Hi Folks,
I have used Half and Half (Sahne zum Kochen in Germany which is 15% fat).
It is my second batch, I used result of the previous batch as starter.
I poured the half and half and inolin (pure chicory root powder) into the jar and put it in a pan filled with water and boiled it for around 20 minutes. Checked the temperature. It was around 85C.
Let the jars cool down to 37C.
Poured water into the yogurt maker and waited till it becomes 37C also.
Put jars inside the warm water inside the yogurt maker.
1 Jar had 300ml and another smaller one had 200ml inside.
For 36 hours, I checked periodically the temperature to be exactly 37.0C.
Still all I got is a yellow, separated, watery, sour liquid.
During the fermentation the jar lids were not tightened at all. Just left on the jar in a loose position.
Jars were 80% filled and had space left for expansion. After first few hours, the liquid (whatever it is) started to separate already and started to overflow from the jars. The leakage formed a scary network of tentacles over the warm water inside the yogurt maker.
What I’m growing exactly? Is it yogurt? Is it an alien species? Will it come out of the jar and chock me with its yellow tentacles while I’m sleeping in the night?!?
What can be the reason? Please help. I don’t want to give up. Thanks in advance.
This is called over-incubation, in which the yogurt mix is separated into curd and whey.
You can avoid this by simply incubating for 3 to 6 hours*when using ready yogurt) or 12-16 hours when using a freeze-dried starter with an electric maker.
36 hours is super expensive and not needed, as the result proved.
You can learn more about the fermentation process here: https://www.youtube.com/c/NPSelection/videos
Thanks for the reply. I think that was the reason.
I tried the same first batch once again, for producing another batch. This time, instead of 36 hours, I kept an eye on the situation of the jar. Once I saw a thin layer of whey at the bottom of the jar, while the curd was floating a few millimeters on top of that, I finished the process and the result was finally a cremy looking yogurt. It took way more than 3 to 6 hours though. It took 15 hours of incubation. It think it is because I used very little yogurt from the first batch this time. I used half a table spoon per 250ml. It can also be that for some reason, the temperature of the device was always 36C rather than 37C.
For my next batches, I will do it during the day, so I can keep and eye and whenever I saw sings of curd separating from the whey, I immediately stop it to prevent over fermentation.
I will also measure the temperature after 1 hour and if it is still below 37C, I will set the device to higher temperature to compensate for it.
If milk was boiled, that amount of whey indicates the beginning of the overincubation, as there is almost no whey when milk is boiled. Believe that you could stop it a few hours earlier.
The amount of the starter you used is more than enough. Normally, 1 gram per 1L is enough.
The temperature can speed up or reduce the fermentation time as you already noticed
Glad that you made it. Enjoy