@rpcutts
Do you make the kefir yourself?

I believe fermented stuff is good for digestion, and therefore having it early in the day is good. I have to admit that I eat my sauerkraut immediately after my breakfast, as otherwise, it makes my coffee taste funny. 😃

@fitheach nah, too lazy, get it from the shop :D

@rpcutts
One of the reasons I make fermented stuff is the live bacteria which you (usually) don't get with shop bought products.

@fitheach in the past I have been very tempted to make ginger beer. Maybe one day.

@rpcutts
When you say ginger beer, would that be alcoholic?

If this Brexit business ends in a complete disaster I'll be making my own whisky. That isn't an idle threat.😃

@fitheach it sure would. I even had a ginger beer plant (not even a plant, just a snotty blob of stuff) but never got around to using it.

@rpcutts
I always think of ginger beer as something "drivers" have when the passengers are drinking real beer.

Sounds interesting, you should do it.

@rpcutts
#TIL, not a plant.
>>>
The true Ginger Beer Plant dates back to around the 1700's and is not actually a plant at all, instead it is a living organism, best described by a man called Harry Marshall Ward as being "a composite organism consisting of a fungus, the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme)".
<<<

https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant

@rpcutts @fitheach I thought Kefir was a brand of yoghurt. Have I got it wrong all these years? Is it a specific concept?

@clacke @fitheach wouldn't be suprised if a brand had piggybacked on it. It's a generic term. Fremented milky drink.

@rpcutts @fitheach So it's just a synonym to yoghurt?

Spellcheck wants me to type yogurt. Looks odd to the Swedish eye.

@clacke @fitheach I mean, they are both cultured milk... so depends on your definition of synonymous, I guess... I don't know a lot about this stuff. Kefir is always thin like a drink (to my knowledge) and is made differently... fermented at room temp from a sour starter like sourdough for example.

@rpcutts @fitheach Sourmilk and yogurt are both cultured milk, but they are definitely different. I'm guessing the culture makes the difference. So is kefir a specific culture for fermenting milk and would it be inaccurate to take any old yogurt and call it kefir?

I thought all three were fermented at room temperature.

@clacke @fitheach
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ have hit the limits of my knowledge.

@clacke @fitheach what I do know is that this is bootiful

@rpcutts
Cherry? Ooh noo.

@clacke

@rpcutts @fitheach

"a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic symbiotic culture"

Cool, TIL.

@fitheach @rpcutts

"The kefir grains initiating the fermentation consist of a symbiotic culture of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts embedded in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides. The matrix is formed by microbial activity and resemble small cauliflower grains, with color ranging from white to creamy yellow."

Wow, special.

@clacke
Depends on your definition of room temperature. 😃 Different cultures like different temperatures.

I always spell yoghurt with an "h".

@rpcutts

@fitheach @clacke @rpcutts You definitely don't make yoghurt at Scottish room temperature! Hong Kong is closer to ideal (40C). You can vary down some, but 20-25 is too cold, at least for the cultures we have here in France.

@tfb
You need a mesophilic yoghurt culture, which is happiest at around 20-25°C

It does produce a slightly thinner yoghurt than the more typical thermophilic culture.

@clacke @rpcutts

@fitheach @clacke @rpcutts Thanks for the info!

@fitheach @rpcutts @tfb Ok. I just knew this Syrian family who would buy like ten liters of milk at the time, at good discount, add some culture, put it in the kitchen, and then have yoghurt for making real cheap ayran for weeks. I guess their yoghurt culture must have been an atypical mesophilic one then. 😀

@clacke
Probably. My OH makes yoghurt on a rolling basis; once she has finished eating one batch, the next batch is ready. She uses a culture that she gets from Bulgaria (thermophilic). Bulgaria seems to be the home of yoghurt cultures. It comes in powdered form. Once the first batch of yoghurt is made, you can then use some of it to inoculate the milk for the second batch, and so on. This only seems to work for about 4x, then you need new culture.

@rpcutts @tfb

@kline
Beer is fermented, but the fermentation (probiotics) is killed off. Otherwise you would have exploding bottles and cans on the shop shelves (and at home). You do get "live" beer, but that is either made at home or is a niche market.

Is Bru brewed? I don't think so.

@gemlog
My weakness, I'm a garlic fiend.