alzymologist
@alzymologist@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 5 hours ago:
I had troubles with logs - I have lots of trees, but apparently most are already badly inoculated. Or I need to choose really really healthy looking ones. Or dry them first maybe.
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 5 hours ago:
Yeah, I’m thinking in direction of edible (for mushroom) containers; maybe some cardboard origami, or simple wood plank box; I’m even thinking to try casting linoleum pots on woven jute. It must be doable, why nobody does that now?
- Comment on Can I assemble a metal building by myself? 5 hours ago:
This is possible but will take some time and resources for the tooling. Quite a lot of time if you are short on resources.
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 8 hours ago:
Yeah, scaling never really changes one parameter (that’s also why I always find it interesting). I’ve obviously never done it in a huge glass jar and I can see many new potential issues in all the comments here. I think I’ve got plenty of ideas here, this is amazing community!
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 8 hours ago:
Now that you mention it, I realized I just know the rate of diffusion of gas through plastic is enormous; I’ve done something really wrong trying to grow in vertically aligned jars!
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 8 hours ago:
Thanks, I’ll just try that. I know contamination starts only when the mycelium is dying; just being unreasonably careful here (I also do yeast pure cultures, habits interfere somewhat).
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 8 hours ago:
Thanks; I’m thinking about overcolonization indeed - Stamets mentions that growing in jars works, but mine here are just too small. Colony was supposed to hit the bottom and feel constrained, not grow up. Another thing is heat balance, which is not so obvious; the best results I’ve got were when I left the house for 2 days in the middle of the winter and temperature dropped by 2C. I mean, I expected small jars to radiate heat better, but then fruiting is surface process, maybe it’s the opposite too.
I’m also trying to come up with something that does not use disposable plastics. I know bags are quite versatile, I just hate them, not so much because of ecological issues, but like I can’t really make them myself, that’s disturbing.
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 11 hours ago:
But… but… they are in that humid plastic box! And the whole point of this experiment was to see whether I can run 100g media batches really; I had huge fruitings in these boxes just filled with autoclaved wooden stuff. The needle-like fruits do look like they are starved for oxygen; the horizontal ones started growing that way because they were loosely covered with foil (thus no light but full ventilation) - after I removed it I’ve got normal straight ones, but they still did not develop any gills or anything, just stopped. I suspect it’s something else. Almost like it just ran out of energy too soon, didn’t even have enough to retreat the mycelium - it’s one solid and seemingly inert block now (it’s been like that for some weeks; I have older attempts stuck like that for good, chunks of glistening white mycelium that doesn’t even rot)
- Comment on Mushroom growing scale down minimal volume 12 hours ago:
These are open jars, these particular ones reside in a plastic box with some water for humidity. I’ve tried different ventilation modes, from just leaving jars open in ambient to capping them with foil, still about same results (except when it dries out it stops growing sooner, of course)
- Submitted 17 hours ago to mycology@mander.xyz | 18 comments
- Comment on Peer review my foot 2 days ago:
- Comment on ancient hyperfixations 1 week ago:
It is serious. I have no clear explanation on “why”, it’s just a taboo, kind of good to know in case you happen to come to the reindeer herding area. I’ve learned it from basic reindeer herding dog training program orientation; I don’t have any reindeer, but I do have reindeer herding dogs. They only allow a few breeds there that naturally know the drill and can survive for hours having fun in savage frost.
Reindeers are so small IRL, about human-size, incredibly warm to touch, and they make sounds like pigs. They are also somewhat afraid of humans, unlike regular livestock, they usually run away from you same as from a dog and sometimes counterattack the dogs, which is scary. Herders would be happy to tell you about their life and everything, but just don’t discuss the head count.
- Comment on ancient hyperfixations 2 weeks ago:
Hey just so that you know, it is not polite to discuss reindeer count with outsiders.
But I know people just like that.
- Comment on Is this good 2 weeks ago:
Happened again because in washing you shook thebottle I suppose. It might keep repeating (vodka would make things worse, by making the fluid runnier, it will not stop pressure buildup). Be gentle and let it subside, but it totally can jump again. Worst case - just open it and cover with a tissue against insects. No biological invaders would survive there.
So next time just take larger bottle or consider wide mouth vessel.
