looking for kefir making friends

kayemme

I am brand new to making it and I've got so many questions, and I've done a fair amount of googlin' but I just feel like I want to talk with experienced folk.

For instance,

I'm babysitting some kefir grains for a friend while he's "off dairy" for a bit. When he brought them over, he also brought your instructions & booklet, so I"m assuming he got them from you.

I made some with his (commercial, probably pasteurized) goat milk, but I was skeptical because I was brand new to the whole idea. So I did a little googlin' and found that I could put them in the fridge for "vacation," and bought some commercially prepared kefir so I could get used to the taste / know what it should taste like.

But now there are quite a few grains and I think I wouldn't probably drink more than one quart per week, so I was thinking of somehow storing the leftover grains I understand they can be rinsed and dried? Our tapwater has chlorine, so I use a Brita filter. Is that acceptable? and I can just leave them in the (not turned on) gas-pilot oven to dry? Once dry, where do I put them? I read the fridge, but does it have to be cold? Or can it be the freezer?

And so how many grains would I need to keep fresh to make a pint to a quart each week? I am the only one in the house that will drink it.

What about the thick "milk" that probably did not ferment in a traditional sense, but still somehow thickened in the fridge? can I use that for something? is there a name for that?

Should I let the "stored" (thick milk) product sit on the counter to get to room temperature before I strain it? Is any of this making sense?