/fg/ Fermentation General - Mommy SCOBY Edition

[Anonymous No.11080809]

Anybody else here into fermenting their own food? I'm picking up some local-made kombucha later today to grow a pellicle.

[Anonymous No.11080828]

does this count? my sour culture is almost back. I let the last one go bad but luckily had saved some a year ago and dehydrated it, so I rehydrated some flakes a few days ago and used it to seed some fresh starter

[Anonymous No.11080834]

disgusting

[Anonymous No.11080849]

>>11080809
I do booze for a hobby and cheese professionally
>>11080828
Definitely counts

[Anonymous No.11080943]

>>11080828
how'd you dry it out? i've been meaning to dry some of my starter just in case something happens. i've read you can either just spread it thinly onto some parchment and let it dry, or also just kinda mix some into regular flour until it's crumbly and store that way.

[Anonymous No.11081141]

>>11080809
Today is bottling day for my kombucha. I'll probably flavor with ginger and one of the peaches I picked up at the farmer's market yesterday.

[Anonymous No.11081204]

>>11080943
baking sheet and parchment paper, lowest oven setting with door cracked

[Anonymous No.11081874]

Can I ferment things with my dick bacteria? I want to make products that are really unique to my person.

[Anonymous No.11081977]

>>11081874
It could work, I heard some had good results touching their cooch.

[Anonymous No.11081993]

>>11081874
>Can I ferment things with my dick bacteria?
I doubt it. Dick bacteria doesn't produce lactic acid, and yeast shouldn't be present.

You need one or the other for a ferment.

[Anonymous No.11082067]

>>11081993
>Dick bacteria doesn't produce lactic acid
Maybe because they are not given sugar?

[Anonymous No.11082086]

>>11081874
Yeah you can, it's very nutritious and a well kept secret. You can ferment anything this way. The trick is to ferment it not for too long, open air, with no salt or anything antimicrobial because dick microbacterial flora is very delicate. You can add a little sugar to boost growth.

The dick cheese culture is the most well know but a fermenter's secret is the area around the anus. Get a cotton swab and go around that area, if you're feeling adventurous you can poke it in for a quick swish (but not too deep) to collect the rarest microbes. I recommend dropping whole swab into your culture so you don't lose any.

Very tasty breads, yogurts, pickles, etc can be make this way. The final product may smell like danger but the taste is truly sublime.

[Anonymous No.11082089]

>>11082086
thanks for giving me e.coli

[Anonymous No.11082109]

>>11082089
You already had the E coli all along anon

[Anonymous No.11082125]

>>11082109
yeah, but that's my own e.coli, other people probably wouldn't like that so much.

[Anonymous No.11082170]

>>11082125
No need to pretend you have people to share your dick culture with anon. I understand.

[Anonymous No.11082183]

>>11082170
I-I thought you guys may be willing to try

[Anonymous No.11082632]

>tfw my thread died while I was at work

[Anonymous No.11082806]

>>11080809
That looks like a rotten slice of turkey you gross faggot

[Anonymous No.11082812]

>>11081204
then just store it in a jar or whatever?

[Anonymous No.11082911]

>>11081204
Just how hot is your lowest setting? If it ain't under 160 you aren't saving anything. Your new starter is brand new.

[Anonymous No.11083027]

>>11082806
>ew it looks icky
Children need not apply.

[Anonymous No.11083145]

>>11083027
Kambucha is gross. Unless you care to list all the strains of bacteria in your no benifts proven tea full of hepatoxins.

[Anonymous No.11083160]

>>11083145
Not relevant. I'm addressing the child who's kneejerking over something looking gross.

[Anonymous No.11083460]

>>11080809
Needing a pellicle as a starter is a meme, I toss it every time I bottle. A new one appears every time.

[Anonymous No.11083509]

>>11083460
can you explain what's happening here any how and why it's happening?

