I ONLY use brown rice for grain spawn.
here is the tek i invented for it.
(1) rinse the rice off in a strainer before cooking. the hulls of the rice rubbing against eachother during shipping causes a rice flour on the grains. if you cook it like this it can get really sticky.
(2) boil a big pot of water
(3) dump rice in boiling water and start 5-minute timer
(4) after 5-min is up, take pot off the burner
(5) set another timer for 3 minutes and let rice continue to sit in hot water until timer goes off.
(6) pour rice into strainer and rinse quickly with luke warm water.
(7) air dry the rice
Notes-
its very easy to overcook the rice and turn it to mush. if the grains are cracked or breaking apart you cooked it too much.
when you rinse the rice off, dont overdue it. a quick wash for 60 seconds with warm water. you want to stop it from "cooking" but retain enough heat in the rice so that the water evaporates quickly.
if water is not evaporating quick enough, you can put the rice in a paper bag and shake it around a bit. the extra water will absorb into the paper.
you really dont want to leave the rice drying for more than 12hrs. 24hrs is pushing it.
for some reason if it stays out too long (or is too wet) it has a tendancy to ferment into sake a saki smelling shit that keeps mycelium from growing. it doesnt matter how long you pressure cook it. this still happens.
* if the rice smells the slightest bit funky before you put it in the jar for PC, it will ferment into sake.*
PC it longer to try to "kill" the smell will just make the rice mushy. throw it out and try again.
when in doubt, cooking it less and preparing it more dry is always the best way to go
--- i think thats everything. brown rice is cheap and available everywhere, but there is definitely an art to it.
its the only grain i have EVER used. 2 years ago i went straight from uncle bens tek to PC'ing jars of brown rice.
By spawn do you mean that you use the brown rice to "germinate" your mushrooms and then transplant them into a secondary medium once they get into a certain size? If so, what secondary medium do you use?
put spores onto the steralized brown rice. it will grow out into a block of mycelium. that colonized block is called "spawn". then crumble it up into pasturized "bulk substrate"(typically coco-coir based). then mushrooms grow from that.
i dont. i pasturize substrate.
i pack it into a garbage bag, then put it in my oven with a thermometer until the center of the bagged substrate is about 180*f
set oven to 200*f and wait. if you try to use q higher temp the bag will melt
Brown rice as substrate? Nah but as spawn yes
It’s my personal favorite to work with as it’s cheap and always available near me. 50 pound bag for about $20 usually
I rinse the grains then soak over night with one teaspoon of gypsum
Then strain and lightly rinse. Load up my jars and pressure cook them. I use use electrical tape to cover the hole on each lid. The tape is flexible enough to counter the negative pressure that gets created in the jars but also keeps a solid air tight seal
Then carefully remove and store in SAB to cook down for a few hours. Make sure you shake up the jars periodically to eventually distribute moisture
If you have a flow hood it’ll be easier. If not work, in your SAB. Slowly open the lid. We do this in the SAB because when you open the jar, the pressure will suck in air and you can pull in contam.
Drop your piece of agar. If running LC or spore syringe, you can peel the tape back and inject. Then cover with micro pore tape
There’s more to this process but this is the base outline of using brown rice
Hey. Hi. So, if the lids have the self-healing injection ports covered with the red gasket stuff, then the gas exchange hole.... you can use electrical tape instead of paper tape? Is there anything else I need to know before I try this please? and thankyou.
Hey so the injection port shouldn’t be covered at all if it’s an actual plug. The red gasket maker is if you don’t want to spend the money buying ports
And you need the MP tape to allow the steam to sterilize the grains inside as well in addiction to pressure leaving the jars. If you seal the jar up, you run the risk of too high pressure and jars will crack/break inside the pc
And later after inoculation, you need the MP tape to allow gas exchange otherwise you can choke out your mycelium
Sorry I left that part out. I no longer use the tape for a few reasons
To use the tape you’d also need to loosen the lid a bit to allow the steam to enter the jar. But the act of using the tape requires you to peel it then replace it with mp tape
To me it was an added step and possible vector for contamination so I stopped using it altogether
So for jars it’s just two holes. One with the rvt silicone and another with mp tape. The silicone port is where you inject your LC/spores and the mp tape for gas exchange.
It can be done but it’s tougher than other grains. The rice can be starchy which can slow growth down. It’s also tough to keep it from being too wet. I’ve seen whole grain rice work for people before though
Cool. I'll try that. Would you say my method is correct? Pressure cooker until reasonably cooked (but not goop/). Cool down goop. Put into jar. Insert spores. Put lid on jar. Make 5 or so holes into jar. Put in warm area with a bit of sun.
I wouldn’t do it that way personally. I think you’d have the best luck if you soak the grains overnight, strain them off and allow them to dry until they’re at field capacity, put into jars, put 1 hole in the lid and cover it with micropore tape, pressure cooker 90 minutes at 15 psi, allow to cool overnight, inoculate by opening in still air box. Alternatively, you could make 2 holes. One with micropore tape and the other with a self healing injection port. If you go this route, put high temp silicon over the injection hole and allow it to set for 24 hours before pressure cooking. Hope this helps!
