lactobactilious from yogurt

[Grey_Meadow]

I have made "home-made" yogurt with a Tbsp of unflavored yogurt added to a gallon of scalded (or just less than scalded) milk.
Ferment this at about 100F or so and within 12 hours you have yogurt.

Has anyone tried to add yogurt to a fermenting wash to get a lacto fermentation started? With Probiotics all the rage it seems a bunch cheaper than buying Lactobacilious Tablets at the health food store.

Grey

[S-Cackalacky]

When I stand in the line waiting for my prescriptions, the probiotics are there and I read the labels while I wait. I haven't found one yet that has lactobacillus listed in the ingredients. I also haven't found it listed in yogurts like Activia. That said, a while back I started a first gen SF ferment and poured an 8 ounce glass of buttermilk in because the label said, "cultured buttermilk". Probably didn't accomplish anything, but what the heck.

Someone (Brendan?) has a step by step process for making a lacto starter using cracked corn. Seems fairly simple, but takes a few days. It may be a sticky over in the fermemtation section, or try a search.

Edit: Found the link - http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=46340 .

[Grey_Meadow]

@S-C thanks for the link.
I have done a bit more research and this is VERY complicated and complex.
There appear to be "Billions and Billions" of strains of lactobacillus

Milk is fermented to make yogurt. To set up yogurt production milk is heated, this helps kill other microorganisms.... Lactobacillus bulgaricus interacts with Streptococcus thermophilus to form a symbiotic starter culture to ferment milk.

and then I found this
Characterization of lactobacilli from Scotch malt whisky distilleries and description of Lactobacillus ferintoshensis sp. nov., a new species isolated from malt whisky fermentations
http://mic.sgmjournals.org/content/147/4/1007.full" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Here are couple of interesting clips from the Technical Article

Abstract
Sixty-four strains of Lactobacillus were isolated from fermentation samples from 23 malt whisky distilleries located in the major whisky producing regions of Scotland. The strains were assigned to 26 ribotype patterns. Strains of some ribotype patterns were widely distributed and recovered from distilleries throughout Scotland, while strains representing other ribotypes were particular to a specific region or even a certain distillery. Repeated sampling of a single distillery over a 12 month period showed that the range of bacteria present, as indicated by ribotyping, was stable, but was influenced by changes in malt supply and the period of closure for annual maintenance. ...

INTRODUCTION
Scotch malt whisky is distilled from the fermented extract of malted barley. In this process, the malt is milled and mixed with water to produce a ‘grist’ which is mashed at ∼63 °C for about 90 min to enable enzymes from the malt to hydrolyse polymeric material, largely starch and protein. The hot liquid or ‘wort’ is collected, cooled and transferred directly to the fermentation vessel. After fermentation, the ‘wash’ is distilled and the spirit is matured in oak casks for at least 3 years and generally a lot longer. Since the wort is not boiled, as it is in a brewery, it contains active malt enzymes that continue to hydrolyse starch during yeast fermentation and the alcohol yield is maximized (Palmer, 1997⇓ ). However, bacteria from the malt that can survive mashing will also be transferred to the fermentation. In practice these are largely lactic acid bacteria and the Scotch whisky fermentation is therefore a mixed yeast/bacterial fermentation. ...

[Condensifier]

Kefir has lactobacillus in it and you can get 1/4 cup of kefir on ebay for $3.75 with free shipping.

[GuyIncognito]

There is a brewery around here that uses Nancy's Yogurt to sour their beer. They lauter into their kettle and at 120F dump in the yogurt, and it sits (I forgot how long, some increment ot 12-24-48 hours), then when it has the desired level of tartness they begin the boil. I've done something similar in making the yeast starter for shochu fermentation (using koji & sake yeast), using nancy's to lower the pH in 48 hours rather than 2 weeks.

[Red Rim]

Hello brother, I know the owners of Nancy's. Pm me if you want to talk about this more. You must live nearby.