PuffM4gicDr4gon said:

The agar is probably clogging up your cheese cloth. I get some DME chunks in my agar. It doesn't cause any problems, but if you wanted to get rid of it, why not filter the DME/water first, allow it to cool completely, then just add the agar and bring it to boil?

Kloakk mentioned that they do their DME/water first and let it sit in the fridge for a while to settle. They then just pour off the clear stuff on top and discard the chunks

I do want to stress that you don't have to filter the mixture unless you're going for perfectly clear plates

---

I don't let my DME(dry malt extract) mix sit in my fridge, but I do it with grain water.

For DME plates I:

Mix DME and RO or distilled water in a pot, stir most of the time while it's heating up. When it reaches boil I turn down to a light boil and let it boil 5 minutes, I then run the mix through a coffee filter(not needed if you don't care about clarity) and then add the mix back in the pot.

Add agar agar and stir while it comes back up to a boil, when it's boiling I turn the heat off and transfer it to a media bottle and PC for 25 minutes.

Wait until it's cooled to about 60°C(140°F) and pour plates, you can let it cool more if you're not doing a lot of plates at once.

Kloakk said:

PuffM4gicDr4gon said:

[... why not filter the DME/water first, allow it to cool completely, then just add the agar and bring it to boil?

Kloakk mentioned that they do...then just pour off the clear stuff on top and discard the chunks

...you don't have to filter the mixture unless you're going for perfectly clear plates]

---

I don't let my DME(dry malt extract) mix sit in my fridge, but I do it with grain water.

For DME plates I:

Mix DME and RO or distilled water in a pot, stir most of the time while it's heating up. When it reaches boil I turn down to a light boil and let it boil 5 minutes, I then run the mix through a coffee filter(not needed if you don't care about clarity) and then add the mix back in the pot.

Add agar agar and stir while it comes back up to a boil, when it's boiling I turn the heat off and transfer it to a media bottle and PC for 25 minutes.

Wait until it's cooled to about 60°C(140°F) and pour plates, you can let it cool more if you're not doing a lot of plates at once.

---

Oh my goodness thank you guys so much!
I can't decide if I will strain w/ a cheesecloth going forwards but I think I will (also strain agar-agar solution with cheesecloth) as I tbh would ideally like it as close to crystal-clear as possible..

My issue has been heating up the mix/solution in the pot with the agar, so I think I will do the malt extract ( I use LME) first and heat, and I don't even need to weigh the agar bc they've always been exactly on weight ime (comes out to exactly to weight printed/stated on ea little baggy, so) then I'll just drop my agar-agar into the pot whenever or however I think it suitable.

Kloakk said:

...when it's boiling I turn the heat off...

---

I think this is/was my main concern and is what caused me to over-correct on attempt #2...I didn't and still don't know exactly how much to boil (and what all complications can be involved in this step).

So many ppl say they simply don't want it to boil over (in microwave).
I don't have microwave sized media bottles so I boil in super clean stainless steel pots, leaving me to wonder whether I over-cooked it as it doesn't boil over on me in the pot ime..just started browning on bottom of pot when boiling and sticking to the sides of the pot too!
I really tried not to burn it but by the time it started to boil it was already burned..

maybe if I wouldn't have left my media bottle slowly cooling in my PC for 5 hours it wouldn't have messed up (on attempt #1)
(my first set of dishes just don't seem to want to show any germination/contamination even though I'm coughing on them..maybe need to observe for longer...)

like cooking in general, this seems to take some practice on it's own (outside of playing with agar/LME/ratio)
I will try to boil it again without burning it...
I'm very unsure what to really think/do specifically regarding this bc I'm not exactly certain what I'm going for..
but I feel that if attempt #2  would have solidified, it would have been perfect-they looked clear although they had too little agar

(attempt/batch #1 are cloudy-not inoculating by contrast)


........thinking more outloud here actaully...maybe I'll just simply microwave it in clean mason jars so I don't have to worry anymore about burning the agar-agar lol...
does burning/overcooking make it cloudy for others?
Anyways
never seen others discuss issues I've had-sorry if I didn't search well enough...kind of surprised no one had any similar issues with c10's agar guide on his post replies but then again, I'm a noob.
 
I will update honestly-I swear I won't forget to get back on here and report whether I'm able to fix it and share findings.
thanks again and sorry for being so detailed-I always hope my experience might be relevant/helpful for others.