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Dabrit



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Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky?
#26742418 - 06/13/20 06:34 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I can't figure out why this is happening. I've made two seperate batches of MEA today and both came out of the pressure cooker with tons of mea chunks floating around in the bottle but before being pressure cooked there were no chunks?
I prepared as follows :
Mixed 12.5 grams of MEA into 1 cup of room temperature water. Let sit for 5 minutes and stirred thoroughly.
Then I brought to a boil added two drops of food colouring and poured into my media bottle and then brought the pressure cooker up to a boil and then sterilized at 15 psi for 35 minutes.
Next I just turned off the heat on the stove and let sit till the pressure had dropped to zero opened up the pressure cooker to find a bunch of mea in dark brown chunks in the solution.
I swished around a bit and it seems to help but not sure if I can even use this now?
This hasn't happened before until today so not sure where I'm going wrong?
-------------------- Psychedelics = True gateway to spiritual enlightenment and detachment from ones meat costume
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lateforthafuture
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: Dabrit]
#26742551 - 06/13/20 07:34 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Malt extract has protiens in it...the chunks you are seeing are the protiens breaking... it's normal especially if you boiled the agar before pressure cooking. Try not boiling...just heating up the water just enough to dissolve the MEA then put it in your media bottle, then pressure cook..it should help with the breakage.
Brewers call this the "hot break" it's when they boil their wort (Malt Extract is just dehydrated wort) and all the protiens break out of solution and into chunks. I'm also an avid home brewer so I know this all to well.
Our you could use something besides malt extract in your agar...I've only used MEA so not sure if other recipes (PDA, etc.) break like this but I'd imagine other nutrient sources might not break.
You can use your chunky broken MEA...it's just fine...it's just not that pretty. I've never had issues.
-------------------- "Not what could have been, or what should have been, but what will be" -Self
 
Edited by lateforthafuture (06/13/20 07:35 PM)
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MH5109
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: lateforthafuture] 1
#26742661 - 06/13/20 08:34 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I just put the dry ingredients in the flask and the water in the flask and throw it in the pc. Mycolorado was the first person to mention it to me and I thought he was crazy but I tried it and was hooked. Much easier than heating it in another pot and then trying to funnel chunky agar into the flask, and plus you don't dirty another dish lol.
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lateforthafuture
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: MH5109]
#26742692 - 06/13/20 08:57 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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That's a good idea...it's all going to get heated and dissolved puring the PC cycle... and less mess the better !!!
-------------------- "Not what could have been, or what should have been, but what will be" -Self
 
