I gave up my first experiment vat, and now I am starting a new vat with recipe and instruction from Melanie from Ainisomatte.
Ash Water (Aku) making
This time, I got ash from my friend in Austria. They live in a countryside house with wood heating system. The oven to heat up the water for the house is a modern oven that burns wood (they make heating woods from their own forest, very cool) with controlled O2 flow, which burns them in high temperature. We made experiments before, and their ash was giving even PH13! So, I am hopeful now. The ash had some charcoal mix, so I used the sieve to sort charcoal out. it is about 1kg of ash in the bucket (20L).
Previously, I left the tab water for over 1 day to de-chlorine. I boiled the water and added to the ash in the bucket while it is hot and mixed with the stick very well and let the ash settle on the bottom. The PH meter shows that it is PH12.12. Not as high as I expected, but still very good. I am a bit surprised that the water is so brown.
I took the clear part of the water (uwazumi) out to another bucket, so the ash water does not have the ash particles in it. After that, I boiled more hot water and added it to this ash in the bucket again. This will make the 2nd brew of the ash water.
This is the 2nd brew of the ash water. It has been sitting like this for 3 days now. This time, the water does not have so much color and PH is still almost 12. Maybe I use this one for the start of the vat.
I had 2h online workshop session with Melanie and now I am practicing her instruction following her recipe.
Step 1:
Here is the sukumo I bought from Japan. I open it in a metal container (oven tray). Some part of the sukumo has white fungi on it. I read that it is a good sign. I went through the sukumo to break the big crumble into smaller pieces.
I boiled ash water (2nd brew, PH12) in big pot (not the one in the photo) and let it cool to ~70 degrees. As the PH depend on the temperature, the PH meter on the first photo shows the PH lower here (I was checking the temperature with the tool, I hope the PH is still high when it cools down). I poured some ash water (~70 degrees, ~1L) to this tray, let it cool a bit and knead it with my hand well until it is all soft and muddy and no hard part left.
I am using the 20L glass container as my vat container. After the sukumo getting soft with kneading, I transferred them into the vat container, added more ash water (~400ml) until the sukumo submerges into ash water (hitahita). Then I wrapped the container with layers of seed heater mat, Molton fabric, NASA blanket, then with a wool blanket. I set the temperature sensor of the heating mat thermostat into sukumo liquid and set the thermostat to 32 degrees. I will wait like this for 4 hours until the next step.
Step 2:
I started with cooking bran with ash water and let it cool. It was cooked around 10 min.
Then I started warming up the ash water. PH is a little higher than 11, so I added water to bring it down to PH 11.
Left is how the vat looked like before adding things. It looks the same as I left 6 hours ago. In retrospect, I made a mistake to not to check the PH at this point. I thought it is too thick to stick the PH meter in it. I started to add 40 degrees, PH11 ash water in it.
Then I checked PH, it is 10.8, Then I started to mix. It was quite thick in the bottom, and I mixed it well so it evens out in the liquid. I added ash water until it is about half filling the vat container.
Then, the surprise came! PH is now dropped to 8.7. I added ~1L of ash water from the storing bucket, this is PH11.8. It did not really bring up the PH. It is still staying around 9.
The last resort. I decided to add small amount of ca(oh)2. It is about 2g added in the vat and mixed well. The PH meter shows now 9.2 and I expect it will go up more as the time passes as calk act slowly.
Lastly I added bran. It was already cooled out, so I reheated it to ~40 degrees and added in drops. Surprisingly they are floating on the surface (last time, it just sank in the liquid). Not sure if this is the right way, but I decided to let it be.
Thermostat shows the vat is 38 degrees now, and i set the temperature to 33 degrees.
Overall, I have a bit of worrying factor here. PH is quite low now and the food/bran is floating in surface. If there are air loving bad bacteria, there is a possibility to grow on the bran. I guess I will check the vat first thing in the morning, and if the PH is still low, I will add calk to bring it up. I hope it turns out ok tomorrow.
