My tempeh incubator setup

Miso, tamari, tempeh, idli/dosa, natto, and more!

Moderator: Christopher Weeks

My tempeh incubator setup

Postby curtijam on Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:03 am

Hello fermentors,

New here and thought I'd share my incubator setup. I found a thermostatic bar heater on Amazon, and purchased this along with a digital thermometer (to test how accurate the heater was, and monitor the temperature) and a wire rack to keep the tempeh of the heater. I then stuck all of this inside a soft insulated picnic hamper which we already had, and used some drinking glasses to balance the rack on.

I spent an evening fiddling around with the thermostat on the heater trying to find the perfect temperature, and discovered there is a large gap of around 17 degrees centigrade between the high temperature where it cuts out, and the low temperature when it starts up again. So it's not very precise! In the end I found a setting where the maximum temperature didn't go above 35degC and made a reference mark with a Sharpie so I could easily find the same setting every time.

Quick and fairly cheap setup (~£50), but does the job and makes great tempeh!

What's your setup?

Jamie

Links
Thermostatic Bar Heater: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NT0X8K2/
Wire Rack: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00022BSR0
Digital Thermometer https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074XND445
Attachments
Tempeh_3.jpg
Tempeh_3.jpg (101 KiB) Viewed 9179 times
Tempeh_2.jpg
Tempeh_2.jpg (62.35 KiB) Viewed 9179 times
Tempeh_1.jpg
Tempeh_1.jpg (52.39 KiB) Viewed 9179 times
curtijam
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:53 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby curtijam on Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:06 am

and here are some pics of the finished tempeh! The first one was plain Soy bean, which was a bit under-fermented and crumbly. Second and third I started playing around with other beans and chickpeas, and let them ferment for a bit longer in the incubator.
Attachments
Tempeh_4.jpg
Tempeh_4.jpg (72.25 KiB) Viewed 9178 times
Tempeh_5.jpg
Tempeh_5.jpg (62.92 KiB) Viewed 9178 times
Tempeh_6.jpg
Tempeh_6.jpg (100.11 KiB) Viewed 9178 times
curtijam
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:53 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby cerbu on Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:06 am

for tempeh I use the gas oven , cheap controler https://www.aliexpress.com/item/W1209-D ... 4c4dMf5lf2 ,40W light bolt on the bottom for heat , works great
cerbu
 
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:20 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby curtijam on Mon Jun 10, 2019 5:14 am

Nice Cerbu - looks like I could have saved myself a few quid if I knew more about electronics!!! :)
curtijam
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:53 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby Durgan on Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:03 pm

curtijam wrote:and here are some pics of the finished tempeh! The first one was plain Soy bean, which was a bit under-fermented and crumbly. Second and third I started playing around with other beans and chickpeas, and let them ferment for a bit longer in the incubator.


I consider your tempeh to be poor quality. The beans should not be obvious, meaning they should be consumed by the mycelium. The cake should be homogeneous IMO. This is more than fermentation time. Look at some of my posts.
Durgan
Zone 5 Brantford, ON, Canada
http://durgan.org/2011/
Durgan
 
Posts: 155
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:57 pm
Location: Brantford, ON, Canada

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby Durgan on Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:06 pm

17 July 2017 Tempeh Fermenter
Posted on July 17, 2017 by Durgan
http://durgan.org/2017/July%202017/17%2 ... nter/HTML/ 17 July 2017 Tempeh Fermenter
After an internet perusal of the presented fermenters or incubators it was decided to make a simple unit from common readily available parts. The parts are: A 23 liter bucket from home brewing wine store, a muscle heating pad wet/dry with Low, Med, High switch from a pharmacy about 14 by 11 inches, a 20 watt LED with a dimmer switch from a local hardware to fine control the temperature at 31C, a trouble lamp socket with cord for the dimmable LED bulb, A simple stand from shelving area of a hardware store to set the trays on, a cheap bulb thermometer. The only tool required is a soldering iron to burn a hole in the lid of the 23 liter bucket to install the dimmable LED. Construction should take only a few minutes after acquiring the parts.
Image
Durgan
Zone 5 Brantford, ON, Canada
http://durgan.org/2011/
Durgan
 
Posts: 155
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:57 pm
Location: Brantford, ON, Canada

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby curtijam on Mon Jun 17, 2019 4:35 pm

Durgan wrote:I consider your tempeh to be poor quality. The beans should not be obvious, meaning they should be consumed by the mycelium. The cake should be homogeneous IMO. This is more than fermentation time. Look at some of my posts.


Will do, thanks for the feedback.
curtijam
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:53 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby kutululu on Fri Mar 27, 2020 5:52 pm

I have a question. What is the purpose of the heating muscle pad at the bottom of the bucket? I would have thought that the bulb itself together with the regulation does enough for keeping the right temperature? The only reason I can think about is better distribution of the heat in the bucket. Thanks for your answer.
kutululu
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:52 am

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby Durgan on Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:49 pm

kutululu wrote:I have a question. What is the purpose of the heating muscle pad at the bottom of the bucket? I would have thought that the bulb itself together with the regulation does enough for keeping the right temperature? The only reason I can think about is better distribution of the heat in the bucket. Thanks for your answer.


An incandescent bulb is almost useless since it has hot spots. I use an LED since it only produces a bit of heat. The body heater in the bottom is basically the heater to keep around 31C. For fine control I adjust the brightness of the LED. In practice I probably don't really need it. I have three settings for the bottom heater LMH and off. It is usually on M.

I also found fermentation can takes place at room temperature ~20C. It just takes a bit longer.
Durgan
Zone 5 Brantford, ON, Canada
http://durgan.org/2011/
Durgan
 
Posts: 155
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:57 pm
Location: Brantford, ON, Canada

Re: My tempeh incubator setup

Postby terji on Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:31 am

My setup is an old fridge where I have a bulb in outdoor enclosure for stability/safety and UT300 to control the temperature, works great. We use oven quite a lot so I need different space for tempeh and other stuff. It is at the bottom of the fridge and than I have two glass shelves at the top there where I can rotate the slabs if one gets too hot...

Image
Attachments
IMG_0984.jpeg
IMG_0984.jpeg (81.55 KiB) Viewed 7802 times
IMG_1024 (2).jpeg
IMG_1024 (2).jpeg (57.8 KiB) Viewed 7802 times
Last edited by terji on Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
terji
 
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:44 am

Next

Return to Legume Ferments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests