I've been making kefir a number of years, I used to use nonfat milk, strain off the whey, press what was left through a strainer (which is the part I ate - thick, creamy), rinse the grains & start a new batch. That was a lot of work and a lot of waste, and when I was given some new grains a few years later, they were quite large and sort of soft/rubbery, and I was taught a different method. Now I don't separate the whey when the kefir is ready (ready to me is when it's generally "separated" in the jar, whey on the bottom, kefir cultures and milk solids at the top). I shake to redistribute everything, pour through a strainer over a bowl, and fish through the solids that mostly stay in the strainer to pull the grains out with my fingers, then toss them in a new jar with new milk. I dump the solids into the whey, mix it up as best possible, and this makes perfectly good kefir, but a less than pleasing texture because it's lumpy.

For quite awhile the grains didn't seem to be multiplying, and they got like little hard rubber pellets. They still made kefir, but it took longer and not much seemed to be happening in terms of growth. I started using whole milk, keeping in a slightly warmer spot, and I think they're finally growing. The kefir is delicious, too, with the whole milk. The first few batches on whole milk took a long time to separate, and I didn't wait until it was really half and half, so to speak, in the jar. When I strained it, it was pretty creamy, and I was able to just kind of swirl and bang the strainer till everything went through but the grains, that was great, no fishing, which is a pain since these grains are tiny, now, and the kefir was smooth and creamy.

I've noticed pver the past year, with both the skim and whole milke, that the whey looks quite yellow. I frequently leave it a few more days because I'm busy, and then it turns more clear. The other day the kefir came up really fast because we had an unseasonably warm 2 days. It separated completely very fast after only about a day or two, the whey was still yellow, and it just didn't smell right to me - kind of off, but not "done," if that makes any sense. The milk solids were sort of cheesier (which I've seen before, usually just when I leave a batch sitting a few days after it's ready), and the only way to get the grains was to fish for them. The solids and whey didn't mix well together again, it was runny and lumpy at the same time. That's actually closer to the texture I've gotten used to over the past few years, but I got spoiled by those first couple of creamy batches with the whole milk and I want to figure out how to control the process to get that type of kefir. I threw that batch out and started over, and the new batch came up really fast again. It's still sitting on top of the polarizer on top of the fridge, the whey is still yellow, and I can tell this will be another lumpy batch.

Sorry this is such a long post, but if anyone's managed to get through it - can you advise on how I can get creamier batches, and what the yellow whey is about - whether that's normal or something I need to be concerned about. I saw something posted on Curezone awhile back - photos of vials of bloody, separated cow's milk, it was some kind of anti-dairy campaign, and it looked like yellow whey with pus and blood, gross. I don't have access to raw milk, so I use Organic Valley. Also, the texture of the grains has changed a lot - at one time they were almost like sheets and used to grow like crazy. I think it's got something to do with maturity or which organisms are proliferating at different times, but they've been like tiny little hard BB's for quite some time, now. Still makes kefir, but harder to work with.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!