Day 2: (Nov 26)
Out of worry, I woke up at 4:30 and checked the vat. The PH was down to 8.7! so I added 15g of ca(oh)2 and 200ml of Ash water. After mixing it gently, PH meter showed 10.1 so I decided to leave it like this as calk takes time to make the PH higher.
In the morning at 9:00 am, I checked PH again. It is now again down to 9.7. The surface shows small particles everywhere and it smells slightly like mugicha/麦茶. I added 200ml of ash water (PH 11.8 room temperature) and mixed it well, 30xR, 30xL, 30xR. Afterwards, I checked the PH again, and it is not 10.7. As I mix, I smell the ammonia and overall familiar vat smell. Temperature is kept with the heating mat to above 30 degrees.
15:00 second check/mix of the day. There are some brown bubbles on the edge, seems like coming from floating bran from yesterday. It smells like wet sukumo. PH is again dropped to 10.24. This is before mixing. I added ~200ml of ash water (ph11.8) and mixed it well. Afterwards PH shows 10.8. As I mix, I smell strong wet sukumo smell and ammonia smell. it is not so sharp yet. Temperature seems to be kept around 30 degrees stable.
21:00 3rd mixing. The surface is covered with small particles. When I shine the light, it becomes very visible. The smell is getting stronger, sukumo smell and more ammonia smell, not very sharp yet but getting stronger. I mixed it with 30x way, and checked the PH. it is 10.8 with temperature 30 degrees.
Day 3 (Nov 27)
9:00 First check of the day. The particles on the surface got flatter and bigger. Not so much like powder anymore. The ammonia smell is getting stronger, though it is not sharp yet. Temperature is kept steady 30 degrees. PH after mixing is 10.6.
15:00
21:00
Day 4 (Nov 28)
9:00 The surface looks quiet, but when seeing with the flashlight, it has a lot of yellow particles. Melanie said it is the Kinako, which is the good sign. The ammonia smell is getting stronger, though it is still not super sharp. PH is also slowly dropping. As it is over 10 still, I did not add things to raise it. I will see how low it drops in the next checks.
17:00
24:00 PH is not dropping. I was afraid that it could go under 10 over night, so I added 100ml of ash water, just for the safety. It suddenly went up to 10.28. So small amount of ash water can do a big job!
Day 5 (Nov 29)
10:00 1 h later start today. The surface has less kinako particles. the smell is getting stronger ammonia smell. PH is now dropped to 9.9. When touching, the texture of the water is NuruNuru slippery. This time I decided to add 500ml of ash water to bring PH back to 10.5 level. As the amount is bigger, I heated it up to ~40 degrees. After adding and mixing lightly (I mixed it before measuring the first round), the PH showed only 10.00. Last night only 100ml brought PH up so much, and now it does not bring up so much. I am not sure how exactly ash water and PH works. let’s see if it goes up more in the next check.
17:00 Surface is now very quiet. The smell is on ammonia side but not super sharp. The liquid texture is NuruNuru still, but PH is now under 10. I added ~100ml room temperature ash water and mixed… but still it went up very little. So I added another ~200ml ash water and it went just above PH 10 now. It is strange that sometimes ash water brings the PH quickly high with very small amount, and and sometimes it raises only slightly. PH is exponential, so I can understand that the effect is not linear.. but still it is very mysterious.
22:00 Again PH is down. It is a good sign probably. I added another 200ml of ash water but it only goes up to 9.9. I leave it as is for now. The smell still stays not so sharp but definitely ammonia smell. Also I notice the tip of the PH mater is becoming blue.
