The first thing I did was slowly strain the fermented milk with the kefir grains through a fine mesh stainless steel strainer into jar number 2.
The majority of the milk kefir grains remained in the first jar. This made weighing the grains impossible.
The small amount of grains that did make it into the strainer were simply removed by hand and added back to the first mason jar. After only 24 hours, the amount of kefir grains in the jar look much larger than when they arrived in the mail. It appears as though they worked like a sponge absorbing all they could and expanding at the bottom.
A small amount of milk remains with the grains after they have been strained into jar number 2. This helps with the microbial colonization as well as PH levels.
As the milk kefir is still very small and in a new environment, store bought pasteurized whole milk was chosen. This is for a number of reasons. The main ones being that it is much cheaper to "waste" store bought milk to bring the kefir up to par, than it is to use certified organic raw cow's milk. The second reason for using small amounts of pasteurized milk is to give the milk kefir grains a full advantage. As store bought milk is essentially "dead", it will provide little competition in the form of live microbial action for survival against the kefir grains. This allows the kefir to have a stronger microbial presence in a smaller quantity of milk which helps ensure a stronger colony and limits any potential interference.
I will not be rinsing my grains between batches as this goes against traditional methods and can negatively interfere with both the PH and the growth rate.
Once the grains are producing full separation of curd and whey in the grain free second jar, the transition to raw milk will be made. Until then, it's cheaper, easier and safer to use store bought milk. It will be thrown away anyway as I wont be drinking it until it has transitioned to raw milk.
