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> The role of lactic acid in yogurt is to hydrolyze milk proteins and turn them into solids, so you can eat it with a spoon. These things exist on a spectrum:

• YeGoblynQueenne 28d ago
  That's right. Kefir is essentially a mesophilic yogurt. I don't pretend to understand why but it seems the difference in texture has to do with the different organisms that produce one vs. the other (although the thermophilic bacteria used in yogurt-making -Lactobacilus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus I think- have also been found in kefir; but I don't know if they are very active given the lower temperature). To be fair, back when I used to make kefir it often came out quite firm to the point that I could lift it out of a bowl with a perforated laddle and eat it with a spoon. What seemed to make the difference was using non-homogenized milk rather than homogenized. Using unhomogenized milk from Jersey cows also seemed to do the trick but the result was a bit too fatty.