milk & honey ferment with champagne and kefir grain (scoby)

Ok...

This is a variation of the koumiss recipe https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/milk-mead-spin-koumiss-instruction-recipe-info-381045/ only this one is done using a combination of White Labs champagne yeast and milk Kefir grains.

Kefir grains are a new toy we were recently introduced to at our store. One of our patrons came in for ez cap bottles and inadvertantly got us started making kefir. We make both the water and milk kefir.

Milk kefir is a SCOBY fermented yogurt like beverage.

I mixed up about 10 oz of honey in 3 cups of water dissolved some yeast nutrient and white labs champagne yeast, then filled container with 12 oz of active milk kefir with a small bit of grain then topped up with new whole milk.

Will keep this one updated complete with progressive photos.

I am hoping to get higher alcohol (maybe even 5%?)

I know that the high alcohol will kill the grains, but it should not matter as they will have plenty of time to work before the champagne takes over.

Any thoughts?


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Do you have a smaller carboy, fill level quite low? Will be interesting to see what happens with milk kefir and honey, they usually do not like each other during fermenting process. Concerned the champagne yeast may kill off or be killed by the other yeasts that make up the milk kefir matrix. I am hooked on both kefirs, kombucha, jun & matsoni yogurt....so I love when people start experimenting.

This photo is 16 hours later.

Its starting to look like the koumiss milk-mead but with a huge kefir curd/yogurt on top.

As for the health of the microbes and kefir grains... not too worried. I think they got their head start and have done their work. Now I believe the champagne yeast will take over and proof the alcohol up to where in hoping.

I dont know why it keeps uploading my photos sideways...

what is that? Cheese? Looks like feta. Probably doesn't taste like feta.

Its a kefir yogurt curd on top of the mead. I stirred it and tasted yesterday. Tastes good, but not very alcoholic. I will let it continue to ferment and try it every few days.

I have not decided whether or not I will rack out the mead and secondary it alone or just let the whole mess ferment together for a week or so.

If it did not break I was going to leave it all together, however as you can see it has seperated.

MarshmallowBlue said:

what is that? Cheese? Looks like feta. Probably doesn't taste like feta.

Click to expand...

Oh, boozy goodness when the curds are strained. I blended with ham and crushed pineapple, a bit of green onion and watched a guest lick the serving plate. It was funny.

Jnco_hippie said:

Its a kefir yogurt curd on top of the mead. I stirred it and tasted yesterday. Tastes good, but not very alcoholic. I will let it continue to ferment and try it every few days.

Click to expand...

What was the SG of just honey and water?

Woke up this morning and found it has gone turbid. Looks like the champagne and other yeasts took over. Smells more boozy but I did not sample it tonight.

I dont know the sg of the honey and water. Mixture was about 1.5 cups honey to 2.5 cups water.

Im skeptical but hopeful as we await the end product.

Honey will kill your grains but I guess it don't matter since you planned on letting them die anyway with the hopes that they will do their job before it happens. My suggestion though would be to make your milk kefir normally with just the grains and milk, then strain the grains and add your Champaign yeast and extra sugar to a secondary ferment. Maybe instead of honey you can add some lactose like what is used for milk stouts or possibly powdered milk.

I had a mason jar full of milk kefir (grains removed) get pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten for I think about four or five months once and it smelled strongly of alcohol. That's with no other yeast or sugar source added.

Jnco_hippie said:

Its a kefir yogurt curd on top of the mead. I stirred it and tasted yesterday. Tastes good, but not very alcoholic. I will let it continue to ferment and try it every few days.

I have not decided whether or not I will rack out the mead and secondary it alone or just let the whole mess ferment together for a week or so.

If it did not break I was going to leave it all together, however as you can see it has seperated.

Click to expand...

The liquid on bottom is whey. This is what all milk kefir will look like if left to ferment for about a week at room temp.