Coconut Milk Kefir

About a year ago I had a go at making milk kefir. It worked well but I just didn't like the taste of it.

Then I started hearing about coconut milk kefir made from milk kefir grains. I tried it out and we love it! It's so much more palatable than the cow's milk version.

I use Ayam brand coconut milk as the only thing added to it is water. And, like with any kefir, stick with using plastic, wooden, or stainless steel utensils; and glass jars to ferment in (I like Fido jars because they're anaerobic).



I put 3 tins of coconut milk in a large container of warm (blood temp, no hotter!) water. I only do this because I live in a cold climate and always get that solid layer of cream on top). After 5 minutes I take them out, give them a good shake, open them up and tip the contents into a 1L Fido jar.

I rinse the grains off with water only when changing mediums -  going from cow's milk to coconut milk or vice versa.

Check the coconut milk isn't too hot and plop in the grains (the jar pictured here is really too large but I've run out of 1L jars at the moment). I put it in the pantry, out of direct sunlight, for 24 hours, giving it a good swirl every now and then.

After 24 hours I strain the grains out and put the coconut milk kefir in an airtight container in the fridge. Sometimes the kefir is so thick that it won't go through the strainer so I need to fish through it for the grains with a spoon (or clean fingers). I rinse the grains off lightly and put them in some fresh cows milk (the grains feed off the lactose so need to be kept in cow's milk between coconut batches).

We've been having the coconut milk kefir in our probiotic smoothies. Yum!  

Coconut Water Kefir and Milk Kefir

Recently I had a go at making coconut water kefir. I used 3 heaped tablespoons of our spare water kefir grains in 1L of coconut water (just from a long life carton). The first time I tried it, I let it ferment for 24 hours. That ended up being way too long for our tastes.

The second time I made it, I let it ferment for about 14 hours (I was aiming for 12 but forgot about it!). It was probably still a bit too sour for us. I added a splash of apple concentrate and it wasn't too bad, a bit like those sour sweets that you can buy.

When I make it again I'll maybe only use 1 heaped tablespoon of kefir grains and ferment for 8 or so hours.

Both times the kefir grains did not like the coconut water at all. By the end of the process they were squishy and starting to break down so I ended up throwing them out. Only use your excess grains when experimenting!!

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I also recently decided to have a go at making milk kefir. I got some awesome milk kefir grains from Tumbletree and popped them in some fresh milk in a Fido jar. 24 hours later the milk looked exactly like I'd read it should, the grains had done their thing. Only... well, also as I'd read, milk kefir seems to be an acquired taste. We gave it several tries, including in a smoothie, but just couldn't get past that kind of off-milk taste. As we're not really into dairy, it didn't seem worth pursuing so we passed the grains on to a friend.

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On a side note, last month marked 1 year since we received our water kefir grains (again from Tumbletree) and they are still going strong!