I prepped rye jars this week for oysters and a few others. I soaked 24 hours instead of 12... now I’m getting the amount others were suggesting from the start. The grains expanded probably twice as much with that extra 12 hours. I did the soak - boil for 10 - fling boiling grains all over from colander to colander to bowl to pot trying to flash-dry them. LOL. I filled jars and had way too much grain, so I filled another quart.
This being said, I’m thinking my slow colonization of everything from reishi to shiitake might be caused my my under-hydrated grain. I’ve got a few jars that are almost 2 months old and not fully colonized. My house is around 60°F, so I’d been blaming that.
Question - I have a few jars that look very colonized. Not the thick ropes white oyster myc, but it appears each grain is covered. Nothing moves when I tilt the jars. The part that makes me nervous is that the very top grains in the jars are not covered in white myc. They aren’t loose, but they’re not coated like the rest of the jar. I don’t want to expose the grain to the air if it’s unprotected, but I don’t want to let it sit so long that the myc is unhappy. I’ve got a 3/8” hole covered in tyvek on each. I’m not sure what to do.
Has anyone else suspected dry grain but moved forward anyway? My PCing must’ve worked, because there are no signs of contams.
I definitely learned something about my huge bag of rye, though.