Re: Anyone have access to filmjolk? - raw milk fermentation

July 25, 2012

I think I know what you mean about not succeeding at first. My first batches I

noticed that if I put in less culture, the flavor was more mild, almost just

like the milk, but after using that yogurt to culture another batch, I realized

when the new batch didn't culture in the same amount of time (and never firmed

up), I had weakened the culture too much. Thankfully I still had some of the

original in the fridge, so I upped the ratio of film jolk to milk. Now the

results are the same every time, as long as I keep an eye on it around the 10

hour mark to see if the whey is getting close to separating. I don't remember

the original ratio Kombucha Barb uses but I thought she cultured her for longer.

I do use both kefir and filmjolk because they have different uses in our house.

Kefir gets turned into an afternoon smoothy and the yogurt gets eaten plain or

with fruit for breakfast.

Perhaps because I culture both kefir and film jolk covered, I have not had

problems (yet) with their contaminating each other. Currently, I use the

plastic lids (for mason jars) you can pick up fleet and farm. I used to use the

metal canning lids, but found they started to rust.

As easy is clabbering milk, I have never done it. I suppose I shall now. Does

anyone use it frequently?

Deborah

>

> I have a question for those of you doing filmjolk, viili or other

> counter top yogurt cultures in raw milk. All the reading I did

> suggested that although you can use raw milk for these you need to

> maintain a " pure " culture via pasturized milk to add to your raw milk

> because the naturally occuring bacteria in raw milk will eventually

> overtake the filmjolk or other culture you are using. So are those of

> you using raw milk doing that? If not I wonder if what you actually

> have is aged raw milk ... which has a specific name that I am drawing

> a blank on ... different than sour milk ... I hate it when I cannot

> think of something ... but anyway, maybe folks know what I am talking

> about?

>

> I have tried filmjolk and viili a couple of times and failed

> miserably. Those cultures seem to be more temperture sensitive than

> kefir. My kitchen was too warm and the cultures just didn't seem to

> do well. I have been doing great with kefir so I think I am going to

> stick with that.

>

> Jaxi

>

July 25, 2012

These cultures need time to adjust to new sources of milk. You should fully

expect that the bacteria are going to be a little 'out of their element' when

you first put them in to a brand new source of milk. This is normal, you need to

culture several batches before they 'take' to the milk. It's not clabbered milk,

that's a whole other deal. I made filmjolk for a year before I let my culture go

because of some silly stuff in my life at the time. Never had a problem with the

ferments, the only thing I would caution is that if your ambient temp rises and

falls with the weather, I would check on your batch regularly because the rate

reproduction in the bacteria will change accordingly.

Also I recommend the TMS lecture series called " Unseen Diversity " which really

opens up the world of bacteria in a fun way and helps you to understand that

bacteria really don't have much control over what they do, they are swung like

pendulums according to their environment and so are intimately connected with

it, this also ties in with epigenetics which is increasinly becoming, in my

opinion, a school of study that should be mandatory in public schools. If it

was, people would behave a lot more sensibly in relation to our microscopic

friends.

July 25, 2012