Yay! Actually unboxed my yoghurt maker, sterilised the gubbins, and started a 36h l. reuteri fermentation for 1.2 litres (also includes milk, cream, inulin and a capsule of the bacteria).
If I stop posting after Saturday midday, I've done something horribly wrong.
We're on our second batch of l. reuteri yogurts. The 36 hour fermentation time is giving me the heebie-jeebies, but we're not dead yet...
It tastes very, very tart though. I'm going to need to get the stevia out.
Edit: I'm using three different l. reuteri strains now because they're all subtly different, apparently.
On my third batch of L. Reuteri. Adding inulin and blueberries to get a bit of prebiotics and to remove some of the tartness (apparently it's 3.5 pH after 36 hours of fermentation, I should maybe add lime...).
Next batch will have four strains plus a bunch of other probiotics, with higher levels of L. Reuteri and B. Coagulans compared to the rest. Will bump up to 40°C for the latter without killing the former.
Also bought nine more yogurt jars (the yogurt maker holds eight). Lost one of the first eight (my wife definitely didn't throw it in the bin) so that's a handy round 16 for two batches.
My guts appear to have turned into a brass band.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Well, the L. reuteri and 19 other bacteria mix yogurt is bloody lovely, way less tart than the former only. Yum.
Here's the composition of the mix (as well as 15 billion l reuteri from other capsules).
The latest batch of cultures has arrived. This is the one that's meant to lift mood, so I'm pretty excited (see, it's working already!).
38°C for 40 hours. I'm thinking of just mixing it all in a pan and heating it up to 38°C before using a funnel to put into the jars (sterilising it all beforehand) to reduce messiness. Still haven't got my potato starch so will use sugar.
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.
First failed batch. I filled the pots almost to the brim and only loosely put on the lids. Spillage and contamination ensued. Another variable is that this was my first batch using sugar rather than inulin.
Anyway, will try again when the potato starch arrives, and leave more room for gas expansion in the pots.
Done a second batch with potato starch and without preheating (so the same method as the other yogurts, but with potato starch). Same result.
I'm putting them in the fridge anyway and will have a sniff later. If it's not too rank I'll have a little taste to see if it's ok.
Or should I just bin it?
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.
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.
My wife and I have tried the new one together. So it's either a double death or we'll be improving our mood*
It tasted a bit like mousse.
*Or there'll be no discernable difference.
Pre-fermentation of each strain in two yogurt pots and then mixing them for fermentation in eight yogurt pots together is driving me up the wall. A full batch of eight yogurts only lasts four days so I'm basically fermenting all the time.
So I've decided to do each of the three yogurt types in two 500ml bowls that fit in the yogurt maker, separately. It's really quick and we can take about 100ml of each per day so they last nine days each (the last 100ml going to the next batch). Less work for nearly three times the quantity, phew.
"Maria Branyas Morera, US-born supercentenarian who died in Spain last August, found to have microbiota of an infant"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/13/supercentenarian-aging-genes-study
Citric Acid would be an option for sterilising equipment, assuming the yougert doesn't munch Citrix Acid for breakfast 🙂
@davep I actually put my second batch of saurkraut on yesterday, last one was real good.
Trying my best with gut health, but my self control is limited, had a few too many walnuts the other day and I'm feelin it...
David Penfold 
Barry
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