When do you give up on your tempeh?

[carfreefamily]

I made tempeh about two years ago using my dehydrator. It worked, but I had to spend a lot of time checking it because the dehydrator was too warm.

So this year I built an incubator using a reptile heater and thermostat in a box I built out of scavenged wood. I ordered spores from tempehonline.com.

It's been about 18 hours, and so far, there's no sign of any mycelium. I don't have a thermometer to check the inside temp, so maybe the thermostat is off, but it does feel warm in the box. Maybe the spores from tempeh online just aren't very good. (I ordered from GEM cultures before).

How long should I let it go before I give up on it and try again?

Thanks,

Paul

[carfreefamily]

I'll reply to myself -- I found that the temperature inside the incubator was much colder than was shown on the thermostat's dial. I had to turn it up to around 95 before it reached 85 inside. After I did that, the tempeh developed rapidly.

I'm making my second batch today. I find that the mycelium does not start forming until the last six hours or so.

[Tim Hall]

Paul,

Yeah, my experience has been mycelium doesn't become apparent until the tail end of the ferment. For most of the time it doesn't seem like it's doing anything at all. And temperature is critical for tempeh.

Also don't let it get too hot. The tempeh generates its own heat internally, and if it gets too hot, it'll kill the fungus.

It's really one of the easiest ferments once you get the hang of it, and can find a place to get a consistent temperature.