gave a bunch away otherwise I would have offered to send you some! Let me know how it goes and we can troubleshoot together.
This is fantastic, thank you for sharing!! I got into water kefir at the beginning of the year (as an alternate to kombucha). My grains did die after a break in the fridge while I was traveling (maybe three weeks?). I've been hesitant to start again as I expect to need weeks-long breaks over time, do you think the grains were not mature enough to handle the time in the fridge?
And thank you for sharing those FB groups!
Hi Kara,
Thank you for the kind words and I am so sorry your grains died. It definitely is something that seems to happen more frequently with kefir grains than SCOBYs. The grains might have already been unhealthy by the time they went in the fridge or maybe next time adjust the sugar ratio to be a little higher, so there is more food for the grains when you travel for longer periods of time.
Last time I was away for about 4 weeks, I increased the sugar % to 15%. It took a couple of feedings to get them back on track, but usually they come back to their regular activity once that feeding schedule is restored.
Sometimes the kefir grains we get are already unhealthy, how were they behaving before your left? Were you getting consistent results?
I recently gave a bunch away otherwise I would have offered to send you some! Let me know how it goes and we can troubleshoot together.