Oh....for SURE. This is all your doing bro, I'm just along for the ride. Rest assured you will be the first to know of any goings on, sights, smells, or any other note worthy events.
I did do an OCD level cleaning and bleaching of the Big Balls, and I used RO water @ 0ppm. I bought some fresh flour this morning as well and am ready for round two this evening.
Quick question, flour and water are not the easiest two things to mix, and I didn't do the greatest job with incorporating them last night as they are in the bottom of the jar. Would it be a better idea to mix em outside the jar and add the water/flour already mixed?
Trying to eliminate as much that could go wrong as possible....via disinfectant, rigorous hand washing and minimizing contact, at least till the lactobacillus takes hold.
Question the 2nd: Isn't that one of the main cultures that are used in yogey? Could you take a shortcut and use a package of that and ensure you get a good start? Bushy was just talking about making homemade yogurt a month or two back, and he was doing a similar thing where a little left over yogurt would start the next batch. This is my first time ever making anything cultured besides attempting the Psilocybe Fanatacus Method of innoculating jars of rice flour and vermiculite with spore syringes of Psilocybe mushrooms. I believe I nailed at least 75% of the jars with no mold, but I never got a chance to try out my terrarium. Such a shame. Might have to give that another go as well, it's literally almost free to run, uses like 50w of power, and thongs happen quick. Not only that, but my super friend has been selling mushrooms lately, and I would love to be his supplier.
For anyone interested without digging too deep, your total investment will be about $100-150 depending on a few things you might need. You only need a few watts of of light for a few mins a day to keep the shroomers pointing up. Besides that, the only other note worthy investments are an ultrasonic humidifier or fogger and a few donor coolers, as well as a decent sized pressure cooker. You pack the medium into small tapered jars and poke a few holes in the top with a punch. Put the filled jars into the pressure cooker for 45m to sterilize them. You buy a spore syringe with the Psilocybe Cubensis Amazonian Strain and shoot a few CCs into the jars down the sides. Put em in the dark and wait for the mycelium network to fully engulf the medium. You set up a terrarium or four with a chicken wire floor and pop the inoculated jars out upside down into the terrarium. Keep the humidity at 100% and let a little shine through by cutting a window made of plexiglass. A few days later and your cakes should grow bomb little shrooms inside the terrarium. You can get like 3 or 4 rounds of bloomers per cake before it's shot. I haven't done any digging in a LONG time, but I'm sure everything is super laid out now with the internet being a young adult.
Complete guide available here
http://www.fanaticus.com/
Apparently the genius who created this has recently passed from Hep C. R.I.P. dude, your method has brought success to countless people.
THEY'RE called KAAAAHBS Joe's dad's stuff
Best way to mix the flour/water for me is to use a butter knife. Then scrape things down with a spatula. If the ratio is 1:1 by weight, you'll get a stiff mix, and thats ok. It's not until the critters start to really get the munchies that the starches break down enough to render the mixture more of a thick porridge than a dough. Once you start feeding, the 100g of leftover starter will make it easier to mix in the new flour and water.
Not sure if you'll have any issues with RO vs well/spring water, but it probably won't make a difference.
As for shortcuts... I strongly advise against them. If nothing else, it will feel kinda cheaty - and you won't really be getting the "local" flavor of whatever critters are predominant in your neck of the woods.
You could do things like add a few grains of bread yeast, and/or some fructose (I've heard using 50% pineapple juice instead of water for the first few additions helps), and over the years I've tried a few approaches.. It always boils down to the fact that you really don't need them, and it really won't help things along (unless you add yeast, but if you do then what was the point...).
Manually inoculating the culture has other drawbacks.. Unless they are the same exact species of fungi/bacteria they will be in competition with what is already on the flour and in the air.
I could of course be talking out of my ass, but it makes sense to me.
In fact, I've done that very thing with using the purchased culture. It will take a few months before it's stabilized with local flora, though for the first few loaves it will taste like Austrian sourdough, whatever that's supposed to taste like.
Good chance that I toss this and make a new one from scratch next month, but I might keep this one as well. Thinking of an interesting experiment.
It won't be terribly scientific, but might be conclusive enough to change my mind about something.
Ed Wood sells starter cultures from all over the place, including one he claims is likely the same strain used to make the first leavened bread in human history. His Austrian variant is currently impressing the hell out of me with regards to its voracity, and if it makes good bread, I'd like to keep it.
Thing is, I am pretty sure that the critters in the flour and air will eventually displace the Austrian strains, and I am back to plain old local sourdough.
If I maintain two jars (and am careful not to keep them too close together) there's a chance I can prove that what Ed claims might actually be true: That as long as you keep it well fed, the dominant strains will not be replaced.
Personally, I do not believe that is the case. I would LOVE to be proven wrong, as it would give me motivation to get more strains and preserve them, knowing I can reproduce them on a few days notice.
So probably in a month's time, i'll make a loaf from each and see if they are different.
Shortly after I posted the last picture of this Austrian culture, I stirred it up to get some O2 in it, and to knock the CO2 out (collapsing it back to original volume). It has since tripled in size. This might be ready for bread tonight. Which is just amazing, really.
No way this happens if the culture I used wasn't viable as hell. It would take easily a full week to get to this point if starting from scratch.
- just ribbing some mate! ...Knowing how the Stoner Foods thread loads up with food porn, I was expecting bakery level porn, page after page... 
... I'm a lazy cheating bastard though, I don't make my own crust (yet), but trader Joe's has a frozen one that's very good with actual butter in it, so the flavor is superior to shortening crust IMO,... yeeeeshhh, if you like molasses flavor and warm sweet spicing this pie rocks it!
oh my, @Duggy needs to wander in here, he's a baker that kills me 7-8 times a year!
