Choose any THREE Heirloom Yogurt Starter Cultures OR Sourdough Starters

I ordered mesophilic cultures so I would not have to keep them heated; the mesophilic cultures work just fine at room temperature, for example 72 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. I ordered Amasi, Piima, and mesophilic buttermilk. This review is for the Amasi. The cultures arrived in small sealed envelopes in under a week from the time I placed the order. Printed on the culture envelopes, Keep Frozen Until Activation. Expiration date is 12/2020. I put two envelopes in the freezer and I opened and used the Amasi. Inside were tiny white dried flakes, which I emptied into a half cup of milk in a clean jar, swirled it around, covered the top with a clean new coffee filter, and left out on the countertop. Inside house temperature was mostly about 76 to 78 degrees. The envelope still had a tiny bit of fine powder clinging to the inside paper, so I rinsed this out with two teaspoons of milk and added it to a quarter cup of milk in a second clean jar and left that out too. 24 hours later, both had formed up to a fine yogurt like consistency, a little thinner than store bought yogurt, which is normal for mesophilic cultures, and I put them in the refrigerator. About 6 hours later, I used 2 to 3 tablespoons each with 2 cups each of milk from these cultures, and in about a week of perpetuating this original little packet of Amasi, I have made over a gallon of yogurt. I have given some away to friends, eaten several cups, and also experimented with adding different proportions of half and half and heavy cream to the whole milk. I have found that adding any one of those extras results in some increased thickness and richness to the Amasi. For myself, I like 3 generous tablespoons of Amasi, two cups of milk, and about half a cup of half and half, or a quarter cup of cream. However, the Amasi with just whole milk has also turned out great. It usually takes about 12 to 18 hours, partly dependent on how warm the house is. I also have frozen some to keep in the freezer for future use if I ever take a break from making this. That is easy to do in an ice cube tray, then put the cubes in a zip lock bag and label and date it.

I have been making yogurt on and off for the last 40 years. My problem has always been that the yogurt starts out great but over time something happens and the yogurt becomes runny and inconsistent and then becomes more like curds and whey, and not nicely set yogurt.I have been absolutely delighted with the strains I got from Positively Probiotics. The yogurt sets nice and thick without separating, and is amazingly consistent batch to batch. I am confident that I now has a genuine heirloom variety that can successfully cultured over and over.I got the Australlian Traditional yogurt which is really good. It makes a very thick, rich, smooth, creamy yogurt. Very flavorful, but does lack that sharp bite of some yogurts. Straining it results in about the best greek style yogurt I have ever had.I also got the 'buttermilk' flavored yogurt which also set very well, and has behaved consistently. It has a stronger flavor, and we use it unstrained is place of buttermilk in cooking things like cornbread. Extremely happy with the results.Make sure to follow the instructions, which are very important to get your culture off to a strong start. First, your first batch should be small, just one cup of milk. This is to get your culture woken up. This first batch will come out runny, almost like milk, and little flavor. But then you use this as the starter for the second batch, which will come out thick and tasty. Do not get discouraged if the first batch appears to not work.OK, delighted to have found this company, and appreciate that they have made such a good product available.

I was prepared to give this one star, my first batch turned out as watery as milk (after preparing it as instructed on their website), which isn’t what you want in a Greek yogurt. I didn’t even bother trying to strain it. I put it in silicon cups and froze it in individual servings. I got about 12. Last night I popped a couple cups in a half gallon of milk (that I was too lazy to scald, so both the milk and yogurt were ice cold). The yogurt was still pretty watery after being in my instant pot almost all night. I put it in the fridge hoping it would thicken in the fridge. I woke up to basically drinkable yogurt, so still nothing close to Greek yogurt. I poured it in a flour sack and hung it over a bowl to strain in the fridge, not entirely sure I would end up with anything usable. Finally, it was the consistency of Greek yogurt! Any homemade yogurt has to be strained to make a Greek style yogurt, but this one really wasn’t usable to me until I strained it. I’ve used other yogurt starters that have given me usable yogurt on the first try, and straining was really optional as I had perfectly usable yogurt. I used the Aussie Greek starter.I also bought the Icelandic Skyr and the Mexican sour cream. I will update my review after I have used these and used my saved yogurt a few times. What made this starter appealing was the promise that I would never have to buy starter again. I have found other brands for some reason only allow me to get 3ish batches from the initial starter before the yogurt starts to thin out noticeably with subsequent use.On a final note, I got a huge amount of whey from my strained yogurt, which I diluted with equal parts water and poured in my garden as a gentle fertilizer.