Yay! Third time lucky. Having run one pot for 12 hours with five capsules, I then transferred it to eight pots (using well-sterilised milk, cream and potato starch). No rancidness, just a slightly sweet smell. I only warmed the eight pots for 24 hours, so it's still a bit liquid, but I was too worried about colonisation by the baddies. Anyway, next time I'll use stuff from this batch with a couple of capsules and go direct to eight pots.

The yellow colour is from the saffron in the capsules.

#superGut #sorcerersApprentice

The book does say that the two strains involved are slower at reproducing than others (so you ferment for 40 hours). This is possibly why other trace baddies manage to take hold instead.

What I might do is thoroughly sterilise the kit and start off with just 150ml (including all the potato starch? maybe not), but use five capsules rather than one. So, given this is an eighth of the normal volume with five times as many microbes, we start with forty times more relative to the baddies. Then, after 10 hours (so, if all is well, three doublings, so eight times more again) make up the rest of the batch and mix it all together for eight pots.

If this works, I'd hopefully have no problems using yogurt from the current batch for the next.

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Well, using the pot on the stove was a lot simpler. Couldn't have done it without the probe thermometer.

I obviously only added the cultures after the temperature had got down to 38°C though.

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Just for a bit of context, I spent two years aged 15-17 on a broad spectrum antibiotic. It's only recently that I've correlated this with changing from a happy kid to the start of a lifetime of depression and anxiety. Ok, there are other factors at play such as teenageritis, my parents divorcing, my first love and her leaving me etc, but I'm having a go at this microbiome thing because I can't undo the rest.

#superGut #overSharing

The hardest part is sterilising the eight jars/pots, their lids, the big pyrex bowl, the ladle, the table spoon and the 1/2 litre measuring jug I use for putting the nascent yogurt into the jars. I'm not sure how strictly necessarily this palaver is, as "Super Gut" doesn't really mention it (that I can remember), but I don't fancy the idea of lacto-fermenting random bacteria hanging about the kitchen.

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Finished my b. coagulans and started a new batch of l. reuteri with about 20 other random bacteria. Used a bit of the last batch, three reuteri strains and the multi-species capsule. There's about 75 billion of the buggers in there (not including what I added from the last batch, so possibly 100 billion) so I'm only doing a 30 hour session at 37°C. Added inulin, FOS and a couple of cubes of sugar (I don't have the potato starch yet) plus a smidge of Stevia.

Interestingly*, my thermometer showed the b. coagulans at 47.7°C this morning when it was set to 46, so I'm erring on the safe side for this heterogeneous mix.

* YMMV

I'm using 1 litre of milk and 400ml of 30% fat cream (not the thick stuff, as it's a bastard to mix).

I've commandeered a rack of the fridge as I'll have three different lots on the go soon and I need to know which is which (can't find my label printer so I'm marking them with one of the bottles). I'm going to have to start noting down when I add capsules and when I add just curds from the previous batch (or just mix a bit of both each time, which is probably easier).

#superGut

The rumblings seem to have subsided...

Just found some proper sauerkraut at the local supermarket, that went through proper lacto-fermentation. Only €3.80 for a big pot that will last for ages. Beats doing everything myself.

Will be doing our first batch of Bacillus coagulans later, at about 46°C for 36 hours. Can't do it now or it'll end at 4am.

My wife is finding my pre/probiotic salads really tasty, which is an extra benefit. They're lettuce, mozzarella, almonds, walnuts, sauerkraut (was chopped up pickles), sardines or eggs, organic tomatoes when I can find any, sea salt, apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

Top tip: the stevia, blueberries, plus a dash of inulin really help take away the extremely tart flavour of the L. reuteri yogurt.

#superGut

My guts appear to have turned into a brass band.

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