My GF put grains in a quart jar of milk in her fridge, AKA "the vegetable hospice," before the pandemic and forgot about them. When I recently mentioned making homemade kefir, she suggested I give the little zombies a try before buying new grains.
I washed them and put them in milk. After 24 hours it was clear that they had survived, but the milk didn't smell good. After a fresh milk bath and another 24 hours, they smelled better. After the third cycle they smelled pretty good and the milk tasted like, well, kefir or liquid yogurt. They're getting one more 24 hour bath in just a cup of milk, which I will consume if it smells and tastes OK.
Has anyone ever heard of grains surviving this kind of long term storage?
Hi. When grains are just left, they don’t starve, grains never starve, instead they go into stasis, they go into self protect mode due to poor conditions, usually very low ph.. Whatever bacteria and yeasts that are inside the grain housings remain protected. They reduce their metabolism to almost nil to self preserve. You might get some acidophilic bacteria (thrives at low ph) not in stasis which also doesn’t digest lactose either, get hungry and raid a few grains for galactose so they die off but on the whole, the grains survive. Just give them a quick rinse in milk to remove thick coatings, put in a small volume just like starting new grains and off you go. Just like starting new grains, smell and taste needs time to improve due to grains needing more time to become more active. It is fermented, preserved milk sitting at ph 3.8. Dangerous pathogens will be inhibited below ph4.5.