i used to make tempeh, i guess just soy free, a few years ago i built an incubator out of a styrofoam cooler, a seedling heat mat, and a temperature controller for the heat mat. i also poked knitting needles through the styrofoam cooler to make a rack for the tempeh to sit on
basically, when i lived with my mom i was able to make decent tempeh, not every batch was good but i ate a lot of tempeh. i kept the incubator in the garage, i don't know if that makes a difference.
when i moved to an apartment i only attempted making tempeh a couple times but it never worked. i do think those times i overcooked the beans.
but i moved to a house and have more space and wanted to start making tempeh again, and every single time it has not turned out, and i can't figure out what is wrong
i realized the incubator was contaminated with gross liquid from a bad batch and thought if i replaced the styrofoam and cleaned off the seedling mat really well it would work
still didn't work
i thought maybe my tempeh starter had expired and ordered a different brand of spores
still didn't work, though i saw enough mycelium growth to confirm the spores are active and something else was interfering with it
i get this vibe that something is wrong with the temperature or humidity levels but i did an experiment where i plugged in the incubator and put a little cup of water in and then made sure the temperature of the water was the same as what the probe said, and it was, i thought something was wrong with the temperature controller
the temperature controller somehow lost the ability to be set to a different temperature but it still worked since it got stuck on the right temperature for tempeh and koji
i am at a complete loss as to what is wrong and i miss having tempeh and want to fix this problem
the incubator smells like bad tempeh again and i don't know if i need to decontaminate it or how (i did line it with a black garbage bag to avoid replacing the styrofoam if it got contaminated again and i don't know if that caused a problem with the temperature)
the last batch had the temperature displayed too low, like 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but it still went bad the same way