# Lactobacillus Source - Inner Health Plus Capsules ?



## dpnicol (28/10/09)

I was starting to look into easily and reasonably controlled sources of lactobacillus when it dawned on me that we had some of excellent quality in our fridge, in capsules, in our fridge. Presto ! one jar full of capsules, each single capsule containing about 25 Trillion of the little fellas. Has anyone else considered these capsules as a source, or, even better used these already? or even better again had professional experience with this bacteria and could offer a little more help.
The reason for my looking into the lactobacillus is due to my passion for Lambic ale and Ginger beer. In short I am looking at ways to kick-start or get ideal cultures of the right bacteria up and running in brews quickly and effectively.
I have already started experiment #1 tonight which is a small jar of 500ml filtered water, 7 tsp ground ginger, 7 tsp raw sugar, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, ~ 2g bakers yeast ( don't cringe ) and ~2g lactobacillus in the form of 1x "Inner Health Plus" capsule.
If anyone is interested in the outcomes of this and the next few experiments please let me know / comment etc. Either way I will post here the outcomes, but I would like to hear of anyone else who may have tried anything like this.
Oh, and here is the link to inner health plus data => http://innerhealth.com.au/content/product/inner-health-plus


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## kook (28/10/09)

Worth a go - but bear in mind there are different strains of lactobacillus. The link you quoted mentions acidophilus where as the strain usually associated with beer is delbrueckii.


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## Guest Lurker (28/10/09)

And, whether its the correct one or not, its going to make your beer taste manky and infected. You do know that, right?


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## Scruffy (29/10/09)

Guest Lurker said:


> its going to make your beer taste...



...like yogurt.


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## boingk (29/10/09)

Stuff it off and use one whole day-old can of opened [read 'soured'] Guinness in your next stout batch. Thats what the legit breweries in Ireland do, AFAIK, 3% by volume if I recall.

Cheers - boingk


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## Fourstar (29/10/09)

boingk said:


> Stuff it off and use one whole day-old can of opened [read 'soured'] Guinness in your next stout batch. Thats what the legit breweries in Ireland do, AFAIK, 3% by volume if I recall.
> 
> Cheers - boingk



It would be soured but boiled to kill the nasties.

Or do as i do and control it. Add Lactic acid.


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## kabooby (29/10/09)

Give it a go.

Graham Sanders uses a sour cream culture for one of his lambics. I think sour cream has several diff types of lacto.

Kabooby


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## Ross (29/10/09)

Fascinating experiment, so please make sure you report back - but not sure I'd risk a full batch of beer, whatever the results of the trial.

cheers Ross


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## dpnicol (19/11/09)

Firstly, I probably need to point out that the whole idea of this experiment is to help with a "controlled" source of bacteria for 1. Ginger Beer and 2. Lambic style ales, it is my opinion that perhaps I didn't stress this enough in the earlier entry. Anyway, enough of that.

*The results are in!*
The initial test with a ginger derived example went very well indeed and it would appear that everything worked better with a little lactose involved ( not a surprise really considering there was Lactbacillus involved ).
The details of this experiment went like this:

*Day 1:* 500ml filtered water, 7 tsp ground ginger, 7 tsp raw sugar, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, ~ 2g bakers yeast and ~2g lactobacillus in the form of 1x "Inner Health Plus" capsule, covered with cling-wrap with a very small hole ( pin-prick ) in centre.
*Day 2:* Most action occurring in upper region of mixture, moderate level of bacteria activity tasted pretty rough and extremely dry. Added 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp raw sugar, 1 tsp Lactose and stirred. Almost immediately the bacteria activity altered slightly to that of more evenly throughout the mixture.
*Day 3:* Definitely better bacteria activity throughout mixture i.e. top to bottom, bacteria seemed to be acting upon the grated ginger with it literally "zipping" around the beaker. Added another teaspoon each of raw sugar, grated ginger, powdered ginger and lactose. Tasted much more like ginger beer and definitely tasted much more mature than it was ( exactly what I am after - a "turbo" culture ).
*Day 4:* Excellent activity throughout mixture, added another teaspoon each of raw sugar, grated ginger, powdered ginger and lactose. Once again tasted very mature appears to have worked well.
*Day 5:* End of initial test, tastes good for 4-5 day ginger beer plant, no need to split or anything I believe.

I then proceeded with a ginger beer brew, from scratch, but reasonably easy.


