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Offlinebaldur
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Registered: 06/30/21
Posts: 434
Last seen: 18 days, 11 hours
Adventures in grain preperation - Is my grain properly hydrated?
    #27819621 - 06/14/22 04:37 PM (2 years, 7 months ago)

TL;DR
  • Do my jars seem to wet? If so, how can I remedy that?
  • Which method & grain would you recommend? I'd choose Rye and  24 hour soak + 15 min boil + dry on screen.


I've been doing experiments lately with grain preparation focusing on Wheat and Rye.

I've been using recipes from the book The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms

as well as checking out videos from Freshcap on youtube

Methods

So I tried three methods for grain hydration :

Method: Soak
  • Soak for 24 hours
  • Spray-rinse in a kitchen sink
  • Dry on a screen for 15-30 minutes (until grains don't stick to my hands anymore)
  • PC @ 15 Psi for 90 minutes


Method: Soak & Simmer
  • Soak for 24 hours
  • Spray-rinse in a kitchen sink
  • Simmer for 15 minutes
  • Dry on a screen for 15-30 minutes (until grains don't stick to my hands anymore)
  • PC @ 15 Psi for 90 minutes


Method: Straight to PC
  • Add 1:1 ratio water and dry grain straight to jar (100ml water and 100 ml grain in a 400ml jar)
  • PC @ 15 Psi for 90 minutes


Thoughts

When I cut the grains in half to check if there is any white part still visible on the inside (white = dry) it seems to me that soaking alone really doesn't do the trick. There's still some white part left both for Rye and Wheat. After boiling there's almost no white left. (See the below pictures)

Also the "Straight to PC" method was super fast. But I had problems with the grains being stuck together after PC-ing. The other methods resulted in grains that were really loose and not sticking together after PC-ing. Could this be due to the fact that I did not rinse the grains like in the other methods?

But do these jars seem too wet? I'd be quite surprised if so since I dried them thoroughly on a screen outdoors, and don't think I overdid the hydration procedure.

And don't you agree that the "straight to PC" method is not something I'd choose? Grains sticking together after PC-ing isn't a good sign, but there didn't seem to be much more moisture content in the inside of the jar compared to the other methods.

Is the soaking part really necessary? Couldn't I get away with just a boil, rinse, and then dry on screen?

I would choose Rye and the "Soak and boil" method. You guys agree?

Now to the raw data.

Moisture content

I measured the moisture content of the grain (by weighing before and after a bake in an oven)

Wheat Soaked: 35%
Wheat Soaked&Boiled: 41%
Wheat Straight to PC: 43%
Rye Soaked: 37%
Rye Soaked&Boiled: 43%
Rye Straight to PC: 47%

Here come pictures of the whole experiment.

Here we have examples of the grains using the three methods. Below each pile, I've cut up a few grains to check the internal moisture content.

Rye and Wheat, using methods Soak and Soak & Boil



Now using method Straight to PC




Here are some pictures of the jars

Soaked Wheat


Soaked & Boiled Wheat



Straight to PC - Wheat


Soaked Rye


Soaked & Boiled Rye


Straight to PC - Rye

Edited by baldur (06/14/22 05:05 PM)

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OfflinePBJ710
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Registered: 07/05/19
Posts: 3,301
Last seen: 7 hours, 15 minutes
Re: Adventures in grain preperation - Is my grain properly hydrated? [Re: baldur]
    #27820530 - 06/15/22 08:44 AM (2 years, 6 months ago)

IMO I don't see a need to soak at all when using wheat/rye and any of the straight to PC grains look good to me.  The soaked grains do appear underhydrated and a bit wet on the surface though from the moisture collecting at the bottoms.  You want that moisture in your grains, not running off of them into the jar soaking the grains at the bottom.

Burst grains are really nothing to worry about unless it's just an absurd amount that turns everything into a sticky mess.  I always have a few and it seems to help colonization if anything having a readily available food source on the surface of the grain to help direct the mycelium to new food sources.  The jars *should* break up after a couple shakes.  A longer dry time will help reduce the stickyness of things as well.

What works in my environment may not work in yours, but I dump wheat (straight out of the bag) into hard boiling water for 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it steep for 20 minutes, spread it out on a screen table to air dry with fans for 1-2 hours.  If I was filling jars I would probably air dry for 30-60 minutes as jars can handle a bit more moisture.

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OfflineHILLBILLY OUTLAW
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Registered: 04/21/22
Posts: 4,066
Loc: Luckenbach Texas
Last seen: 2 hours, 55 minutes
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Re: Adventures in grain preperation - Is my grain properly hydrated? [Re: PBJ710]
    #27820552 - 06/15/22 09:10 AM (2 years, 6 months ago)

I use oats. My method is soak over night in 5 gallon bucket. Rinse the jack out of them drain and rinse again. Over and over till water becomes clear and no longer cloudy. Drain, put in pot with fresh water. Bring to boil and simmer until oats are properly hydrated. I check hydration also by cutting grains in half and looking for white(not hydrated enough) or clear(properly hydrated). Drain and spread out on screen to steam dry the outside of grains sifting them to speed up evaporation. Once outside moisture is evaporated straight to jars and PC 90min at 15psi. So far itโ€™s done me good but Iโ€™m fairly new and maybe just lucky.


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Offlinehigh_desert
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Registered: 10/25/16
Posts: 319
Loc: Hidden Study
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
Re: Adventures in grain preperation - Is my grain properly hydrated? [Re: HILLBILLY OUTLAW]
    #27820579 - 06/15/22 09:41 AM (2 years, 6 months ago)

Ive been shooting for no visible moisture on grain.. I personally wouldn't have used those that are visibly wet. I have gotten that nice plump but dry on the outside rye and wheat using spitball's grain method. it's basically just first adding the grain to hard boiling water in the beginning then immediately removing it from heat. Then soak for only like 4-8 hours and bring to simmer, checking by squeezing some grains for that perfect look. When it's just right I spread it out a lot while it's steaming.. Outside is dry while it's still plump. I also add knife tips of gypsum to each jar before pc, helps a lot. mycelium rips through it but no weird sticky goo.

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