Day 6 (Nov 30)
9:00 Today, I made the first color test. I see a slight hint of blue. Very nice to see. Also, compare to the last experiment, the brown/yellow color does not stay on the fabric after washing. The smell of the vat is very mild now, and only smells like ammonia when mixing. PH is again down to 9.78. This time, I try adding the first batch of the ash water. It came red-ish but PH is stronger, 12.1. I add 200ml to the vat, lightly mix and check. It raises only to 9.87. I am afraid vat is getting too full, so I switch to ca(oh)2 to control the PH. I add spoon full (~5g) to it and mix it lightly. Now it is PH 10. ca(oh)2 works slowly so I hope it will slowly raise the PH.
15:00 PH is coming up. The tip of the PH meter is colored blue.
23:00
Day 7 (Dec 1)
10:00 I was hoping that I see more action today, but the activity seemed to have stopped. The surface has a bigger colony of things, and color test shows no color. The vat texture is still slippery/ NuruNuru and it smells less ammonia now.
16:00 not a significant change. PH is staying around 10.4-5. The smell reminds me of Mugicha.
22:00
Day 8 (Dec 2)
9:00 Still no sign of color. The colony thing from yesterday is gone, but it seems to gather on the edge (or maybe this was the remaining from the bubbles. Smells is a bit stronger today, more ammonia smell with Mugicha smell. Again, color test shows no color. PH is slightly reducing.
15:00
22:00
Day 9 (Dec 3)
9:00
15:00
23:00
Day 10 (Dec 4)
9:00 Again, no sign. Color test shows almost no color. PH is down to 9.8. Smell-wise, it is getting more ammonia again. Texture of the liquid is nicely soapy.
Yesterday, Melanie pointed out that my PH meter could be off-shifted. It is true that I did not calibrate for a while. The last time I tried calibration, I almost broke the PH meter (I used the wrong buffer solution and it got all confused!) so I was avoiding to calibrate. Now I did the calibration, and I notice it was about 0.7 offset to lower. Now the vat is 10.47. So, I was keeping the vat a bit too high in PH. That explains what was happening before. Sorry Sukumo. I hope it goes well now.
15:00
22:00 PH is slightly going down, and I see small particles on the surface again. I made the second color test of the day. It shows very very light blue.
Day 11 (Dec 5)
9:00 The small particles (kinako) is gone. It is again getting the longer dust thing on the edge. Smell is mild. Color test shows even less blue than last night. PH is again slightly lower. Maybe fermentation is happening slowly beneath?!
16:00
23:00
Day 12: (Dec 6)
9:00 Very little activities on the surface. No color on color test. Vat feels very still. PH is slightly dropping.
18:00
24:00
Day 13 (Dec 7)
9:00 Very sadly no color on color test. PH is dropping to 10.1 now. Smell is very mild.
22:00
Day 14 (Dec 8)
10:00 There are some actin at the edge of the vat. It looks like some thin membrane developing. maybe this is a good sign? The color test shows no color though. After mixing, I notice also some kinako particles are back. PH is now down to 10. I let it be it is and hope it develops in good direction.
21:00 PH is now down to 9.99. No color on the color test. It is a bit dangerous to keep the PH so low, but I will risk it to see if there are some development.
Day 15 (Dec 9)
10:00 I checked the vat in the morning, and it went into bad state. It developed the mat membrane. It looks like polar excursion and beautiful, but it is not the right way. I see some kinako particles on the ice, and there are some hint of blue on it, but it is not the good purple copper layer that shows the reduction. Color test shows no color and PH is now down to 9.93. The texture is still slippery. I do not smell particularly anything, but I have a cold now. Maybe I am not smelling anything today.
Melanie jumped in to consult me on this situation. We had a chat and she confirmed that the polar ice is not the good thing. She asked me to put my finger into the ice part to see if it breaks. It does break. We analyzed how the vat has been behaving until now, PH and how surface and bubbles looked like until now. How the smell has been.. so on. She mentions normally when the fermentation starts to kick in, it makes the sharp ammonia smell and you get a tingly feeling on your finger when you touch it. Also, the bubbles will stay longer on the surface. I have seen this in the previous experiment, which did not work at the end… but I did see the long staying bubble and strong sharp ammonia smell. None of this is happening in this vat. We discussed that 1)PH is anyway too low now and should raise to 10.5-11 range 2) after PH is up, feed sukumo with bran (10g) to see if that helps. She mentioned sake works quicker to feed, but it also go bad quicker and the effect does not stay long. Bran is slower but works longer. so this time, I decided to stick with bran as food for this vat.
