It occured to me that we use rye a lot and if we make a mother /seed culture with it, do we risk getting dosed with ergot, the stuff that make our brains go gaga and see pink elephants? Silly question I am sure, but heck this is the place to ask it.
When the grain is cleaned, all the junk incluing ergot is sorted out. If your grain is fresh from the field, look it up and learn about it so you can pick it out.
If I'm understanding the OP correctly, it sounds like they're worried about cultivating the fungus in their sourdough starter. From what I've read sourdough has never harbored any pathogens, and besides ergot is a parasite of the living plant that alters the grain kernels and hijacks them for sporulation - its life cycle is obligate on the living host Although it's probably possible to cultivate the non-fruiting asexual phase on sterile agar on a petri dish in the lab, even if some spores got into your sourdough, I don't think you'd need to worry about it fruiting in there and making toxins.
I never thought about till I was musing over the nice aroma off the seed starter I am brewing up.
If you do the reinhard 3-4 phase method , do you really need 5 days, or, if things are perking along can one just let it go say 3-4 days? Mine will be done in theory on Friday evening or maybe thursday. then you make the starter(mother?). The half you chuck I am giving to a fellow foodie friend and she goes away every weekend. I would love to give it to her on the way out the door, but if 5 days is a must , well so it is written, she gets it on Moonday. I have a set of corning bowls the smallest of which sits nicely in the smallest farberware pot , so I put 1/2 inch boiled water in it then the bowl, (after it really got ripping). The odor of pineapple is almost gone and the smell of beer is quite strong now, nicely frothed.
about that.....thanks for the reasurrance mino that most rye grains are free of it unless straight from the field....else i might seriously quesiton my love of rye.....and i do love it.
When the grain is cleaned, all the junk incluing ergot is sorted out. If your grain is fresh from the field, look it up and learn about it so you can pick it out.
Mini O
Thanks Mini O
I never thought about till I was musing over the nice aroma off the seed starter I am brewing up.
If you do the reinhard 3-4 phase method , do you really need 5 days, or, if things are perking along can one just let it go say 3-4 days? Mine will be done in theory on Friday evening or maybe thursday. then you make the starter(mother?). The half you chuck I am giving to a fellow foodie friend and she goes away every weekend. I would love to give it to her on the way out the door, but if 5 days is a must , well so it is written, she gets it on Moonday. I have a set of corning bowls the smallest of which sits nicely in the smallest farberware pot , so I put 1/2 inch boiled water in it then the bowl, (after it really got ripping). The odor of pineapple is almost gone and the smell of beer is quite strong now, nicely frothed.
ciao
sparkie
If you are seriously concerned about ergot, the simplest solution is to stay away from rye.
Mike
The following makes for a great read-up on ergot of rye:
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM
Serious stuff...,
Wild-Yeast
about that.....thanks for the reasurrance mino that most rye grains are free of it unless straight from the field....else i might seriously quesiton my love of rye.....and i do love it.
deborah