Do I have to wash my kefir balls?

This is a tip that you sometimes find on the internet. Most of the time, however, it is actually more harmful than useful to wash your nodules with water, as many of the beneficial kefir cultures are washed away in the process. If you wash your kefir regularly, you can weaken the culture very much and probably the diversity of microorganisms will also suffer. We therefore recommend washing the kefir with water only in exceptional cases, e.g. if you have accidentally put milk that has gone bad on the nodules. Otherwise, you can simply sieve off the nodules after each cycle and add them directly to new milk.