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## dpnicol (6/12/09)

The ginger beer was made as per this recipe:
500g Ginger ( processed - finely incl. skin )
1 1/2 Lemons ( zest, pulp, juice but no pith )
25g ground dried ginger
1 vanilla bean ( sliced in half, scraped )
2 quills cinnamon
150g CSR Treacle
350g Coles brown sugar
200g CSR Dark Brown sugar
300g Honey
150g Raw sugar
100g Lactose
5 capsules Inner health plus
1 x 7g sachet "Tandaco" bakers yeast
1 Sultana or raisin for every 200ml per bottle

Processed ginger, 500ml water and zest then added to a medium sized saucepan ( sterilised ) with vanilla bean and cinnamon including another 1 to 2 litres of water. Brought to boil ( with ginger boil-over is most likely to occur at beginning of boil ). Boil for about 30-40 mins then stored in refrigerator with lid in place for about 4 days. Brought back to boil, added all sugars removed "chunky-bits" then poured into fermenter, topped water up to 11 Litre mark, cooled to ~30C then pitched pre-started bacterium ( 1tsp raw sugar, 1tsp lactose in 500ml warm water ).

Racked across including 200g raw sugar, yeast did not restart ( probably due to blockages / filtering at tap - note to self, do not use sediment reducer next time! ), after a couple of days with no action, re-pitched a new started yeast with 3 capsules inner health plus. Everything else went as expected. Now bottled.


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## Josh (6/12/09)

kabooby said:


> Give it a go.
> 
> Graham Sanders uses a sour cream culture for one of his lambics. I think sour cream has several diff types of lacto.
> 
> Kabooby


Any idea which show it was that he goes through this process? I was thinking of trying the same thing with Greek Feta.


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## Thirsty Boy (6/12/09)

I made a berlinerweiss and soured it by blending in 2L of a very sour beer made from 100% DME and a tablespoon of the juice from the top of a freshly opened tub of natural yoghurt.

Nice clean fruity sourness

I was quite surprised that the yoghurt lacto bugs did so well, I thought they were selective about the sugars they eat and basically didn't play with non milk sugars... but they seemed to eat wort sugars well enough! That might be a kicker for your inner health bugs - they obviously ate the sucrose you fed them... will they eat maltose though?

It would actually be kinda handy to have a strain that only digested lactose or a similar sugar not normally found in wort... then you could really easily control the sourness levels. Bugs go in - and sourness is controlled by altering the amount of lactose you add.

I'll be interested in any other experiments you do along these lines - keep us posted

TB


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## brettprevans (6/12/09)

I have 23L of beer full of lactic if u need a source. So sour it tastes like pure lactic! 
Interesting experiments fellas


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## Infinitee (6/12/09)

Nice work conan.
Not a big fan of ground ginger (if you mean the dried powdered stuff you buy) for a GB ... prefer the fresh stuff
But there's nothing like a good sour beer.

If your looking for a source of L. delbrueckii
You can find it in 'kefir' cultures (see google)
Only problem is, it comes with a few other micro-organisms to boot.
These may or may not be proactive in the sour brewing business - am yet to try.



> Microorganisms Found in Different Batches of Milk Kefir-Grains and Kefir
> 
> Divided into Four Genus Groups [with revised nomenclature]
> LACTOBACILLI
> ...



Lactobacteria and lacto-infections are interesting in that they don't NEED lactose to survive, they can often just live on the energy flowing from the yeast culture (the by-products and minerals thereof).
Also, ginger itself (probably mostly the skin) contains a polyculture of yeasts, bacteria and even -I believe- viruses.

I grate my ginger raw (home-made or organic) into a warm sugary wort so as not to destroy all these microorganisms
Which really do add to a good ginger beer.

^_^ Keep on sourin'!


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## Rodolphe01 (6/12/09)

Doesn't seem like such a bad idea, I recently read some yogurt recipes where these capsules were used to inoculate the milk rather than the more traditional starter from a previous batch or bought yoghurt. Maybe there are some freeze dried yoghurt cultures that would be worth experimenting with?


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## jayse (6/12/09)

> Microorganisms Found in Different Batches of Milk Kefir-Grains and Kefir
> 
> Divided into Four Genus Groups [with revised nomenclature]
> LACTOBACILLI
> ...



:huh:  :blink: :unsure:


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