How To Make Kefir With Raw Milk

Learn how to make Kefir with raw milk in this tutorial, and the benefits of drinking kefir on a daily basis! Kefir is a powerful probiotic food and very simple to start your own at home.

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Growing up on my family’s dairy goat farm, I was introduced to Kefir early on. My parents read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, bought kefir grains, and consistently make kefir to this day.

When I started my husband and I started our family, I knew it was important to incorporate gut healthy foods into their diet. One simple was was to make Kefir with raw milk.

What is Kefir?

Kefir is a cultured milk product, very similar to yogurt. It is made by adding cultures called Kefir grains to raw milk and letting them culture the milk at room temperature for 8 – 24 hours.

The product produced after the culturing time is Kefir, which is tangy to the taste. After straining the Kefir grains from the Kefir, you can consume Kefir by itself, incorporate it into smoothies or simply add with fruit like you would yogurt.

What are the benefits for drinking Kefir?

There are many benefits to drinking raw milk Kefir because of the many probiotic, or healthy bacteria, in Kefir.

Some of them include:

• Improved gut health
• Ant-inflammatory properties
• Overall organ health including for the heart and liver.

How long does it take to feel the benefits of Kefir?

Regular consumption of Kefir could be up to 2 – 4 weeks before really seeing or feeling a lot of the benefits. For myself, however, when I notice my body right away feels better when I drink raw milk Kefir!

My gut feels satisfied, and I notice I’m less likely to reach for snacks that I shouldn’t have.

What is the best milk for Kefir?

The best milk to use for Kefir is whole milk from cows, goats and sheep. I learned to make Kefir with goat milk, and now use cow milk.

If you don’t have access to raw whole milk, you can use pasteurized milk to make kefir. I do not have experience making Kefir with pasteurized milk, but the steps I describe to make Kefir is the same.

I would argue that raw milk is the best milk to make Kefir, if you can. Since raw milk already has so many nutrients already that are bio-available, the process of making Kefir with raw milk just increases our body being able to absorb those nutrients.

Is goat milk Kefir better than cow milk Kefir?

Yes, goat milk Kefir is better than cow milk Kefir!

Growing up on a dairy goat farm, this is no surprise to me. Back then, only a few studies were done on the benefits of goat’s milk and many people were unsure about how good it was for your body.

Here are a few facts about goat’s milk:

• It contains higher magnesium and higher potassium
• Your body digests it easier and faster (It takes 20 minutes to digest goat’s milk, versus 1 hour to digest raw cow’s milk).
• It has less lactose (milk sugar) than cow’s milk, allowing people who have trouble with cow’s milk to drink it.

What do you need to make Kefir at home?

To begin making Kefir with raw milk at home, you will first need Kefir grains. Kefir grains, once very active, look like little white pebbles that contain the probiotic cultures to ferment the milk into Kefir. You will strain the Kefir grains out every time to start a new batch of Kefir.

If you ever get too many (because they will grow into many more!), you can pass them along to someone else or I like to incorporate them into our Kefir smoothies.

You will also need:

• A small strainer
• Two wide mouth quart mason jars or another glass jars (to keep the milk Kefir in, and another one to match another batch)
• A wooden spoon or a kitchen spoon

How do you make raw milk Kefir at home?

To start making Kefir, you need to add your active Kefir grains to a mason jar.

To the Kefir grains, add enough raw milk to fill the jar (about 3 cups). Cover the jar with the lid, loosely, and set aside on the counter top for 8 – 24 hours.

Avoid putting your raw milk Kefir in direct sunlight while it is culturing/fermenting, and preferably in a cool place.

At the end of 8 – 24 hours, the Kefir will look like it is separating. This is normal, but if you do not see it and it has been between 8 – 24 hours, that does not mean your Kefir hasn’t fermented.

If using cow milk, I see more separation easier than with goat milk. This is due to the cream in cow’s milk rising to the top with the Kefir grains.

If you are unsure if your Kefir is done, you can always strain off a little and taste it (it should be tangy and slightly sour like buttermilk). Otherwise, you can leave your Kefir sit for a little while longer.

When the Kefir is ready, put a small strainer in the mouth of your second mason jar to strain the Kefir out from the Kefir grains.

As you strain, stir it around in the strainer with a spoon. Sometimes the Kefir grains will act as a “clog” and prevent the Kefir from going through the strainer.

When the straining is complete, add your Kefir grains back the original jar (it can be cleaned again before you add them back, but it can be left as is for the next batch).

Fill the jar with the Kefir grains in it back up with milk and set aside again for another batch.

With the strained raw milk Kefir you just made, cover and place it in the refrigerator for consumption as is, use in a Kefir smoothie, or put some in a cup with fruit.

Notes

1. To slow down making Kefir, keep the Kefir in the refrigerator to ferment. Instead of 8 – 24 hours before changing it, it could between 36 – 48 hours.
2. Some people have mentioned avoiding metal lids when fermenting, because raw milk Kefir doesn’t do as well with metal contact. I have not had an issue with mine, but you can buy these plastic lids if you want to cover the jars instead.

What are your favorite ways to use raw milk Kefir? I would love to hear how you use this great probiotic food in your home!

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