**Come learn how to store milk kefir grains when you’re wanting to take a break from culturing milk kefir!**

Guide to Freezing Milk Kefir Grains

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I love drinking milk kefir for all of its wonderful & healing health benefits, however I’ve found myself needing to take a break & it’s time to put the grains away for a little bit while I focus on some other gut healing protocols that are requiring me to take a break from all dairy. I covered quite a bit about all the wonderful benefits of milk kefir in the culturing dairy 101 blog post, which you can read HERE!

For the next few months I’m going to be following something called the Autoimmune Paleo protocol (AIP) and that means all dairy, including cultured, is off the table until my gut has had a chance to heal & my health is a bit more under control than it has been. This is the reason why I’ve been so quiet these last few months, but I’m happy to report things are getting much better health wise.

Knowing that I had to take this break with plans of drinking milk kefir again, I knew I wanted to store them in a way that preserved all of their probiotic goodness. When it comes to storing milk kefir grains long term you have 2 options, freezing & dehydrating. This blog post will cover the freezing method as I don’t have a proper food dehydrator at this time.

Regardless of whatever method you choose I will suggest that you make sure when storing grains you store them in the amounts you're going to need, not necessarily storing all the grains together. What I mean is if you have a full quarter cup of grains but only use 2 TBSP of grains when you’re culturing, store them in the 2 TBSP packages. You don’t want to have to try to separate out the desired amount when it’s time to start culturing them again.

This is also a great way to manage your kefir grains. I don’t know about your experience but I’ve had my grains get away from me a time or two & ended up with way more than I needed.

It’s also a great way to share your grains too with someone who is wanting to culture their own.

Before we get to the “how to” part of this post, let's address a few questions you may have about freezing kefir grains. If you have a question that is not addressed, please comment below this post with your question & I will answer it as soon as I can.

Does freezing milk kefir grains make them lose their potency?

While the freezing process slows down their activity, as long as you store & defrost them properly the grains will be fine. They are resilient little things that have managed to be in existence for centuries & they can not be created from scratch.

If you’re wanting to take a short term break of perhaps a few weeks I would suggest instead of freezing them, to just put them in a clean jar covered with milk in the refrigerator. I’ve used this method without issue when I’ve gone on holidays & didn’t think it was appropriate taking my grains with me.

How long can you freeze kefir grains for?

I’ve found they can freeze well for up to one year. If you freeze them longer you may run the risk of damaging the grains.

Can you freeze kefir grains in milk?

No, this is not recommended. Frozen milk separates & that separation may end up damaging the grains.

While it may not necessarily always damage your grains, we do want to try to keep them as happy as possible & from my experience the method I’m going to be sharing is the one I’ve had the most success with.

Can you rinse kefir grains with filtered water?

No, this could potentially damage the grains. If you ever need to rinse your milk kefir grains for any reason always use milk. When rinsing milk kefir grains you can just use milk straight from the refrigerator, there is no need to bring the temperature up like when you’re culturing dairy. Of course if you can get your hands on raw milk, that is the best to use, but I’ve never been able to actually acquire any due to some interesting Canadian laws regarding pasteurization.

Rinsing the grains with water removes the protective coating of beneficial bacteria & yeast which is imperative to the culturing process. It also may accidentally introduce a contaminant into the grains. We want to keep our grains as healthy, happy & vibrant as possible so they can pass on their probiotic goodness.

Guide to Freezing Milk Kefir Grains

Equipment:

Strainer
Bowl
Wooden or plastic spoon
Parchment paper
Tray for storage
Fresh milk for rinsing
Powdered milk for storing
2 Plastic storage bags
Sharpie to label & date the grains

Method:

Thoroughly rinse milk kefir grains with milk & drain
Lay them on a cookie sheet that is covered with a piece of clean, unbleached parchment paper
Dry at room temperature for 2-5 days. It’s important that you remove as much liquid as you possibly can from the grains. My grains took a 4 days to dry.
Place sheet in an area where it will not become contaminated
Once grains are thoroughly dried place grains in a plastic or glass bowl & add powdered milk to completely coat the grains
Place dried & coated grains in a ziplock bar. To prevent freezer burn double bag the kefir
Store in the freezer for up to 1 year

In a few months I will be sharing a guide on how to properly defrost milk kefir grains so be sure to come back for that!

Comment down below & let me know, what do you do when you need to take a break from culturing milk kefir?

Be sure to come back next week where I will be sharing a natural body formulation for a stick balm to use on dried or cracked skin