PH is 9.9 now, so I calculate I need 12g ca(oh)2, as Melanie’s recipe is for 10L vat and I have 20L vat (* this was wrong, I have only ~12L in the vat at the moment, so I should not double her recipe! I noticed only after I added them). Now I also notice a bad smell (a bit like sewage) from the vat.. so definitely I need to raise the PH. Immediately after mixing it in, I check the PH and it is already 10.3. It takes sometime for ca(oh)2 to work, so I expect it will go up even more. I will check how much it raises in the evening and make my next step.
I compare my notes on vat-check and the color sample.. and notice I missed the chance (again!) on the day 6 and on the day 9. It seems something was starting, and I raise the PH too much as my PH meter was showing it too low. But looking at the samples all together, even I thought there are no sing of color the last days, it has a slight hint of blue, and not nothing. It is a bit assuring. (when the fabric is dry, it shows less color in general, and still I see a bit)
21:00 As expected, PH now shoots up to almost 11, as the amount of ca(oh)2 I added is enough to bring the PH up for 1 point. I see the dust like long culture on the surface. Maybe they come when the PH is higher than their comfortable habitat? It does not have bad smell anymore. As the PH is high enough, I decide to feed cooked bran now.
As bran is cooked with ash water, check my ash water. When I was checking the PH of the ash water, my PH meter was shifted, so I was curious what the actual PH is. It is way above 12. The second batch stayed with ash as I did not have 3rd bucket to transfer and it seems to be got stronger than when I originally made it. It also got a strange membrane on it, maybe it is the “aku” part. Anyway, I decided to use 100ml of 2nd batch ash water to cook the bran with.
I add 10g of wheat bran into 100ml ash water and cooked it for 10min. at the end it has this thick consistency. I let it cool for a while and dropped chunks into the vat. As last time, the chunks floats on the surface, which is different from what I expected. Not sure if this is supposed to be?! In many recipes, they say “do not mix after adding bran” but I did mix it gently hoping that they sink to the bottom… they did not. (the last photo is after mixing..)
Day 16 (Dec 10)
10:00 The bran stayed floating on the surface (maybe some went in). When looking with a flash light, a lot of things are happening on the surface. And I see a small spot of light blue! maybe it is a sign of reduction starting?? I am hopeful. I also get a tingly feeling on my finger when I put my finger in the vat. Melanie mentioned about her feeling tingly feeling when fermentation is about to kick in. Maybe this is it? or it is in my head?!
Despite my hopefulness, there are no color showing in the color test. PH is 10.47 before mixing, but after mixing, it goes up to 10.92. Probably a lot of calk is on the bottom and still making the vat PH higher. I am grad that it is still kept under 11. It looks like my vat likes PH 10.5-6 so I hope it comes down to this range soon. Let’s see how it develops.
23:00 There are some very thin membrane like thing on the edge of the vat. It is hard to capture in the photo, but there are some shiny thin purple layer on it. maybe it is finally coming?? The color test shows no color… but I get the tingly feeling when I put my finger in. Also, it smells ammonia now, but not so sharp.
Day 17 (Dec 11)
10:00 Something is definitely happening now. There are some membrane developing on the edge. there are some kinako particles on it. When I opened it, it had some sharp ammonia smell. color test shows a tiny bit of blue on it, but almost no color. When I touch the vat, I get the tingly feeling on my finger though. PH is now 10.57 after mixing, so it is reaching the good PH point slowly. I notice the development on the edge happened only on the front side, where the heating mat is not on it. Maybe it is too hot for the vat. I reduced the thermostat for heating mat to 31 degrees, from 33 degrees setting.
