Yogurt Activation Woes, and How to Stop Having Them
You should always read a recipe all the way through before you prepare it; activation instructions are recipes
Y’all have been keeping us BUSY lately with problems activating your yogurts! Some of this is happening because I needed to revise the activation instructions so that you don’t need to be a native English-speaker to understand. Some of you, however, appear to believe that we don’t know how best to treat our yogurts and that you should chart your own path. That technique doesn’t seem to be going particularly well, as evidenced by mine and Sabrina’s email. My guess is that this will become a “reminders” post, reposted as our emails indicate we should.
Also? THANK YOU for emailing us when you have a problem!! We prefer to know immediately so we can try to help. Sometimes we actually cry a little when someone has emailed when it’s simply not possible to help them anymore. As far as we’re concerned, each packet you purchase should be the only packet of its type that you purchase ever. All of these cultures should be able to be passed down to future generations of humans, but you do have to treat them like you’d like them to keep going for that long. They are heirloom yogurts for a reason.
For those of you who want to activate with raw milk, our answer to that is no. You can do it, but it may kill your culture. Please follow the raw milk guide for further guidance.
We have a request: when you email us because your yogurt isn’t activating properly, please tell us exactly what you did, step-by-step, as though you were teaching us how to make yogurt for the very first time. Not doing this generally results in a lot more time spent getting you proper help because we have to email back and forth with you to figure out what actually went wrong. All the details are welcome and wanted! We do not mind long, detailed emails, and in fact prefer them so we can help you more efficiently!
Lastly, no matter what, once your yogurt is activated, you need to put two samples (no less than 1 tablespoon [30mL unless in Australia, in which case 35mL]) in the freezer. I like breast milk bags, some people prefer ice cube trays, others freezer-safe containers. Do what works for you, but make sure to label whatever it is you did.
If you want to dry your starter before freezing, spread it thinly on parchment paper or on a plastic bowl or plate and either dry at room temperature or in the fridge. Be aware that if you freeze dried instead of fresh cultures, you will need to do the activation process anytime you need one of those.
Heirloom Yogurts v. Direct Set
Heirloom yogurts are old (usually) yogurts from indigenous populations (usually) around the world that can be recultured for as long as their are humans to do it that are willing to treat them right. They are recultured by using backslop, which is the super duper technical term for “some of the last batch to start the new.” Some of you may wish to think of this more along the lines of “hair of the dog that bit you.” You need that hair to start the new batch with an heirloom yogurt. Sometimes heirloom yogurts are called heritage yogurts or reusable yogurts.
Direct set yogurts generally come powdered like the heirlooms do, except they are not forever yogurts. They are intended to make one batch of yogurt, though I’ve seen some people successfully reculture them for more than just the one batch. These will never, ever, ever become heirloom yogurts, and they will not be yogurts you can pass down from human to human. We don’t sell them for this reason: buying fermenting cultures is expensive, and we truly believe that all of our community members should be empowered to make and consume forever yogurts, not “for right now” yogurts. It’s more cost effective; easier; better environmentally (less packaging waste); and, we believe, more healthful. If you are starting out with our cultures from a space of only having used direct set yogurts, your knowledge of how to activate doesn’t apply here and you really do need to follow our directions.
Thermophils
Y’all really do need to do 3 activation batches. Sometimes, yogurts act like jerks due to seasonal changes or reasons they simply do not prefer that we don’t get to know about. Or whatever they decided in the moment wasn’t for them. Sadly, bacteria and yeasts don’t have minds for us to read, so some of this is just a mystery. Like how yogurts know it’s hot outside when their ambient temperature is not hot, or how yogurts know it’s cold outside even though the heater is on. Probably going to my grave regretting that I never found out why this is. But it is the situation, so we need to respect it and make accommodations for it.
Y’all really should not be making batches larger than 1 cup until it’s acting correctly, setting up properly, and has the texture it should. I’ve changed the activation instructions to reflect that we prefer you do half-cup batches for at least the first 3. The primary reasons for this are A) you waste less milk or make fewer mashed potatoes during the runny batches, and B) your yogurt doesn’t have to work so hard while it gets over its jet lag.
Please stop going over 7 days before culturing the new batch. You can get away with this 1+ times, but there will be a point at which your yogurt calls it a day and wanders off to the dead side. If it will help you, tell yourself 5 days is the limit. If that isn’t enough for you (isn’t for me!), set an alarm on your phone to make the next batch within the proper time frame. You can do it anywhere from the same day to 7 days later, but 7 starts entering the dicey category and you need to not be going to 8+. Put it in the freezer if you need more time. I just stick the jar in the freezer. I guess I could package them properly, but it seems to me that if I don’t have time to take care of my yogurt, I probably am not willing to make time to do more than put a jar in the freezer.
Which method you use to make your yogurt (standard, oven/cooler, or mead method) doesn’t matter, but be consistent with whatever it is you choose and make sure you tell us which method you chose if you want or need help fixing something that went wrong. I personally have hopped on the mead method train, because it’s the easiest and least stressful. Normally I favor the cooler method full-stop, but I’ve given that up with activation batches because this really does just work better. And it’s all done in 36 hours instead of 3+ days.
