Sporulating tempeh starter?

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Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby mayfly22 on Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:39 pm

I know this has been discussed before, but wanted some new thoughts/ideas about where to get tempeh starter that will sporulate so that one can perpetually generate starter from each batch and not have to reorder it. I got my starter from Cultures for Health, and do not know if it will produce spores. I plan on letting a batch go long for experimentation. Anyone out there have luck??
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby Tibor on Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:55 am

I got my spore from culture of health.It makes good tempeh. On their web site under questions ,someone asked if it sporulates and their response was that as far as they know it will after 3 or 4 days. I tried once and it created black spore but did not work,for me, to make good tempeh.I refined my controls and as we speak I am drying out my new attempt at sporulation and I don't like what I see. There is black spore but not as thick as i would have liked.I'll try it in a few days and see what happens. So now the question(if I fail)will be "is the Belgian strain of spore viable for sporulation or did they mutate it so they could continue selling spore and deprive folks of making their own" G.E.M. culcures has been out of stock as long as I've been looking and The Farm in Tennesse has not responded to my inquiries numerous times(I tried again earlier today) so I will be at a loss if things don't pan out with my latest attempt to find new spore to try.Anyone out there with any luck making more spore with readily available spore?
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby cschx on Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:26 pm

I was able to get freeze dried pure cultures of NRRL 2710 and one other Rhizopus oligosporus accession from the USDA cultures collection. Currently saving up for equipment that will allow me to do a spore increase without contaminating the cultures. If I succeed I will offer them here, for the cost of postage + packaging. Hopefully by summer.

As a side note: This would go much faster if someone could hook me up with a lab that can grow the cultures out for a reasonable fee. I don't have any experience with sterile technique nor any equipment at the moment, so there is a big learning curve involved.
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby Tim Hall on Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:15 pm

I'm currently building equipment for this purpose...a good source for DIY lab equipment & sterile culture technique are hobby mushroomers. Tons of information there on building glove boxes, laminar flow hoods, using petri dishes/culture media, etc. All should be immediately applicable to banking and propagating fungal cultures like rhizopus and aspergillus. Another source would be yeast culture techniques that homebrewers use...but oddly not too many do this, and there's not a lot of published information here.

I'm working on some simplified protocols for banking master cultures for fermentation. So let me know what you're up to, and maybe we can trade notes.
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby 10kFerment on Sat Apr 13, 2013 7:21 pm

I've always used the method in the book of tempeh. Whatever tempeh starter you're using should create the same results.

Take some of the tempeh you're making and put it back in the incubator in thin layer in a clean container. Check it every few days until it starts to change color. You'll see when it's ready as it'll be powdery with spores.

Use a boiling water sterilized stainless steel strainer to rub the spore covered surface against. Collect the dust that falls and use that as your starter.

Works great. :)
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby newbiez on Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:35 pm

Instead of rubbing the spores-covered-tempeh-slice agains the strainters, is it possible to dehidrate it to create a powder for storage but without killing the cultures. Has any one try it yet?
Thanks.
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby Tibor on Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:42 pm

My best results was sporulating spore on organic long grain rice for 3 to 5 days at 88 * (the last day with the perforated lid off so it dries completely) and then pulverizing the whole thing . Kitchen Aid makes a coffee grinder($30) where the SS bowl is removable and easy to sterilize. 1/8 teaspoon of bought spore made 1/4 cup of spore for me. Stored properly in the fridge it will maintain full strength for months. I have sealed some spore in vacuum packets in the freezer and when I have time will see if that spore is still full strength after 4 months of storage.
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby cpb on Mon Nov 25, 2013 3:01 pm

Hi Tibor,

once more me with a question. I tried to propagate my tempeh culture. Cooked/used 1:1 water to rice (organic), and inoculated the rice, put it into a bag (as with the tempeh) in a very thin layer (only on or to rice corns in high) and incubated to whole stuff (along with a couple of tempehs :) ...

in the beginning everything was as i expected, healthy growth. After 3 1/2 however I still do not see any dark spots. The only thing I see that it gets a little "greyish". No off colors or off flavours!

Should I continue to wait? How does "ready" to harvest spore substrate look like? (Black, grey, spots)???

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Chris.
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby Tibor on Tue Nov 26, 2013 1:36 am

I followed the directions in The Book of Tempeh: 1/4 cup long grain organic white rice (rinsed twice) with 3/4 cup water,bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Drain and cool on a paper towel. Remember, you only want to cool it, not dry it. you need a moist environment to make good tempeh and to sporulate spore. The perforations have to be just right in the cover. Sterilize a bowl and spoon and mix the cooled rice with 1/8 teaspoon tempeh starter. I only had success with GEM cultures spore. I put the inoculated rice in a sterilized glass bread pan with a perforated cover at 88 degrees for 3 or 4 days.By then, It should be covered completely in black spore . then I remove the cover and continue at 88 degrees for another day to dry it out completely. when it is totally dry I pulverize it in my sterilized coffee grinder. I was soooooo thrilled when I finally made viable spore! I've never used plastic bags for tempeh making so I have no idea about sporulating that way. Try my way..... good luck!
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Re: Sporulating tempeh starter?

Postby cpb on Wed Nov 27, 2013 10:21 am

Hi Tibor,

thanks for your reply. Do you put your glass container in a "water" or "air" incubator?

I think I am going to try your approach. After 4 days with my method I have had a very greyisch spore population on my "bag" tempeh. I will dry it and try on a batch :)

BR,
Chris.
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