21:00 It is again developing thin layer on the edge. It has some purple shininess underneath but it looks very thin and kinako particles are around this layer. Color test shows a tiny bit of blue. It is also starting to smell more ammonia. This time, I decided NOT to mix. so there are only 1 mix on the Day 17.
Day 18 (Dec 12)
9:00 Beautiful iceberg patches! There are purple shiny layer underneath. Not very thick, and I am not sure if this iceberg is a good thing.. but for now, it is very beautiful. My documentation is turning into vat porno… a lot of pictures of vat surface. color test shows some color. very light but definitely something. It smells also definitely ammonia and sharp. Temperature is now dropped as I lower the setting yesterday. 28 degrees, in the middle after mixing. and PH is 10.4. I lower the thermostat setting to 28 degrees. Maybe it was too warm the last weeks.
21:00 It made the iceberg patches again, with shiny layer even getting more. This time it looks like a sky with moonlight and cloud patches. It is not only purple, but is rainbow. The color test shows more promising blue, thought not as blue as functioning vat. It will come there. The vat temperature is now dropped to 26 degrees in the middle and PH is 10.3 after mixing.
Day 19 ( Dec 13)
11:00 It made again the patchy thing, and there are even more thin shiny layer underneath. It is really a rainbow color when you shine the light on. The color test shows blue, but not super strong yet. PH is getting a bit low. slightly worrisome. It also smells slightly in the sewage direction. For now, I just mix it. I am also sick today.
Photos from 14:00 and 16:00.
22:00 Again some patchy things with shiny layer. PH is now down to 10.17. I’m afraid PH is getting too low, but I am too sick to do something at this moment… I just mixed it and went to bed.
Day 20 (Dec 14)
11:00 Oh no! As I was worried, PH was too low. There are some good actions (bottom middle to left) and bad actions (top right) happening at the same time. My nose is stuffed so I can not really smell if it is really bad :((. Although it looks very beautiful, I do not think it is the right way. I need to raise the PH. I decided to add ash water (PH 12+, ~40 degrees ~1500ml) to the vat. After that I mixed it very gently and PH is now up again. Hopefully this makes the bad mat thing go away… and I go back to bed. I am very sick today… and why now are you so active?!
22:00 The vat seems super active and going in good direction… only I am super sick. PH is again going down very quickly, and probably I should add more ash water to raise it again… but I have no energy to do this. I manage to mix it and check PH and went back to bed.
Day 21 (Dec 15)
9:00 The surface looks good. Tiny hana bubble like thing that is blue… and the color test shows some color, thought it is not as strong as the last days. PH is now 10.3. As I feel a bit fit and I do not want the matt layer to be coming back again, I decided to add more ash water to increase the vat liquid, and to raise the PH. I add ~2L of ash water (PH 12+ second batch, ~40 degrees) to the vat. Now PH is raised to 10. 8. Also, now the thermostat setting is 30 degrees, which seems to keep top center liquid temperature around 28 degrees. In retrospect, it may have been too early to increase the vat liquid so much… but let’s see how it goes.
22:00 Some activity on the edge, but no membrane showing up on the surface. PH seems to be dropping, though this is without mixing. As I increased the vat liquid, I let it work more and not mix this time.
Day 22 (Dec 16)
9:00 Still it seems it did not recover from raising the ash water amount, but I start to see some activity on the edge. Also you can see some purple shiny dots on the surface. Color test shows very very little color today, so I decide not to mix yet. PH seems to be dropping compare to last night, so there are some fermentation action inside. I had a little doubt that my PH meter is again shifting… so I did a calibration. and yes, it was becoming a bit off shifted, but this time only tiny bit. Now it shows that PH is 10.5, which is still in very good range. Now I raised the thermostat to 31 degrees as the vat is a bit bigger so I want to make sure that it is heating up to 28 degrees, and the bathroom is a bit cold today.
