Help...Milk Kefir not thickening

[Guest guest]

I've been making kefir for about 6 months now. It has always been thick and

turns out great. My grains have been growing and I have shared them with many

people.

About a week ago I went to strain my kefir from the grains and it was still

really runny like I had just added the milk. So I thought, maybe it hadn't been

24 hours yet (sometimes I forget if I started it in the morning, or the night

before). This was at night, so I let it go until the next morning. It still

looked the same.

I thought something was wrong, so I threw out that batch and started a new one.

The same thing happened, really runny. This time I noticed that my grains

looked like they were encased in what looked like the curd you get when the

kefir separates. And it smelt more yeasty than normal.

We went out of town for a few days and I took it with me. I noticed that on the

days that we were traveling in the car, it turned out just fine. I'm guessing

from the agitation.

Have any of you had this happen? It almost looks like the grains are getting

coated and then are unable to ferment the rest of the milk.

Please let me know if you have any idea of what is causing this.

Thanks,

Lori