Yeast Diary - April 25, 2020
Apr. 25th, 2020 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nezchanIt's hard to believe this is only the third day after I started this batch of starter. For some reason it feels like I'm headed into day five or something, but here we are.
The results this morning were great! All the raisins were floating, and there were some bubbles on top. That includes the raisins I added yesterday morning, which were almost all floating by evening. I expect an even faster result today, as the hungry bugs go after those sugars. Already, less than 2 hours later, I'm seeing a silvery sheen of bubbles forming on the surface of the raisins on the bottom. If they're not all floating by supper time, I'll be very surprised.
I had to make a bit of a judgment call on whether to just feed, or pour off half the liquid and top up first. Not that I have any experience or guidance of which is the better idea here. But I decided to go ahead and feed only, since I'm not smelling too much alcohol yet and it's only the third day. Tomorrow I'll hopefully have some ingredients to start my first couple of experiments, so I'll use the liquid in that and start the usual pouring off and feeding cycle.
In any case, I'm calling the yeast culture part of this experiment a crashing success, even better than my first attempt. I'm not sure if that's a function of particularly potent raisins, adding sugar each day rather than just the first, or gradually adding raisins rather than putting them all in at the start. Whatever it is, I'll keep doing it this way.
Today's photo on Instagram, an hour after feeding. You can see that it's now even cloudier, to the point where you can see light through it but not anything else. Heck, I can't even see the raisins on the far side of the jar. Impressive results.
The results this morning were great! All the raisins were floating, and there were some bubbles on top. That includes the raisins I added yesterday morning, which were almost all floating by evening. I expect an even faster result today, as the hungry bugs go after those sugars. Already, less than 2 hours later, I'm seeing a silvery sheen of bubbles forming on the surface of the raisins on the bottom. If they're not all floating by supper time, I'll be very surprised.
I had to make a bit of a judgment call on whether to just feed, or pour off half the liquid and top up first. Not that I have any experience or guidance of which is the better idea here. But I decided to go ahead and feed only, since I'm not smelling too much alcohol yet and it's only the third day. Tomorrow I'll hopefully have some ingredients to start my first couple of experiments, so I'll use the liquid in that and start the usual pouring off and feeding cycle.
In any case, I'm calling the yeast culture part of this experiment a crashing success, even better than my first attempt. I'm not sure if that's a function of particularly potent raisins, adding sugar each day rather than just the first, or gradually adding raisins rather than putting them all in at the start. Whatever it is, I'll keep doing it this way.
Today's photo on Instagram, an hour after feeding. You can see that it's now even cloudier, to the point where you can see light through it but not anything else. Heck, I can't even see the raisins on the far side of the jar. Impressive results.