[Anonymous No.11083522]

>>11083460
I'm the person who was very critical of kambucha, but the point is to get consistent results and prevent pathogenic bacteria from getting ahead.

[Anonymous No.11083552]

>>11083509
A bunch of yeasts come together to form a matrix of polymers and some protiens thsg create the white thing called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacterial Yeasts) as they consume the nutrients in the black/green tea and the sugar creating carbon gas (carbonating the drink) and lactic acid that gives kombucha it's tang. If OP leaves it for too long it will take on a similar taste as weak apple cider vinegar from overfermentation and sugar will need to be added to compensate

[Anonymous No.11083571]

>>11081993
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/christina-agapakis-bacteria-cheese-249812

Theoretically why not?

[Anonymous No.11083572]

>>11083552
thanks for this. home baker here — so this is basically like capturing wild yeast like you would to make a sourdough starter, but then you feed it with liquid tea and sugar instead of flour and water? and it ferments the soaking/feeding liquid and thus carbonates it? how long does it take to...build/grow(???) a SCOBY?

[Anonymous No.11083596]

>>11080943
You can freeze a chunk just fine as well.

[Anonymous No.11083612]

>>11083596
fantastic, thanks anon. i'm gonna feed my starter in the morning and then i'll dry part of it out in one or all of these ways

[Anonymous No.11083715]

Some questions about fermented hot sauce:

>How long do I need to ferment the peppers? Any reason to go more than 1-2 weeks?
>I want to do a sweet and spicy with mangos, but I'm worried that they will just ferment and turn into a sour flavor. Any way to stop that?
>How much sauce can I expect per pound of peppers?

[Anonymous No.11083794]

>>11081874
Theres an Australian brewery that made a beer with belly button yeast

[Anonymous No.11083810]

I made a few batches of kombucha but eventually gave my scoby to a friend. I like kvass more so i mostly make that now.

[Anonymous No.11083812]

>>11080809
would much enjoy a above average kimchi recipe
not entirely convinced this place has what it takes

[Anonymous No.11083830]

>>11083812
okay, first you gonna need some dick bacteria or belly button yeast

[Anonymous No.11083855]

>>11083794

There's a faggot American brewery that made a beer with beard yeast

[Anonymous No.11083861]

I'm 100% sure that brewery exists in Melbourne

[Anonymous No.11083866]

>>11083861
called it. Fucking Melbourne.

[Anonymous No.11083967]

>>11083855
You try it? The belly button, obviously was a gimmick but just tasted like another beer. Not particularly offensive but nothing special by any stretch. Glad I didn't have to pay for it.
>>11083861
If I was paying more attention, I could have saved you the hassle

[Anonymous No.11084015]

>>11080809
>General

[Anonymous No.11084036]

>>11084015
Generals don't have to be the cancer that they became on other boards. On /ck/, it just means that as long as this thread is up, it's alright to post all questions/remarks regarding fermentation in here that would only needlessly cull other threads from the board were they posted as their own thread.

[Anonymous No.11084786]

>>11083715
>I want to do a sweet and spicy with mangos, but I'm worried that they will just ferment and turn into a sour flavor. Any way to stop that?
I guess you could try adding the mango at the stage where you liquefy the peppers before bottling.
>How much sauce can I expect per pound of peppers?
Pretty much a 1:1 ratio, from the peppers and whatever else you throw in there.

[Anonymous No.11085786]

My mom wanted kombucha so I gave her a scoby and set it up. She forgot about it for 6 fucking months. Will the scoby still be ok to use or is it dead by now?

[Anonymous No.11085897]

>>11085786
>6 months without being fed
It's dead. Don't even risk it.

[Anonymous No.11085905]

>>11085897
It's still floating in the same tea mix that I made for her 6 months ago. I really wonder what it tastes like but I'm not retarded enough to find out.

[Anonymous No.11085950]

>>11083572
Ignore >>11083552, they apparently don't know what's happening but are willing to make it up.