- Comment on Is this good 2 weeks ago:
This is totally normal! You just left too little space on top, too vigorous yeast, too high temperature. It raised to the top and subsided later. Wash your lock and move on; if any contamination got in (unprobably), it got eaten brutally by now. And wash the outsides asap, every day would make it nastier.
- Comment on Brewing a Russian Imperial Stout! 2 weeks ago:
it’s “federation” now, whatever that means.
Apparently though, it was really made in UK, like IPA wasn’t made in either of the Indias up until recently. UK is still kinda empire I think?
- Comment on Can I throw away H2S-laced bentonite? 2 weeks ago:
If it is stinky, it would get stinkier in an indoors bin once food waste gets in and starts fermenting and heating up; those rooms are not well ventilated usually.
That is, I’m assuming you have many bucketfuls of the stuff.
Dacha is perfect solution imo. Latrines have same stuff in them naturally, you won’t make a difference. H2S is natural product of biowaste decay in anaerobic condition, and it is itself biodegradable. If you own the soil, you could also use it as soil modifier if you know what you are doing. Or pile it up, rains and bacteria will deal with soon.
- Comment on Brewing a Russian Imperial Stout! 2 weeks ago:
ooh, the heavy stuff! Great for winter; I’m so happy now that I made some heavy stout a month or so ago myself. What’s your gravity here?
These kit designs are ugly as usual:
YEAST 1 Sachet
yeah, like, who cares, just whatever fungus was laying about, right? And it’s not like we could just count the live cells there…
- Comment on Can I throw away H2S-laced bentonite? 3 weeks ago:
In Russia? Just dump it dude. Hazmat department would screw you up unless you are in one of the capitals or in science-city, and now probably even there.
Bentonite with sulfides is more or less naturally occurring stuff. Sulfur is probably well chemically bonded with whatever metal ions were there by now, it will stink but not nearly as much as original stuff; clay also has lots of surface for adsorption. You did a sane thing. Now dump it - just not in “indoors” trash container, drive it off.
- Comment on Anyone have tips for working with peppers in your brews? 3 weeks ago:
Christmas!
- Comment on Anyone have tips for working with peppers in your brews? 3 weeks ago:
I use peppers for mead a lot. Usual drill: throw them after bubbling slows down or the smell will bubble away.
A couple of good, ripe habaneros is good for 5L. Don’t use scorpions, they add sting but no other flavor, while habaneros are quite flavorful.
Capsaicin does not have any notable effect on yeast, it’s neurotoxin, after all.
- Comment on Final update on American Brown. 5 weeks ago:
Now that I think about it, do you remember how and, more importantly, why IPA style came to be?
Although modern “IPA” with less than 5% ABV is nothing like the good old one, and nothing like what I brew for that matter.
- Comment on Vesuvius 5 weeks ago:
The light finds its way. Modern lighting (especially bright stuff I use for lab lighting) is less harmful than sunlight, but still harmful and broad spectrum. Compared to foil consumption on tools sterilization, this foil is nothing.
- Comment on Final update on American Brown. 5 weeks ago:
I’m running this experiment too now.
- Comment on Final update on American Brown. 5 weeks ago:
I don’t know! All I know is that those that were stored for about 5 years were still getting better.
- Comment on Final update on American Brown. 5 weeks ago:
Try saving some for aging, properly made homebrews, unlike commercial packaging, store for ages and improve marvelously. Nobody told me this when I started.
- Comment on Vesuvius 5 weeks ago:
Those are quite transparent to harmful part of sunlight unfortunately. With light blocking devices, even a metal bell is less environmentally sound than foil - detergent and water to wash it occasionally have more footprint than a few meters of a few micron thick disposable aluminium.
- Comment on A mushroom consistently causing hallucinations of around a dozen of lilliputs 5 weeks ago:
I see human faces and figures whenever hallucinating mildly, even from exhaustion. That’s the simplest thing to interpret for our social brains probably.
- Comment on Vesuvius 1 month ago:
Nah, shipping alcohol is a nightmare. I’ve tried that, it could get criminal quickly if you are not extremely careful.
Although, why don’t we all give it another try, together?
- Comment on Vesuvius 1 month ago:
Just a single layer of thinnest foil to stop the light. This beer is quite light and needs this more than most, but I just wrap every fermenter that has any hops traces.
I estimated the real ecological costs at some point and it seems that they are near zero, even recycling the foil would make things worse, unless I just burn it for hydrogen. I do sometimes.
