Water Kefir grains, like most ferments, are incredibly hard to kill. I’ve been brewing water kefir for years and neglected them in almost every way possible, yet I’ve never actually killed them off. It is possible, but not probable.
Did your water kefir grains go bad? Water Kefir grains are resilient and take a long time to die and go bad. If your kefir grains are brown and getting smaller, they’re unhealthy, but alive. When they die, they break down completely. If you have water kefir grains left, there is hope you can revive them and stop them from going bad.
There are some warning signs that you should watch out for that indicate that your water kefir grains are not doing well. If you can identify these warning signs and act quickly, you’ll never have this issue again. Based on this information, you can also decide if you want to revive your struggling water kefir grains that are going bad or if you want to just start fresh with brand new grains.
It’s Really Hard to Kill Water Kefir Grains
Killing water kefir grains is incredibly difficult. It really takes a lot of work to kill off these fermentation powerhouses. If you are caring for your grains at all, it’s likely that at most, your grains need some TLC because they’re stressed, but they’re still very much alive.
The key points to look out for when trying to determine if your water kefir grains have gone bad or if they’re just stressed are:
- missed feedings
- presence or absence of grains
- color change in the grains not connected to a change in feed source
- volume of grains decreasing
- size of grains shrinking
The following troubleshooting tips are most effective for an existing, healthy set of water kefir grains. If you’re just rehydrating a new set of grains, it will take a while for them to get bigger and drop their off-color (a result of being dehydrated with a raw sugar food source). Rehydrating grains is a topic for another article.
Run through these questions to troubleshoot your water kefir grain issues and see if they are really going bad or if you just need to adjust the way you care for them.
Are There Grains Left in Your Jar?
Water kefir grains are living organisms that are a combination of bacteria and yeasts that live within a translucent grouping in what we call “grains.” These grains are built up and broken down by the living organisms within them. When water kefir grains die and go bad, they break down completely into minuscule specks and dissolve.
The structure of the grains is created and maintained by these living organisms. If the organisms die, they no longer maintain this little “house” so it breaks down. This happens naturally over the course of the lifespan of each grain, but should not really be a noticeable problem when your grains are healthy.
If you still see grains in your jar that aren’t just little specks, your grains are still alive. If you don’t have any grains left, then you have to start over from scratch with new grains. If you still have grains, go through the rest of these troubleshooting questions to make sure your grains are healthy and thriving.
Did You Miss a Feeding?
It happens. You think you’ve got a good routine down but you realize you haven’t fed your water kefir grains for a day. Or two. Or a week. Did you kill them?
Unless it’s 100 degrees+ in your house, your grains are out at room temperature, and you’ve missed many days of feeding, you are probably safe.
Average fermenting time at room temperature (65-75 degrees Fahrenheit, around 20 degrees Celsius) is between 24-48 hours. I prefer 48 hours personally, so if you normally feed daily and you missed one day, you are golden and can stop reading.
If you’ve missed 3 days or more, you’re still golden – unless it’s over two weeks. For 3 days-2 weeks, instead of bottling your water kefir (the fermented liquid part, of course), throw it on the compost pile or down the drain because it’s going to be very sour, over-fermented, possibly alcoholic, and have no living probiotics. If you’re closer to the day three-five mark, you may smell or taste it and decide to bottle it – totally up to you. Any longer than that, I suggest just tossing it.
At this point, your grains are definitely still alive but also very stressed from lack of food with a possible imbalance of bacteria:yeast starting. Monitor your grains closely for the next few feedings to see if they are behaving normally or seem sluggish. If they seem sluggish, toss the resulting water kefir and continue normal feedings until they’re back to normal. Read the rest of the troubleshooting tips below and then go feed your grains!
If you have missed more than two weeks of feeding or your house is very hot, your grains will be extremely stressed and may be starting to die off. You can probably recover from this if you follow the steps to revive your grains, but keep reading below to make sure you know what’s all going on.
Are Your Water Kefir Grains Brown or White?
Water Kefir grains should be translucent and mostly clear when they’re healthy. They may be slightly tinted depending on the type of food you’re giving, for example if you feed an unrefined sugar or supplement with molasses for additional minerals. But they should still be translucent and be bright and kind of shiny.
If your grains are brown but not translucent, it’s a sign that your grains are not healthy and you need to make some changes in the way you care for them before they completely die off over time. If some of your grains are brown but others look healthy (and you haven’t been reviving them already), then you should look at what you’re feeding your grains and your water kefir system because some of your grains are dying off.
When healthy grains die off at the end of their lifespan, they don’t turn brown and then dissolve, they just slowly break down. If your grains are turning brown, they are stressed and struggling and need some intervention! This is one of the strongest indicators that your grains are not doing well and are dying off.
Are Your Water Kefir Grains Disappearing?
Water Kefir grains naturally break down and disappear over time as they reach the end of their lifespan. However, they should be replaced by other grains at a similar rate, so you shouldn’t really notice that the amount of grains you have is diminishing.
If you visibly notice that the amount of grains you have is decreasing, start measuring the grains at every feeding and keep track. If they are indeed disappearing faster than they’re reproducing, it’s a sign of unhealthy grains.
Either the existing grains are unhealthy and dying, or else the existing grains are not strong enough to reproduce and maintain their volume. Whichever the case is, it’s time to change your water kefir routine and get your grains healthy and thriving again.
Are Your Water Kefir Grains Getting Smaller or Larger?
In general, water kefir grain size doesn’t really matter. Sometimes the grains clump together as they form and make a larger one and sometimes they stay separated. If you stir your water kefir with the grains still in it, it will artificially break up the grain clumps into smaller pieces. This is all normal.
Water kefir grains also naturally break down and get smaller as they age and eventually die off. This process is natural and normal as long as they are translucent, the total volume of grains isn’t decreasing regularly, and the grains are (on average) the size of a pea or larger.
If your grains are all smaller than a pea, this means that the whole set of them are dying off simultaneously and you need to step in and revamp your water kefir routine to help them recover before it’s too late.
So, Now What Do You Do?
If you previously healthy grains are now going through a tough time and after reading these questions, you’ve decided that – yes – they are stressed and need help, you have two options.
You can choose to revive your water kefir grains and get them healthy again or else you can choose to start fresh with a brand new set of water kefir grains and you’ll do better this time. I’ve done both depending on the situation and they are both valid options.
If most of the answers you got from the troubleshooting questions show that your grains are probably very unhealthy and on their way out, it will take weeks and possibly even a couple months before they are healthy and producing drinkable kefir again. In this scenario, it may make the most sense to you to cut your losses and start over unless you just like to experiment or are particularly attached to your grains.
If you find that your grains are probably stressed but not overly so, you can follow some simple steps to revive your grains by feeding them on a regular schedule with fresh food every 48 hours max and providing multiple sources of food for them, not just white or raw sugar. While you’re reviving your grains, you should be tossing the resulting water kefir until the grains are healthy and acting normally again.
