lab 12 Beer brew and mushroom growth continue

Part I Beer brew
Today we still work on making beers!!!

 Sanitize the beer cage. We use the same sanitizer to rinse the cage. To avoid the spill, we poor the sanitizer through a big funnel. We shake the cage for a completely rinse and dump all solution and bubbles created by it.

 

 For a better fermentation, four cabtabs pills are added into the beer bottles to help increase the carbenation.I tried one, it teast just like candy.

 Since Dr.Shaw is in sick, so shan helps us to do the mouth sucking for transfer the beer to the bottles and cage.

 Right after the sucking, Maxwell connect an extension tube. 

 Bottle the beer up!

 Also, save some for density measurement. The reading is 1.013-1.014. It's a good density which indicates a good beer! Yeah~

 Once finish the bottle transfer, students help to cap them on. Dr. Shaw suggest us not to choose a screw bottle because it won't seal tight.

 Dr.Ebbole watch the beer transfer from the glass tank to the cage. 

 Good beer!!! 

Carbon dioxide is pumped into the cage for a better carbonation.

Chris help to mix everything up. Beer will be kept under room temperature for one more week for fully fermentation.

Dr. Shaw pulled out a bottle of beer which is made by the students who took this class two year ago. The cap rise up because of too long time fermentation. 

Everybody try the beer. Mmm... it's good!

Part II Mushroom

Oyester mushroom need to get mist 3-4 times a day to keep the high huminity for a  high yield. The bag has little slot for the mushroom grow out. After a week later, small mushroom come out of the bag. 

Oyeast mushroom get really big after another week of growth. The small ones are sporulating. The yellow spores can be seen on the surface of the ascocarp. 

Shiitake mushroom also come out after a week of growth. This kind of mushroom is much easier to take care. After wet the whole medium, we just put it in a big bag to mentain the air and huminity. All the things left is just to wait for the mushrooms. 

Shiitake mushroom also can get really big and fall off naturally. This one is our baby. 

We will enjoy our beer and mushrooms next week!

Discussion:

What I learn from the beer brew practice is it really takes a long time to make beer! If any step mess up, we won't have good beer at the end. That's why we need to watch it and sample it from time to time to make sure everything goes right.Thanks for the help of Dr. Shaw and Dr. Ebbole. They help with the sampling a lot. Haha... We are lucky to avoid the contamination through the process. Toast for the hard work from all our beer brewers!