Marmite...

[befuggled]

Dopejack - go for it!!

The goo I have here is much lighter in colour than Marmite, and does not have the depth of vegetable flavours, but it is quite edible and I am going to be trying this again in the future . Looks more like smooth peanut butter!
Very gentle heat until it stops trying to escape, then gentle simmer with lid off over several hours to reduce. It will stick to the bottom if you leave it too long and go a bit lumpy - I tried forcing it through a sieve at the end, but it was too thick.
I think it is a bit more like Barmene than Marmite, and although I have not got any to make a comparison, I think I would prefer it to Vegemite.
(I get virtually no cold break or other dross in my wort due to recirculating cooling followed by a 30 minute rest before draining the copper - it is crystal clear, filtered by the hop bed).
So, a Brewday with a difference, I look upon it as two other sorts of yeast engineering!!



That's today's yeast goo, Hairy Bikers Beer and Cheese bread and a nice pint of Glasgow-APA!

Now to get some other opinions, I may have to retract comments on edibility...
Ah - first one - you don't need a lot of it...
must be the hops

[Horatio]

The bread looks great!

[garwatts]

Pass me a pint and some bread and cheese .

[Chard]

ha ha looks like you had fun. what did the OH say when you wafted that under her nose?!

[befuggled]

She likes the bread a lot - the big loaf is going in to her work today - they all love it
(Credit to Hairy Bikers, I just got viscous with the dough for 25 mins, it's therapeutic )
The Glasgow APA is a bit strong for her, but not too bad - she had two halves
The yeast goo - not there yet, try harder next time - too chemically but promising

I will definitely follow CJBrew's directions on washing the yeast first next time.
Might even go for a Bovril attempt, there's some rich reduced beef stock in the freezer

[dopejack]

Good effort befuggled, you're an inspiration! Next kegging day I'll give it a go! Definitely goint to have a go at that bread too!
Cheers

[Dr. Dextrin]

Many years ago I had a student job doing quality control in a factory that produced "natural flavourings". If I recall correctly, there were quite a few varieties of yeast extract (maybe several dozen) that were used to add meaty- or gravy-like flavours to various products. Most were rather lighter in colour than Marmite or Bovril, and less salty. A few were rather insipid, but most were quite tasty.

So I think it may be possible to make a tasty yeast extract without necessarily imitating Marmite exactly. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to do with the production side of things so I don't know how they were made, but I doubt it involved anything too clever. The factory was pretty low-tech.

[befuggled]

Marmite - Attempt number two!

I racked off some more FVs at the beginning of last week and ended up with 2-3 litres of yeast gloop.
Following CJBrew's advice, I washed the yeast four times, filling up the fv with 20 litres of cold water, very good stir, leave to settle for a day, rack off and taste until there was very little hop flavour left.
I ended up with about 1 litre of thick yeast cake.

I put this in a large saucepan and added 1 litre of water.
Here I cheated - I had some Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon powder sitting in the cupboard, a bit out of date, but what the hell, with that much salt it should keep! It smelt and tasted fine and this was only another experiment!
I added 200gms to the saucepan then stirred and kept over a low heat, well below boiling for a couple of hours. During this time it tried to get out of the pan again, rather like a vigorous fermentation - I suspect that this was the lysis.
I then increased the temperature and gently reduced it to a thick goo over about 4-5 hours.
Result:
"Not Marmite as we know it Jim, but" this time much darker, no hop taste, salt seems about right and I will very definitely use it on bread/toast etc. Other opinions are pending......
Total amount bottled at the end, about 500gms. Marmite cost £6.... Bouillon £2......
The first lot has a very definite tang from the hops, but I will use this sparingly in soups, stews, stocks etc. The second is well worth a go!

I see that Marmite are now doing "X.O." - the mind boggles!

[Horatio]

I used to work for the people that make marmite but I had nothing to do with production; in fact it was carried out at a different factory! I do remember talking to one of our lab guys who did work at the marmite production plant. He said that salt is added before the yeast is heated to cause the cells to split. It is then filtered to remove the cell walls (husk?). After that I haven't got a clue. Sorry not much help really but thought it might help.

[befuggled]

Filtered - that would explain the texture difference then - and every little helps!
The bit about using salt to split the cells (effect of lysis) also ties up and is what has worked for me.
The latest comments are "too much salt" - "a bit like a salty meat pate" but both also say quite edible....
I suspect that that sort of filtering might be beyond the scope of the "home kitchen", but adding the salt while the yeast is concentrated, then adding lots of water and seeing what settles out this time might help....

[charlie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8071865.stm

numpties.

[befuggled]

..............I see a character with a gun (on the left) shooting a pregnant kangeroo............................



Damn, this Marmite by-product does funny things to the eyes.

[dopejack]

I believe in kangaroos...