Trouble with kefir grains

Hi, I've been trying to make water kefir for 2 weeks now.

The first grains I got, I left them in the jar with sugar, lemon and a date for less than 2 days, maybe 40 hours. I was going to leave them for 48 but when I checked them, it smelled like strong vinegar. How did this happen, what did I do wrong?! My house is quite cold, so I had the jar in the hot press. Anyway, I rinsed them off and tried again, this time just with Sugar and water. But 24 hours later, it was vinegar again. Am I missing something, I mean, is it supposed to be like that? If so, then I dunno how people drink it!

I then ordered more grains off a different website. When they came, they already smelled like vinegar. They did arrive by airmail though. Tweet