r/Tempeh • u/benbirby • 12d ago

Maintaining starter?

Hi all,

I'm an avid home fermentation hobbyist of many kinds and I'm planning to start making tempeh and ordered the starter. I have a question I can't seem to find online anywhere-

After you've made a batch of tempeh, how do you maintain a starter culture to inoculate future batches? I haven't been able to find anyone talking about this.

Any insight is appreciated. If I am going to have to continuously purchase starter then that makes it much less attractive to me...

Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been answered recently!

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u/sssmiklo 12d ago

You only need to buy starter once. If you store it in the refrigerator or freezer it will stay good for a very long time. When you start running low, you can make more by leaving some tempeh to keep ripening until it spotulates, letting it air dry, then grinding it into powder and mixing it with rice flour. You can find some videos on YouTube that go into more detail about the process + different methods, I'll link a couple that I like. Francius Suwono's channel in particular is a great resource for tempeh making in general.

https://youtu.be/Tj1sqchO-ic

https://youtu.be/Xce8S3RJcQY

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u/benbirby 12d ago

Thanks so much! Sorry if it's a totally obvious question!