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dabout
Stranger

Registered: 03/18/14
Posts: 10
Last seen: 8 years, 9 months
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I went to the Asian grocery store and found some agar... Theyvhad different flavor ones but I got the plain one... Upon further inspection it says ingredients are: sugar, agar...am I screwed? This is what it looks like golden coins brand
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: dabout]
#21377341 - 03/08/15 08:58 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yeah the sugar is no good. You want plain agar no added sugar or flavors. Telephone agar or the bars are solid to avoid sugar.
Don't feel bad, I bought that same crap my first time too
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MudaFuka
Poppin bottles



Registered: 12/14/13
Posts: 18,648
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: dabout]
#21377485 - 03/08/15 09:43 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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If you can't find the right agar at an Asian grocery store. Check out a health food store. They usually have agar powder. It's a bit more expensive but it's more convenient to use.
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hamloaf
Loaf of Fam.

Registered: 12/23/09
Posts: 20,192
Loc: Oklahoma.
Last seen: 1 year, 8 months
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: MudaFuka]
#21377512 - 03/08/15 09:49 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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The best deal on agar, at the best quality is to order pre-made agar from a Vendor.
I use FungiPerfecti for the sourcing of pre-made agar. Pre made agar from FP is enriched with peptone and nutritional yeast. The pre made stuff is cheaper than grocery store agar, and laboratory grade. Grocery store agar is an inferior food grade type agar.
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: hamloaf]
#21377524 - 03/08/15 09:53 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Grocery store agar is an inferior food grade type agar.
Yet its all I use. I only used lab grade once and didn't really see a difference. In Canada we tend to get brutally raped on shipping fees. I would end up paying more for the shipping of agar than for the agar itself. I can buy bars or powdered agar for a 1/4 of the cost of ordering it online after the shipping is factored in.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: hamloaf]
#21377529 - 03/08/15 09:53 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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there's usually a whole little section of agar and jelly stuff in the asian mart. 95% of the agar has sugar but you have to try to find the english part and see there should be at least one that's just agar agar
(we use asian agar in a real lab every day for agar work 100s of plates a week, lab grade agar isn't very superior)
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MudaFuka
Poppin bottles



Registered: 12/14/13
Posts: 18,648
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: hamloaf]
#21377531 - 03/08/15 09:54 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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I don't like premixed agar. You can't control the nutrient continent. I like to use different amounts of nutrition depending on what I'm using my agar for. I also like to change the nutrient source from time to time to help stave off senescence. The one time I used lab grade agar. I didn't really like it. I found it thickened to fast and left too small a window to pour plates once it started cooling. I also found larger wedges didn't hold together as well when making transfers to my LI blender. Could have just been that brand though.
Edited by MudaFuka (03/08/15 09:58 AM)
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tripdawg420
low life with no life



Registered: 02/02/09
Posts: 7,071
Loc: illinois
Last seen: 6 hours, 29 minutes
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: MudaFuka]
#21377539 - 03/08/15 09:56 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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ya i prefer premix mea
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hamloaf
Loaf of Fam.

Registered: 12/23/09
Posts: 20,192
Loc: Oklahoma.
Last seen: 1 year, 8 months
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: Pastywhyte]
#21377556 - 03/08/15 10:01 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Pastywhyte said:
Quote:
Grocery store agar is an inferior food grade type agar.
Yet its all I use. I only used lab grade once and didn't really see a difference. In Canada we tend to get brutally raped on shipping fees. I would end up paying more for the shipping of agar than for the agar itself. I can buy bars or powdered agar for a 1/4 of the cost of ordering it online after the shipping is factored in.
That suck, Pasty. I am sorry to hear that about shipping to Canada. It's cheaper for me to order the pound of pre-made and enriched agar from FP. It's more expensive & complicated for me to run around all over town gathering the supplies needed to make MEA.
Nowadays though, I don't bother. It's back to the grocery store agar. Agar nowadays is nutrient enriched with end-of-the-boil-cycle grain water. Just in time to render the last pound of agar ordered from FP obsolete.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: hamloaf]
#21377570 - 03/08/15 10:07 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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we use grocery agar to adjust premade lab mediums for beer spoilers. depending on how much beer you add to a dish you can adjust your agar to firm it up where you want, the directions say to use lab agar but fuck it's a less than a tenth of the price to drive 3 miles and get some and it works just as well. you pour say 10ml of beer onto a dish and then 15ml of agar at 49C or so. any bacteria in the beer grows inside of the medium so you can enumerate colony forming units. but using 40% beer requires you to use more agar in the mix.
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tripdawg420
low life with no life



