Water Kefir Grains not working (I think)

[Guest guest]

Hello Group,

I could use some assistance. I recently received my water kefir grains from a

fellow group member and am having trouble making kefir.

My current recipe: 2 quarts of Brita water, 1/2 cup of grains, 1/2 cup of white

sugar, 1-2 tsp of molasses (to replace the minerals lost in the brita filter).

The room is ~70 degrees F. The glass jar is covered with a coffee filter.

Since the grains were sent through the mail for a few days, I dumped the first

two batches of kefir. With the third batch, I saw a good amount of bubbles but

let it sit for ~48 hours because it still tasted very sweet after 24 hours. At

~48 hours, it still tasted fairly sweet. Does it ever reach a semi-sour taste or

will it be sweet? Right now I'm drinking the kefir from the third batch, but

it's sweeter than I would have expected (I've never had kefir before so I'm not

sure what it should taste like). It actually tastes very similar to the sugar

water mixture. Part of me thinks the grains aren't doing anything...is that even

possible?

My fourth batch has now been brewing for 72 hours and is still very sweet.

Again, it tastes just like the sugar water mixture. What am I doing wrong?

Yemoos.com claims using half a lemon to aid in lowering the ph of the medium.

Should I do that?

Thanks,

Tim