I've had kefir grains off and on for 18 years. Once I forgot a quart jar in the back of my milk fridge for 6 months. There was a lot of whey, but grains had kept growing the whole time and were huge. Since the kefir smelled fine, I drank some... it's just cultured milk after all, lol.

It was fine, a little too tart to drink by itself after six months culturing, so I poured the whey off and strained the rest to make a tangy cream cheese substitute, seasoned with herbs and salt and pepper... garlic-dill is my favorite.

If you have too many grains, you can share them. As grains are fairly expensive to buy, I mailed quite a bit to various people on the cow forum for price of postage. Or you can sacrifice your extras to make soda kefir from grape or apple juice, a kind of sparkling wine or apple beer, but the grains won't work for milk afterwards.

Or, if you have them, chickens and dogs love both kefir and grains! Or, YOU can eat them... they're fine blended up in a smoothie!

That reminds me... my kefir grains are getting too big, too. lol