[DIYbio] Re: Has anybody done a scoby project similar to The Thought Emporium

Hi Michael,
thanks for the info. My passion is fermentation of foods and beverages, I've been using kombucha on regular bases since 2010 to make drinks.

One thing which I'm wondering about and I would like to find an answer to is how much the cellulose can be used by the microbes living in the "SCOBY" later on to break it down to get energy when it is needed. I've seen some "forgotten SCOBY's" in the fridges for two years or so and basically all sugar/liquid was converted in the cellulose. It is both protecting the microbes but you can also see that when growing the SCOBY batch after the batch the older layers are falling apart and I bet it is rather due to the batteries of enzymes used by some of the microbes rather than pH.

Anyway this would be something what I would like to do some experiment in the future to find out what is going on in more detail.

I'll share the info on the project which we will make at La Cherche, Cherbourgh, Normandie.

Sincerely,

Frantisek

On Monday, June 12, 2017 at 12:03:03 AM UTC+2, Michael Hogan wrote:

Here is a write-up of the kiddie pool sized sheets (using tea and sugar): https://www.hive76.org/2013/07/09/drexel-design-futures-bacterial-cellulose-and-a-world-record-maybe/

And a write-up of a "tealess" recipe that can be used to make pale cellulose:
https://www.hive76.org/2011/11/24/microbial-cellulose-2-a2-sheets-worth/

And a write-up of my first effort:
https://www.hive76.org/2011/06/21/cellulose-some-and-you-win-some/

Honestly, it's hard to fail .. the Acetobacer Xylinum grow vigorously at "room temp" if given enough oxygen (flat try takes care of that), and they drive the culture to such a low pH that they kill almost all potential competitors.

If you read up on Coco Nata, there are some descriptions of how they use weak sodium carbonate to clarify the cellulose.

The 1 cup per gallon rule for batch processing came from a science project my son did in high school.  Anything much over that tends to leave a lot of unreacted sucrose in the medium.  Much below that, and you deplete the sucrose (and limit growth) before reaching full thickness.

Fed batch or continuous batch would be really interesting, but I have yet to try either.

Also, some strains are more productive than others.  If someone manages to isolate a super-cellulose strain, I would be interested.