Conventional wisdom says that thermophils can go up to 110F. This is technically true, but we want y’all to stop doing it this hot. Seriously, please stop. It’s at the upper limit of what a thermo can handle, and they frequently don’t handle it well. Anywhere from 90-105F (32-40C) is going to be good, and 95-105F (35-40C) is the Goldilocks Zone of Thermophilic Yogurts. I’ve lost count at this point of how many people have killed their cultures with repeated, consistent 110F+ (43C) temps, and it’s breaking my heart to see this keep happening. Sabrina has reported the same thing to me about her emails; it’s also breaking her heart. Literally every day, at least one of y’all emails us about this issue. So y’all knock it off and let it go low and slow.
If you use the IP, use the low setting. Not the medium or hot setting. Low is good. Low is enjoyed by your yogurts. Low also makes a creamier, thicker yogurt.
Skyr and Euro are fussy and need more time to set, occasionally up to 5 batches. We’re sorry. We also find it annoying, so it’s not just you on this one.
If you like adding probiotics capsules to your ferment, you need to do it after you’ve completed activation and will need to maintain a pure mother culture as backups for when you kill your culture by adding these. Not if you kill your culture by adding these; when. At some point, if you keep adding more and more, your yogurt will die. You will tell yourself I’m just wrong about this, and then one day you’ll be emailing me because it died. This is how the temps over 105F tend to happen, too, where it works fine until it doesn’t.
The Canadian yogurt is ropey. If you didn’t know that, now you do. If you didn’t want that and you were about to buy the Canadian, now you’ll buy something you’d prefer instead of that. Since we are not yet selling the “birthday yogurt” Child Tester holds as the gold standard of yogurts (one day, I hope, since I get a lot of requests for it!), this is the only thermophil we have that ropes. Once birthday yogurt is available for y’all to enjoy as well, we’ll have two ropey thermophils for you ropey yogurt lovers to enjoy! The birthday is ropier than the Canadian, for whenever that comes up.
Mesophils
Some of these are being copy/pasted directly from the thermophil section, because nothing changed but I know y’all do the same as me and skip down to the section relevant to you.
Y’all really do need to do 3 activation batches. Sometimes, yogurts act like jerks due to seasonal changes or seasons they simply do not prefer. Or whatever they decided in the moment wasn’t for them. Sadly, bacteria and yeasts don’t have minds for us to read, so some of this is just a mystery. Like how yogurts know it’s hot outside when their ambient temperature is not hot, or how yogurts know it’s cold outside even though the heater is on. Probably going to my grave regretting that I never found out why this is. But it is, so we need to respect it and make accommodations for it.
Y’all really should not be making batches larger than 1 cup until it’s acting correctly, setting up properly, and has the texture it should. I’ve changed the activation instructions to reflect that we prefer you do half-cup batches for at least the first 3. The primary reasons for this are A) you waste less milk or make fewer mashed potatoes during the runny batches, and B) your yogurt doesn’t have to work so hard while it gets over its jet lag.
Please stop trying to cook your mesophils like they’re thermophils. It kills them. There’s no variance here: it simply kills them. 70-78 is fine. You can get by on 68, but you should assume this is no different than waiting until the 9th day to reculture. It can be done, but if you do it too much then you’ll be having a funeral for your new yogurt baby instead of continuing to eat it. Over 78? Looking for death to all mesophils, even if you get away with it a few times!
Please stop going over 7 days before culturing the new batch. You can get away with this 1+ times, but there will be a point at which your yogurt calls it a day and wanders off to the dead side. If it will help you, tell yourself 5 days between batches is the limit. If that isn’t enough for you (isn’t for me!), set an alarm on your phone to make the next batch within the proper time frame. You can do it anywhere from the same day to 7 days later, but 7 starts entering the dicey category and you need to not be going to 8+. Put it in the freezer if you need more time. I literally just stick the jar in the freezer.
Please stop shaking your ropey yogurts, jostling them, turning them weird directions, making them dance, and other oddities while they’re culturing. You’re deroping them by doing this, even if it’s being done to mix in the starter culture packet or your backslop for a new batch. Ropiness is usually and primarily caused by Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris, and this little guy truly is the hermit on the mountain. It doesn’t play nicely, doesn’t want to be bothered, and will exit stage left if you don’t let it do its job unsupervised. If your yogurt deropes, it’ll still be a valid, healthful, delicious yogurt. But it will never get its ropes back - for that, you’ll need one of your backups saved in the freezer.
Along the lines of #5, you don’t need to tilt your ropey yogurts constantly. Leave them alone and let them do what they do. If it’s long enough into the process that you’re not sure if they’re done, be really, really gentle and don’t tilt it more than is absolutely needed to determine if it’s set.
Caspian Sea yogurt is fussy. You need to keep an eye on it once you’re about half-way through the incubation cycle. It can be runny and then suddenly, out of nowhere, over-fermented. Skyr is also fussy and needs more time (occasionally up to 5 activation batches) to hit its stride. I personally find this really irritating, and my emails say y’all feel the same way.
If you like adding probiotics capsules to your ferment, you need to do it after you’ve completed activation and will need to maintain a pure mother culture as backups for when you kill your culture by adding these.
I believe that’s it, but if y’all find stuff I missed? Please say so, so I can get it in here!
Lastly? Sorry-ish, y’all. Evidently, my Gen X heart can’t write this without both the “The More You Know” pic and the credits for Reading Rainbow being included. It’s literally all I could hear in my head while writing.