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Dabrit



Registered: 12/02/15
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: lateforthafuture]
#26742737 - 06/13/20 09:20 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
lateforthafuture said: Malt extract has protiens in it...the chunks you are seeing are the protiens breaking... it's normal especially if you boiled the agar before pressure cooking. Try not boiling...just heating up the water just enough to dissolve the MEA then put it in your media bottle, then pressure cook..it should help with the breakage.
Brewers call this the "hot break" it's when they boil their wort (Malt Extract is just dehydrated wort) and all the protiens break out of solution and into chunks. I'm also an avid home brewer so I know this all to well.
Our you could use something besides malt extract in your agar...I've only used MEA so not sure if other recipes (PDA, etc.) break like this but I'd imagine other nutrient sources might not break.
You can use your chunky broken MEA...it's just fine...it's just not that pretty. I've never had issues.
Ok thanks dude. But wouldnt the MEA boiling in the pressure cooker just cause the same thing? I mean you can't avoid boiling the agar once you sterilize it in the pressure cooker?
-------------------- Psychedelics = True gateway to spiritual enlightenment and detachment from ones meat costume
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lateforthafuture
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: Dabrit]
#26746394 - 06/15/20 11:50 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Dabrit said:
Quote:
lateforthafuture said: Malt extract has protiens in it...the chunks you are seeing are the protiens breaking... it's normal especially if you boiled the agar before pressure cooking. Try not boiling...just heating up the water just enough to dissolve the MEA then put it in your media bottle, then pressure cook..it should help with the breakage.
Brewers call this the "hot break" it's when they boil their wort (Malt Extract is just dehydrated wort) and all the protiens break out of solution and into chunks. I'm also an avid home brewer so I know this all to well.
Our you could use something besides malt extract in your agar...I've only used MEA so not sure if other recipes (PDA, etc.) break like this but I'd imagine other nutrient sources might not break.
You can use your chunky broken MEA...it's just fine...it's just not that pretty. I've never had issues.
Ok thanks dude. But wouldnt the MEA boiling in the pressure cooker just cause the same thing? I mean you can't avoid boiling the agar once you sterilize it in the pressure cooker?
Yeah, you are right. But there is a correlation with how hard you boil and how much protien breaks out of solution. I obvisouly can't see inside the pressure cooker and how hard the liquid is boiling during the cycle, but I assume (maybe incorrectly) that it's a little less vigorous then directly heating it in a pot.
It's been my experience with MEA that there will always be some breaks and chunks, I personally get much less if I don't boil it in a pot...just heat the water enough to dissolve the MEA, then load it into the media bottle and pressure cook. Others might have different expereinces, I've seen plenty of people on here with crystal clear plates. Maybe making your own MEA and reducing the amout of malt extract might help... I'd like some crystal clear plates myself. I might try PDA next time, the chunks have just never bothered me.
-------------------- "Not what could have been, or what should have been, but what will be" -Self
 
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Sockadin



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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: lateforthafuture] 1
#26746469 - 06/15/20 12:22 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I use LME and Agar and still get a little flurry in the mix. C10 said to strain through cheese cloth and then load into the bottle and PC. It works! Clear as day.
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natedawgnow
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: Sockadin]
#26746590 - 06/15/20 01:18 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Hot break happens it's nothing to worry about.
If you want clear agar do what sock said.
Been using a brand recently that I have yet to see do it which is nice
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lateforthafuture
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: Sockadin]
#26746708 - 06/15/20 02:16 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Cheese cloth..that's brilliant...def doing that next time !!!
-------------------- "Not what could have been, or what should have been, but what will be" -Self
 
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mushpunx
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: lateforthafuture]
#26747067 - 06/15/20 04:59 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I don't use pre mixed but I had trouble with sediment before I started putting my media bottle in the microwave for a couple minutes first, giving it a good swirl (be careful you don't get burn over and hurt yourself). This seemed solve any sediment problems I was having.
You said you pre boil, when you pour into your media bottle , do you see any chunks or is it only after the PC cycle?
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Dabrit



Registered: 12/02/15
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: mushpunx]
#26747984 - 06/15/20 11:52 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Thanks for the info guys I shall try the cheese cloth method for my next batch 👌
-------------------- Psychedelics = True gateway to spiritual enlightenment and detachment from ones meat costume
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AtmozFear
just a shade of myself


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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: Dabrit]
#26748086 - 06/16/20 02:05 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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cheese cloth is indispensable... can use it for many things
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Dabrit



Registered: 12/02/15
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Loc: Pacific Northwest
Last seen: 6 months, 28 days
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Re: Premixed MEA keeps coming out of the pressure cooker chunky? [Re: mushpunx]
#26751101 - 06/17/20 09:09 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushpunx said: I don't use pre mixed but I had trouble with sediment before I started putting my media bottle in the microwave for a couple minutes first, giving it a good swirl (be careful you don't get burn over and hurt yourself). This seemed solve any sediment problems I was having.
You said you pre boil, when you pour into your media bottle , do you see any chunks or is it only after the PC cycle?
No it's after the pressure cooker cycle. Before going into the pressure cooker I had a basically sediment free mix.
-------------------- Psychedelics = True gateway to spiritual enlightenment and detachment from ones meat costume
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