Culturing Bifidobacterium Bifidum

[Ammon]

I have read about culturing Bifidobacteria Bifidum on this forum. I made some experimental cultures using Bifidum from Natren culturing in milk according to instructions presented in this forum.(by Vegas for example)

The result of my experiments was mixture of yellowish liquid phase and white solid phase(picture below). That yellowish liquid tastes bad. The taste of solid white phase is not so strong can much more easily eaten. Should the result be like that?

I tried to find pictures what the result should be like but didn't find anything. If the result should be like this should both yellowish liquid phase and solid white phase be eaten? In what phase is that bacteria population? I would prefer eating this white solid phase only.

Is it possible to reculture part of result by adding milk?

 

[South]

From my past experience culturing milk with various probiotics, the bifido-only cultures didn't taste like normal yogurt, (whereas my cultures that had at least some lactobacilli, not just bifidos, did taste like yogurt).

I think I'd read somewhere that bifidos never taste like ordinary yogurt, but not sure where I read that. Wish i had something more definite to post here.

But all of the culture experiments I did resulted in separation of runny liquid and a thicker mass.
When we buy store-bought yogurt, the manufacturers have used gums to homogenize the product so it does'nt separate. But homemade, without gums added, just about always separate like that.

 

[satori]

Isn't it an obligate anerobe? You would need to control the amount of oxygen in the container. What is growing in the container may not entirely be bifidus. Bifidus is hard to culture properly.

 

[Richard7]

acording to wikipedia

Recent research has reported that some Bifidobacterium strains exhibit various types of oxic growth. Low concentrations of O2 and CO2 can have a stimulatory effect on the growth of these Bifidobacterium strains. Based on the growth profiles under different O2 concentrations, the Bifidobacterium species were classified into four classes: O2-hypersensitive, O2-sensitive, O2-tolerant, and microaerophilic.

The bifidobacterium longum entry states that it is microaerotolerant.

I did not study biology beyond school, so I really do not know, but I would have thought that as milk that has been heated to 85C for 10 minutes or so and then allowed to cool to 40C would have very little O2 in it, it would be ok for Bifidobacteria.

Oh and the seperation is into curds and whey. If you had stopped the fermentation earlier, at a higher pH it would not have seperated.

It will not taste like yoghurt because it is not made with the bacteria that give yoghurt its distinctive flavour, the curds will not taste like cottage cheese or quark or twarog for the same reason. Which is also the reason that cottage cheese quark and twarog taste different and the reason different brands of natural yoghurt taste different etc.

 

[Richard7]

In solidarity, I should add that I am currently consuming a cup per day of a soy "yoghurt" made from a probiotic that is pretty vile, I can only manage it with the addition of cocoa and pepitas or desiccated coconut or some other element that adds texture.

It is my second experiment with soy yoghurt and if my first had been this bad I would not have made a second.

And I am planning on trying to make another batch tomorrow, the problem is its a multistrain probiotic and I do not know if the way I made it the first time favoured the most needed species or just the tastiest ones.