Silly Q about Lactobacillus supplements.

[RichardC]

A friend gave me a bottle of Lactobacillus Acidophilus supplement. I'm honestly afraid to even open the bottle because me and all my wine are located in a small apartment...

Yes, I might be overthinking but, I do believe that the possibility of contamination exists.

What do you all think? Lol

 

[sour_grapes]

I am confused: What kind of contamination are you concerned about?

Have you ever had yogurt in your apartment?

 

[1d10t]

You make a sour dough bread starter by leaving it out to be contaminated by the stuff in the air like lactobacillus. If your supplement is a loose powder then use some caution if you are going to be making wine and opening buckets. If the supplement is a live bacteria then a little into the gut and feed it milk and your bottle should last a long time between openings.

 

[Johnd]

https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-acidophilus/art-20361967

 

[RichardC]

Sour grapes, it's a supplement in probably capsule form. I am assuming that during manufacturer, bacteria will end up on the outside of these capsules too and get into the air especially when trying to take tablets out if the container.

1d10t, many videos and article say sourdough gets the microbes from the air and I'm not denying that air has many microbes, but, I believe that the microbes come from the four itself. All our flour is treated with an anti fungal agent so, I CAN NOT make sourdough bread!! I've tried.

 

[BernardSmith]

RichardC, If you want to sour your dough simply make a regular bread dough before you do the final shaping remove a tablespoonful of the dough (yes, even with oil and salt and any other adjuncts). Now, store that small amount in a small mason jar and if you make your bread weekly (or more frequently) simply add this starter to your fresh dough and allow the cultures to ripen the dough overnight. If you make bread less frequently you may need to feed this dough between times with a small amount of flour and water, but this is now your mother -daughter culture and every time you make a loaf with this starter (and you use it all up in the next loaf, you remove the same amount of dough and store that. There is no waste and there is no need for continuous feeding and no need to imagine that you have another creature in your home to look after.
If you make bread very infrequently you might take a cup of wheat berries, sprout them for three or four days and then steep the sprouted berries in a gallon of water for three days. At the end of that week this water will be full of lactic bacteria (the pH will be close to 3.5) and you can use that water to bake bread. In the 60's (apparently) this liquid was all the rage in certain communities where it was called rejuvelac - and it makes a refreshing drink with a pleasant acidic bite - lactic acid being less harsh than malic or citric.

 

[Rice_Guy]

* typical manufacturer, the packaging is separate from the capsule making room, capsule mfg will have special air handling with dehumidifiers
* viable organisms will decrease with time, assuming that it spent a month in a dry warehouse and another in the store, the risk is low
* yoghurt bacteria requires air to live and reproduce. The risk of having it grow is low if you have good anaerobic winemaking technique/ keep the SO2 levels up/ don’t let the air lock dry out etc. (however unknown what mixture your capsules are)
* there probably are some organisms in this family in your home now, on your shoes, in the garden dirt, in the milk processing plant that makes your coffee creamer, in your fridge if you have kamboucha,

Sour grapes, it's a supplement in probably capsule form. I am assuming that during manufacturer, bacteria will end up on the outside of these capsules too and get into the air especially when trying to take tablets out if the container.

1d10t, many videos and article say sourdough gets the microbes from the air and I'm not denying that air has many microbes, but, I believe that the microbes come from the four itself. All our flour is treated with an anti fungal agent so, I CAN NOT make sourdough bread!! I've tried.

? ? having worked in the cereal industry and being a reader of Cereal Chemistry, ,,, WHAT ANTI FUNGAL AGENT ,,,, ? bread wheat flour is typically treated with bromates which function to oxidize the starch (ie make it have the texture of aged crop flour). You can get away from bromates if you buy organic flour (again it only speeds up natural oxidation). I did not have anti-fungal agents which were legal to put on flour! The bakeries who make sour dough breads will use normal high protein flour available in the market, the available (legal) anti fungal agent is sorbate/ sorbic acid which is only added in the bread formulation

 

[RichardC]

Ok , I'm embarrassed. The package of flour home says 'fungal alpha amylase' so I'm probably loosing my mind. I still however can not get a starter going. The flour sits there doing nothing for days. Lol.

RiceGuy, Thanks! I'm not so worried now, about contamination.

 

[Rice_Guy]

The function on alpha amylase is to break ends off of starch so that the yeast which is used in bread proofing have enough sugar to reproduce and grow. Yeast will not use starch.

Ok , I'm embarrassed. The package of flour home says 'fungal alpha amylase' so I'm probably loosing my mind. I still however can not get a starter going. The flour sits there doing nothing for days. Lol.

RiceGuy, Thanks! I'm not so worried now, about contamination.

 

[RichardC]

That why yeast, flour, water and salt ferments!