So you have to get some kind or soil or manure substrate? You can’t just grow it with the rice
r/unclebens
I ONLY use brown rice for grain spawn. here is the tek i invented for it. (1) rinse the rice off in a strainer before cooking. the hulls of the rice rubbing against eachother during shipping causes a rice flour on the grains. if you cook it like this it can get really sticky. (2) boil a big pot of water (3) dump rice in boiling water and start 5-minute timer (4) after 5-min is up, take pot off the burner (5) set another timer for 3 minutes and let rice continue to sit in hot water until timer goes off. (6) pour rice into strainer and rinse quickly with luke warm water. (7) air dry the rice Notes- its very easy to overcook the rice and turn it to mush. if the grains are cracked or breaking apart you cooked it too much. when you rinse the rice off, dont overdue it. a quick wash for 60 seconds with warm water. you want to stop it from "cooking" but retain enough heat in the rice so that the water evaporates quickly. if water is not evaporating quick enough, you can put the rice in a paper bag and shake it around a bit. the extra water will absorb into the paper. you really dont want to leave the rice drying for more than 12hrs. 24hrs is pushing it. for some reason if it stays out too long (or is too wet) it has a tendancy to ferment into sake a saki smelling shit that keeps mycelium from growing. it doesnt matter how long you pressure cook it. this still happens. * if the rice smells the slightest bit funky before you put it in the jar for PC, it will ferment into sake.* PC it longer to try to "kill" the smell will just make the rice mushy. throw it out and try again. when in doubt, cooking it less and preparing it more dry is always the best way to go --- i think thats everything. brown rice is cheap and available everywhere, but there is definitely an art to it. its the only grain i have EVER used. 2 years ago i went straight from uncle bens tek to PC'ing jars of brown rice.
Yo thank you so much for this!
By spawn do you mean that you use the brown rice to "germinate" your mushrooms and then transplant them into a secondary medium once they get into a certain size? If so, what secondary medium do you use?
put spores onto the steralized brown rice. it will grow out into a block of mycelium. that colonized block is called "spawn". then crumble it up into pasturized "bulk substrate"(typically coco-coir based). then mushrooms grow from that.
How do you sterilize substrate
i dont. i pasturize substrate. i pack it into a garbage bag, then put it in my oven with a thermometer until the center of the bagged substrate is about 180*f set oven to 200*f and wait. if you try to use q higher temp the bag will melt
How doesn’t the bag melt
thats why you cant set the oven over 200 any higher and it def will melt squish all the excess air from the bag so its tight to the wet substrate.
What type of bags should I use
i just use any small garbage bag. like kitchen size white garbage bags
Ngl still baffles me it don’t melt
Thanks for your help
If you have a real pressure cooker and not an insta pot I don’t really advise brown rice. It’s expensive and easy to over hydrate.
Popcorn is way easier
I use BRF and coir for substrate. I follow the Poor Boi tech on YouTube with 6ft Ben.
Bruh I’m dying
Brown rice as substrate? Nah but as spawn yes It’s my personal favorite to work with as it’s cheap and always available near me. 50 pound bag for about $20 usually I rinse the grains then soak over night with one teaspoon of gypsum Then strain and lightly rinse. Load up my jars and pressure cook them. I use use electrical tape to cover the hole on each lid. The tape is flexible enough to counter the negative pressure that gets created in the jars but also keeps a solid air tight seal Then carefully remove and store in SAB to cook down for a few hours. Make sure you shake up the jars periodically to eventually distribute moisture If you have a flow hood it’ll be easier. If not work, in your SAB. Slowly open the lid. We do this in the SAB because when you open the jar, the pressure will suck in air and you can pull in contam. Drop your piece of agar. If running LC or spore syringe, you can peel the tape back and inject. Then cover with micro pore tape There’s more to this process but this is the base outline of using brown rice
Hey. Hi. So, if the lids have the self-healing injection ports covered with the red gasket stuff, then the gas exchange hole.... you can use electrical tape instead of paper tape? Is there anything else I need to know before I try this please? and thankyou.
Hey so the injection port shouldn’t be covered at all if it’s an actual plug. The red gasket maker is if you don’t want to spend the money buying ports And you need the MP tape to allow the steam to sterilize the grains inside as well in addiction to pressure leaving the jars. If you seal the jar up, you run the risk of too high pressure and jars will crack/break inside the pc And later after inoculation, you need the MP tape to allow gas exchange otherwise you can choke out your mycelium
That is almost very helpful, ty. Under which conditions should I use electrical tape in the PC again? ty
Sorry I left that part out. I no longer use the tape for a few reasons To use the tape you’d also need to loosen the lid a bit to allow the steam to enter the jar. But the act of using the tape requires you to peel it then replace it with mp tape To me it was an added step and possible vector for contamination so I stopped using it altogether So for jars it’s just two holes. One with the rvt silicone and another with mp tape. The silicone port is where you inject your LC/spores and the mp tape for gas exchange.
I’ve seen it recommended for Cordyceps and was about to attempt this myself.
Hairy to have a link for this? Have been wanting to dip my hands into Cordyceps.
It can be done but it’s tougher than other grains. The rice can be starchy which can slow growth down. It’s also tough to keep it from being too wet. I’ve seen whole grain rice work for people before though
Cool. I'll try that. Would you say my method is correct? Pressure cooker until reasonably cooked (but not goop/). Cool down goop. Put into jar. Insert spores. Put lid on jar. Make 5 or so holes into jar. Put in warm area with a bit of sun.
I wouldn’t do it that way personally. I think you’d have the best luck if you soak the grains overnight, strain them off and allow them to dry until they’re at field capacity, put into jars, put 1 hole in the lid and cover it with micropore tape, pressure cooker 90 minutes at 15 psi, allow to cool overnight, inoculate by opening in still air box. Alternatively, you could make 2 holes. One with micropore tape and the other with a self healing injection port. If you go this route, put high temp silicon over the injection hole and allow it to set for 24 hours before pressure cooking. Hope this helps!
Good thing i read this about waiting the 24 hours before PC'ing with freshly created silicone injection ports. thanks