21:00 WOW! something strange happened. I opened the vat, shined the light and this is what I see. I have no idea what has happened. Good or bad? I do not know. It is very beautiful though. It looks almost like fat or oil on it… but of course I never put something oily so it can not be… I checked the color and there are no color, so I guess this shiny thing is not indigo being reduced. PH is still not so low, but has dropped a bit so maybe some fermentation is happening. I decided not to mix it now to see how this develops. It is a bit dangerous as I did not mix for more than 1 day now, but I am very curious where this is going. BTW, there are almost no smell, and the liquid is very NuruNuru.
Day 23 (Dec 17)
9:00 Again! the strange rainbow oily thing! and there are blue part on the side too with kinako particles on it… but color test shows no color. Very strange. PH is going down, now 10.3 after mixing. I decided to add ca(oh)2 for 5g to raise the PH but not to increase the vat liquid amount yet.
22:00 Now the rainbow membrane development stopped. I expected this as I raised PH. some dusty things are forming on the surface and I see some blue on the edge. PH is now up to almost 10.7
Day 24 (Dec 18)
9:00 Not so drastic development this morning. I see some blue things developing from the edge. PH is now down to 10.57. I hope this is the sign that some fermentation is happening inside. color test started to show some hint of blue!
22:00 Oh no, it does not look good. Although there are some purple hint on the edge, it did develop the mat layer. It looks a bit different from low PH mat layer, but It does not look like the right thing. It does not smell bad either. It gives a slight blue color, but less than the one in the morning. PH is 10.7
Day 25 (Dec 19)
9:00 Very quiet vat this morning. There are slight activity on the edge and I see a very thin layer of blue/purple thing developing with golden kinako particles… there are not so much happening. I see slightly more color on the test than last night. I check the PH after mixing and it is 10.66, slightly lower than yesterday. I notice slight ammonia smell when I opened the lid. I have the feeling ammonia smell happens when PH is higher, and maybe I kept my vat PH too low on this cycle?!
18:00
I am away for the next 7 days, so I prepare the vat to be left alone. PH at the evening is 10.6, color test shows a little color. I add 8g ca(oh)2 to raise the PH to above 11. The vat is now ~16L full, so this should raise about 0.5 of PH. Right after adding and mixing, it shows already 11.1, and I expect it will go up a little more. I drop the thermostat setting to 24, which should keep the temperature in the middle of the vat to about 22 degrees. No one will mix the vat for next 7 days. Let’s see how it goes.
Day 32 (Dec 27)
24:00
As soon as I came home, I opened the vat. and this is what I saw. Not sure what to think. It is a mat layer on the top, but it is different from mat layer when it is going bad. Also it does not smell much. It looks like almost white super fine powder on it. Maybe it is spore?? PH before mixing on the top is 10.4, and after mixing, it shows PH 11.17 and temperature is 22 degrees. It seems that it makes a big difference in PH on the top and bottom when you do not mix it. Overall the PH did not drop much, so maybe there are very little fermentation going on now.
Day33 (Dec 28)
11:00 The surface looks not so much action. Bubbles from yesterday stick to the side and it looks a bit strange. Smell is very mild. When I go very close, it smells a mix of ammonia and indigo smell. color test shows a bit of light blue. PH is 11.18, temperature 23.5 after mixing.
22:00
Day 34 (Dec 29)
11:00
21:00 The surface is covered with purple dots, not shiny membrane though. Smell is very mild, slightly ammonia. Color test shows a little bit more blue than morning. PH before mixing is 11.08. As I have to leave again tomorrow for 10 days, and there are some colors in color test, I add ~800ml ash water, room temperature. After mixing, PH is up to 11.35. I set the thermometer to 22 degrees, which should keep the vat around 20 degrees.