A kombucha culture is a combination of acidophilic yeast strains and glucanobacter/acetobacter. The yeasts are essentially wild, but in most cultures are a few strains of candida and zygosaccharomyces . They are not responsible for the pellicle though, which is actually almost wholly made from cellulose, by the way. The pellicle is formed by acetic acid bacteria of various sorts, which are the reason that kombucha has an acetic acid tang rather than a lactic or phosphoric aid tang.

The reference to hepatotoxins >>11083145 arises from several studies (two unrelated, and then various follow-ups) that found trace amounts of usnic acid in kombucha cultures. The toxic dose is on the order of tenths of a gram though, so you would need to drink a ridiculous amount of kombucha for it to be dangerous, which is probably mostly restricted to weirdos that think it will cure their cancer and drink gallons of it.

[Anonymous No.11085997]

>>11085950
fascinating. thanks for the info!

[Anonymous No.11086034]

>>11085905
A small sip probably wont kill you. Or spit it out.

[Anonymous No.11086078]

>>11085905
It is definitely not dead, but it might be contaminated with all sorts of stuff.
I would suggest thoroughly washing the surface of the scoby(s) with white vinegar and starting a new batch using black tea with distilled white vinegar in place of any liquid from the previous batch (but keep hold of this for later).

Assuming a new pellicle forms, you're probably in the clear, but may be lacking a good yeast culture. At this point, cut the pellicle into two and add half of it to a new batch of black tea using the old vinegar as the starter liquid. Ideally, the black-tea-and-white-vinegar culture produces yeast strands (they _should_ survive in the pellicle along with the bacteria) and you can throw the old liquid culture away entirely, otherwise, if the old liquid culture is producing yeast strands you can run with that one.
Either way, I would make a few batches without drinking them, while the populations stabilize. At best, try a small sample to see if there are any off flavours; if things still smell/taste weird after a few generations, give up and get a new scoby.

[Anonymous No.11086227]

>>11086078
Thank you very much anon. I'll get to it when I see her next weekend.

[Anonymous No.11086365]

>>11086227
Oh, and if the initial attempt to rejuvenate it doesn't produce a new pellicle, she somehow managed to kill almost every single bacterium in the population, which is virtually a miracle, harness her powers for good by making her work in a sterile service laboratory.

[Anonymous No.11086882]

>>11085905
After six months it should be vinegar. If you combine it with two water it works as a nice conditioner for your hair. I'm also curious why you're so committed to saving this scoby. I have probably a dozen of them floating in my hotel and nothing to do with them. Why not just compost it and give her another?

[Anonymous No.11087553]

>>11083715
The other stuff changes a lot, but fermenting a month + is how I normally do it. But first batch you can do a shorter ferment to hold you over.

But a month + and it becomes a lot more stable.

[Anonymous No.11087651]

>>11080809
I made a new batch of porter today but didn't take any pictures cuz I was busy brewing here's a pic of the kegerator I just installed tho.

[Anonymous No.11088025]

>>11085905
>>11086882
And speak of the devil, there's a tiny little scoby in the bottle I'm drinking right now. I should start tossing them out of my window at work, because I'm seriously drowning in the things.

[Anonymous No.11088085]

>>11080849
been reading up on cheese making do you have to buy a cheese fridge or can you get away with it for some of the simpler cheeses?

[Anonymous No.11088146]

>>11088085
Fresh cheese no. Aged cheese any constantly held temp between 50°-65°f will do. Bloomy and washed rind will need a higher humidity of around 80% so this is where a dedicated fridge can really come in handy

[Anonymous No.11088207]

>>11083812
1/2

[Anonymous No.11088217]

>>11088207
2/2
I don't feel like typing it out again but this recipe takes about a month to mature and 6 months to reach full flavor it is a bit spicy but not overbearing at a restaurant I worked at we would make a whole lexan and dig into it as needed for like half a year