altford78 said:

Since I switched to the presto from my old ~12-13psi PC, I get burned agar, even at 20mins. Yesterday I found one of mushboys' old posts where he said to try to mix the ingredients with cold water, no pre-boil, and just stick in the PC like that. So I figured I'll try that.

Well not only do I still get the burned agar,now I also have an agar patty sitting at the bottom of the bottle.  25mins at 18psi.





Fuck man, it's really not my day today is it. Trashed 6 shoeboxes, went to pour some plates since I have myc climbing the walls and surprise! Oh also a bird pooped on me while I was trashing the shoeboxes. I haven't had a bird poop on my for a decade. I think the universe is just making fun of me at this point.

I'm going to boil it anyway and see if something useful comes out of this. Let me know if you have any ideas.

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AyePlus said:

Thermal break is annoying, Melt them, stir it super well to get the agar mixed in, let the bullshit settle out, pour iff the top slowly into a new media bottle and PC again for 15 min, if you did a good job decanting it should be perfect.


To avoid i add boiling water to agar and lme then mix thoroughly in a pyrex beaker (measuring cup works), pour into media bottle and top with more boiling water (i use a teakettle)  swirl and PC for 25 min at 15 psi. It happens more at higher psi.


Make sure you use plenty of water for agar, ita temping to use less for a short cycle but it might be contributing to your thermal break.

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Chamo said:

I have had this happen when I do not use enough water in the pressure cooker and the agar cools too quickly. I keep a hot plate with near boiling water near my flow hood. If I happen to have agar cooled on the bottom like that I stick it in the water to maintain a liquid until I’m ready to use it. I haven’t had any problems doing this. But the only time this happens to me is when I don’t use enough water in the PC. I would also like to know if there are other reasons for this.

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mushhead said:

are you using the canning rack to prevent your jars from sitting directly on the bottom of your PC?
if not try raising your jars up using metal rings for your jars if you do not have the rack.

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Yep, I do. I was thinking of putting another trivet in there to raise them even higher, but I think that's just fucking around at this point.