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Invisibleolmyco
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Registered: 01/08/24
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Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely
    #28673801 - 02/24/24 08:14 AM (10 months, 17 days ago)

Hello agar first timer here.

Yesterday I was cooking agar and had the problem that not everything dissolved completely.

I brought water to the boil and then put agar, maltextract and bit of activated carbon(for color) in. These 3 ingredients I mixed beforehand and gave it all at once in to the boiling water. Most of it dissolved, but there were a few chunks which I could not crush completely.

The result is okay, I think. But how can I avoid this? Have I done something wrong or missed something?



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Invisiblejoze
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Registered: 11/10/20
Posts: 1,056
Loc: PNW
Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: olmyco] * 1
    #28673820 - 02/24/24 08:23 AM (10 months, 17 days ago)

Hello. This is a fairly common issue.

I would guess that the chunks you are seeing are mainly activated carbon. But malt extract can also create clumps sometimes. To get clearer agar, I filter it before sterilizing. Here is my procedure for making agar with malt extract and nutritional yeast:

1. Dissolve my agar in hot water in my media bottle.

2. Dissolve my malt extract and nutritional yeast in a coffee mug full of hot water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, then pour it into a coffee filter and let it slowly drip through and collect in another container.

3. Once it's finished filtering, I add the filtered solution to my agar, add some water to bring it up to 500 mL, then sterilize.

I would recommend trying this method and seeing how much of a difference it makes for you.


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Invisibleolmyco
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Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: joze]
    #28674072 - 02/24/24 12:05 PM (10 months, 17 days ago)

Thank you very much :thumbup:


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Invisiblejoze
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Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: olmyco] * 1
    #28674146 - 02/24/24 12:32 PM (10 months, 17 days ago)

Quote:

olmyco said:
Thank you very much :thumbup:



You're welcome. It's really not a big issue. Chunks in your agar are more of a cosmetic issue than anything else. As long as your agar is sterile, you shouldn't worry too much about anything else.


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Invisiblevfb123


Registered: 12/23/22
Posts: 71
Loc: Canada Flag
Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: olmyco] * 1
    #28674158 - 02/24/24 12:39 PM (10 months, 17 days ago)

LME dissolves best in COLD water, so the reason for your clumps is because you’re adding your dry ingredients to boiling water.

I start out with 8g of agar agar, 8g of LME and just a splash of cold water in a 500ml borosilicate measuring cup, mix thoroughly and keep stirring in more water until you reach the 500ml mark

If you used cold water at this point the agar mixture should be relatively clumpless, but I’ll usually throw it in the magnetic stirrer for a couple minutes to achieve crystal clear agar. I used to filter my agar before I realized the difference cold water makes when dissolving LME chunks.



Amazon is your hookup for a magnetic stirrer, or diy like I did.



Here’s what my plates look like


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Invisiblejoze
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Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: vfb123] * 1
    #28674196 - 02/24/24 01:07 PM (10 months, 17 days ago)

Quote:

vfb123 said:
LME dissolves best in COLD water, so the reason for your clumps is because you’re adding your dry ingredients to boiling water.

I start out with 8g of agar agar, 8g of LME and just a splash of cold water in a 500ml borosilicate measuring cup, mix thoroughly and keep stirring in more water until you reach the 500ml mark

If you used cold water at this point the agar mixture should be relatively clumpless, but I’ll usually throw it in the magnetic stirrer for a couple minutes to achieve crystal clear agar. I used to filter my agar before I realized the difference cold water makes when dissolving LME chunks.



Amazon is your hookup for a magnetic stirrer, or diy like I did.



Here’s what my plates look like



You're right, dissolving in cold water works much better. I played around with that plenty. The reason I filter it instead, is my LME and/or nutritional yeast was causing the agar to come out of the pressure cooker with a layer of scum at the bottom, and it was making my plates cloudy. Filtering completely eliminates cloudiness, chunks, and scum.


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Edited by joze (02/24/24 01:08 PM)

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Invisibleolmyco
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Re: Chunks: agar did not dissolve completely [Re: vfb123]
    #28675306 - 02/25/24 09:30 AM (10 months, 16 days ago)

Okay, will try next time :thumbup:

Thanks for the input guys :cool:


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