Registered: 02/02/09
Posts: 7,071
Loc: illinois
Last seen: 6 hours, 29 minutes
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: bodhisatta]
#21377586 - 03/08/15 10:09 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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beer agar
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MudaFuka
Poppin bottles



Registered: 12/14/13
Posts: 18,648
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: hamloaf]
#21377590 - 03/08/15 10:10 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Shipping costs to Canada are insane. I try not to use any materials I can't source locally. One of the main reasons I use no pour more than petris is shipping. After shipping I pay around $1.50 per petri. I make between 20 and 40 plates a week. So I just can't afford petris.
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: MudaFuka]
#21377604 - 03/08/15 10:14 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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The only pour plates I use now are ones I got in trades. Fuck that cost. I really miss Canadian Fungi Supply, only vendor I could order as much as I wanted and not get raped on shipping. EM666 was a fair man
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Tomandjerry58
Stranger

Registered: 01/27/03
Posts: 5,212
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: bodhisatta]
#21377606 - 03/08/15 10:15 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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DO you guys mix up your own mea? Im trying this for the first time today with Dry malt extract and telephone agar. Hoping everything works well.
Trying to give my dishes something new to eat. Making a batch of home brew too
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: tripdawg420]
#21377643 - 03/08/15 10:26 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
tripdawg420 said:
beer agar 
if you re-read it's for diagnostic testing to be able to know by something other than taste if there's bacteria that shouldn't be there in a beer
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Quote:
preschooler said: DO you guys mix up your own mea? Im trying this for the first time today with Dry malt extract and telephone agar. Hoping everything works well.
Trying to give my dishes something new to eat. Making a batch of home brew too
90% of what I use is dme and telephone for mushrooms
10g agar 10g dme and 500ml water. boil first to disolve then pressure cook 250F 15PSI for 15m.
I always get pins if I let my plates fully colonize with DME agar. malt extract has a lot of free amino nitrogen so I think that's why it supports growth so well.
Edited by Trusted cuItivator (03/08/15 10:29 AM)
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MrGiraffe

Registered: 04/04/14
Posts: 3,149
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: bodhisatta]
#21377656 - 03/08/15 10:32 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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$30 for a 1/2lb of premixed MEA from FP. So that's basically 1/4lb of agar 1/4lb of malt extract. For about $2 more I can get a 1/2lb of pure lab grade from Fungi Asheville and A full pound of Malt from the local home brew store. That gives me a 1lb of MEA with malt left over for $2 more.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: MrGiraffe]
#21377663 - 03/08/15 10:34 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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25g pouches of telephone cost me a dollar 454/25=18.16 packs. I could buy 20 packs have more than a pound of agar and get my malt for free.
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Tomandjerry58
Stranger

Registered: 01/27/03
Posts: 5,212
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: bodhisatta]
#21377676 - 03/08/15 10:39 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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That's exactly what I did. Hard to beat the price on that stuff, 13 bucks for 3 lbs at the brew shop. I might try to use some dextrose sugar with my pda next time instead of the karo since I have it laying around now. Still haven't found a good price on bulk agar yet.
The bacteria you speak of must be tough lil fuckers since beer has low concentration of alcohol.
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pastywhyte's Easy Agar Tek [Re: bodhisatta]
#21377679 - 03/08/15 10:40 AM (8 years, 10 months ago) |
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Also consider that when you make your own you can easily source shit from around your house. SITR and karo are always on hand as are potatoes, carrots, whole wheat flour, cornstarch, dog food, brown rice, the water from my grain soak I was gonna dump down the drain, the list goes on.
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