Day 45 (Jan 8th)
22:00 After 10 days of left alone, I was curious and anxious to open the lid. It was kept in 22 degrees. When I opened, this is what I have seen. some bubbles are coming from inside, some tiny purple spots, and not bad smell. Actually it hardly smells. Texture of the liquid is rather “sarasara” with a bit of slippery feeling. PH before mixing on the surface is 10.5, and after mixing went up to 10.8. Color test shows no color.
Day 46 (Jan 9)
10:00 The rainbow thing is building up again. No particular smell. When mixing, I smell the slight ammonia and indigo smell. PH after mixing is 10.55 (I made calibration before this). color test shows almost no color. I changed the thermostat setting to 28 degrees now.
23:00 still rainbow patches developing. I added ~3g of ca(OH)2 to raise PH a bit, preparing to add bran tomorrow. PH is 10.67 after adding the calk.
Day 47 (Jan 10)
11:00 The vat is very quiet. It smells much more ammonia today. color test shows no color. The vat texture is nurunuru (slippery) with some piripiri feeling. Maybe bacteria is starting to kick off? I added 10g of bran cooked in ~100ml ash water. this time, I try to cook the bran looser so it sinks in the vat. not sure if this strategy works…
23:00 It developed a membrane in the evening. PH on the surface was 10.25 before mixing, and 10.76 after mixing. The PH in the vat seems to differ a lot between the surface and the bottom. It has some ammonia smell, especially mixing but not very strong.
Day 48 ( Jan 11)
9:00 very little action on the vat. no smell at all. the texture is still nurunuru slippery. Surface PH is 10.46. I decided not to mix this time.
22:00 wow, surprise. A mat, gray layer took over the surface. It looks different from the bad mat brown layer. It also does not smell. When I touch it, the layer breaks and I see some rainbow shiny layer underneath. PH is 10.38 on the surface, a bit low. I add ~5g of ca(oh)2 to raise PH. I did not make color test as the rainbow layer seems to not give any color. After adding the calk, I mixed it and I see some bubbles as usual. PH is now 11.1
23:30 I went into bathroom by chance and looked into the vat. !and a nice surprise! I see the “hana”, the indigo flower on the vat!
Day 49 (Jan 12)
10:00 I was excited to open the lid this morning. The Hana I saw last night is still there and there are some purple layer developing. It is not the copper purple layer but it is different from the rainbow layer. Smell is very mild, a bit of indigo smell but not strong. color test shows definitely some blue. Not very strong, but I hope it will develop. PH on surface before mixing is 10.8 and after mixing is up to 11.68. As I mix, the bubble forms and stays without bursting.
12:00 I make “kasaage”, increasing the vat water with ash water. I heat up ~2L ash water (1st batch PH 12.5) to ~ 40 degrees (hot bath water feeling) and add to the vat from the side. PH is now up to 11.9. I am a bit surprised that it brought the PH this high. Earlier, when I was trying to raise PH with ash water, it felt like it does not affect a lot, but this time it raised it quite a bit. It became higher than I wanted to but lets see how it goes.
23:00 so far the vat looks good. Hana is still there and I see some purple shiny layer developing on the surface. The color test does not show much color though. I mixed it and PH is now up to 11.99. I see bubble forming after mixing.
Day 50 (Jan 13)
9:00 There are some purple things developing and I see bubble from last night. Color test shows more color than yesterday but not very strong. PH is staying high in 11.88. It smells very little, mostly like indigo. I decided not to mix.
22:00 Some more activity and hana. PH is still very high. I mixed it and the bubbles are still formed but smaller.
Day 51 (Jan 14)
10:00 Little Hana and not much purple things on the surface. color test shows lighter blue.
Day 52 (Jan 15)
10:00 Some purple patches developing and bubble/hana is staying but not very strong. PH remains high still. After mixing the bubbles are gone and it shows very little color.
Day 53 (Jan 16)
10:00 Dusty layer is forming and some small purple dot is occurring. PH is still over 11.8 and bubbles does not form after mixing. color test shows no color.
22:00 The surface of the vat is very quiet and seems the activity stopped. also, the PH is remaining high. I check my ash water that I made recently. This is the 3rd brew from the same ash, and it is still over PH 12. I decide to use this one anyway. I cocked 10g of wheat bran with ash water for ~10 min, add some cold ash water to cool down and added to the vat. PH on the surface at this point is 11.5, It slightly lowered. I did not mix the vat after adding the bran.
Day 54 (Jan 17)
10:00 Not so much is happening so far. I leave it not mixing for today.
24:00 Just a vital check. not mixing yet.
Day 55 (Jan 18)
10:00 More things are developing on the surface. The surface PH is also dropping, so I mix this time. After mixing, PH goes up to 11.2. Probably PH on bottom was higher. There are no bubbles forming on the surface. Smell is very mild, almost nothing.
Day 56 (Jan 19)
10:00 finally some action on the surface. When shining flashlight, it shows the rainbow color layer developing from the edge. surface PH before mixing is 10.7 and 10.9 after mixing. It formed the bubble/hana nicely when I mixed it and it shows nice light blue on color test. Finally it is back on track!
22:00
Day 57 (Jan 20)
9:00 The surface is filled with mat and purple layer. PH is 10.56 before mixing. Color test shows definitely blue… and when mixing, it forms bubbles definitely different from other times. it is hana bubbles! after mixing, PH is 10.76
Day 58 (Jan 21)
9:00 Hana bubble is staying and it created network structure today. very beautiful. mixing created nice formy bubbles. PH is 10.66 after mixing. color test seems good as well.
23:00 purple layer is developing back again. I mix it again this evening so I can change the cycle to mix in the evening. hana bubble forms again.
Day 59 (Jan 22)
10:00 vital check and color check. Looking very good. Also smell is very very mild. I only smell the sweet indigo vat smell. I do not mix now.
24:00 copper like shiny purple layer is definitely forming around the hana bubble now. I mix it this evening and PH is 10.49 after mixing.
Day 60 (Jan 23)
10:00 nice hana in the middle with a lot of copper shiny layer around. PH is 10.3 but this is without mixing. color test shows definitely stronger blue. I do not mix now.
I make my first dye today. I have already prepared skein of wool (47g) scoured with neutral wool detergent. I dipped it in ash water (PH 12.5) first, squeezed the water out and dipped in the vat. 1st time for 2min (left), then 2nd time for 5min (right) with ~5min interval. After letting it hang for 30min, I washed in water. The first round came a lot of left over vat on the yarn to the water and it was completely dark brown (no photo!) and it immediately made the yarn blue as it oxidized in water. after the second wash it looks like a fresh blue. Then I got excited and I also dyed 46g cotton yarn as well. I made 2 dips. I will continue dying this tomorrow.
22:00 As I took out the hana bubble to dye, the vat has a hole now. More purple layer came out it seems. I mixed it and it forms a new hana.
Day 61 (Jan 24)
10:00 Nice to see the vat recovering after dyeing the first time. Purple copper layer is developed fully on the surface. PH is low but this is without mixing. Color test shows nice blue.
I made 2nd round of dye for both the cotton and wool yarns. both got 2 dips of 3 min each with long intervals.
22:00 Vat looks still healthy. After mixing it forms a nice hana bubble. PH is 10.39. I feel like it is getting slightly too low. Maybe I need to do something soon.
Day 62 (Jan 25)
10:00 Vat looks healthy. It smells like indigo vat, but PH is low and it feels less slippery when touching. I decide to add a bit of ash water. It is ~300ml of batch 2 ash water (PH12.5) and added without heating up. Color test shows nice blue but as I dyed with the vat for the last 2 days, I let it rest for the day.
23:00
as the building of this vat is finished, I am continuing the documentation to the Living with a vat post.