Cultures for Health Vegan Yogurt Starter Culture | 4 Direct-Set Packets | DIY Dairy-Free Yogurt from Plant Milks | Probiotic for Gut Health

This is a wonderful vegan yogurt starter. It's very easy to use and the yogurt came out perfectly. I made it in my Instant Pot using the Yogurt setting. The recipe: a 32oz box of Westsoy Organic Unsweetened Soy Milk (no added ingredients), one packet of starter (the package contains 4), and one Tablespoon (8 grams) of tapioca starch to help thicken it. Whisk it all together using a very clean bowl and whisk. I put the mixture into three pint sized jars and set the Instant Pot for 15 hours (overnight is easiest.) You should be able to do it in less time, but this was my first try and I wanted to make sure it was good. It was! Not too tart, even with the extra time. Refrigerate for about 6-8 hours before using. This will help to set and thicken it. I used one whole jar from my first batch of yogurt as a starter for my second batch and used the same amount of time. I had heard from somewhere that with vegan yogurt you needed to use starter from the packet each time. Well, this batch came out nicely, although the yogurt was much thinner. I still like it a lot and the thin yogurt was great over a spicy vegan black bean chili. For the next batch I will start over with the packaged yogurt starter. It's really good and I already bought my second order of four because I'm sure I'll be needing it soon. The instructions inside the packaging tell you to store the unused packets in the freezer. Oh, and don't use aluminum bowls/utensils. Stainless steel is okay. Note: Instructions say you can make 32-64oz of yogurt with one packet of starter. I made 32oz. I'll try 64oz soon.

Works well. The package says 6-8 hours for the yogurt to thicken but that didn't do anything (I used soymilk). I left the yogurt in the yogurt maker 24 hours and that did the job. Also make sure that you get a food thermometer and heat the soymilk to about 110 degrees. Make sure it doesn't drop below 105 or go over 115 degrees.

I successfully used the Vegan Yogurt starter for years and recently purchased 3 new pkgs, one through Amazon and two directly from the company itself. Each pkg contains 4 individual packets of starter. I made 3 separate attempts to make yogurt using the same type of milk (soy), the same yogurt maker (EuroCuisine) and the same process I have always successfully used in the past. After my first attempt using this new starter failed, I tried a second time with a new packet from the same pkg. When that also failed, I tried a third packet from a second pkg, thinking that the one pkg might have had a bad batch of starter, but that also failed. I then tested the temperature of my yogurt maker and found that it was within the recommended range. I finally emailed Cultures for Health to see if they had made any changes to the formula and found out that they had, in fact, changed the formula. At that point, I checked the ingredients listed on my newest pkgs of starter, compared those to the ingredients of the older formulation and found the two formulations were very different. There was no indication on the website or on the newest pkgs to alert me to the change of formula so I never thought to check the ingredients at the time of purchase or before using. I have since purchased a different brand of vegan starter and made a successful batch of yogurt so I can only conclude that it is the Cultures for Health new starter that is at fault for the previous failures.

My yogurt came out fantastic after I tried making it with this starter. I really appreciate the ease of use and the fact that it can easily be stored for later use.

First attempt: I must have done something wrong. A few reviewers mention putting in sugar at the beginning, but I just followed the directions that came with the starter. I did not use thickeners (I have pectin in the cupboard that I'll try next time), just Westsoy milk and a packet of the starter (three 8-oz. Ball jars was all I could fit in my rice cooker, which served as the incubator.) I cooked two for 7 hours and one for 8 hours. I did not monitor the temperature in the cooker. What I ended up with after storing overnight in the fridge was about what I started out with: soy milk. The 8-hour milk tasted slightly tangy, the other two not so much. I'm disappointed but will try again with Pomona pectin and maybe some sugar. April 30: The second batch, with pectin, turned out thicker but tang-less. So for my third batch today, I'm trying no pectin and a warm water bath for eight hours in my turned-off rice cooker, assuming my problem is too high a temp. Also, I discovered today that the fourth envelope of culture has a split on the bottom, and was spilling out, unbeknownst to me. But it doesn't matter, because if this third try doesn't produce the tang I like, that's it for me. I'll return to store bought. I don't have the patience for all this lab experimentation. May 1st: After telling myself I'd try it one more time, I did more research on using a rice cooker. I combined a few how to's and ended up with thick, tangy yogurt. Finally! The secret is keeping the temp low enough. What I did was fill the rice cooker with water, put it on 'cook', and then warm up the soy milk on the stove. At 110 degrees, I stirred in half a pack of culture (for a pint of yogurt), poured it into two little Mason jars (I had shut off the rice cooker so the water would cool off a bit), and then set the jars floating in the bath (the water a comfortable warm bathing temp), closed the top, and forgot about it for eight hours, thinking cynically that the water would get too cold to create yogurt. But it didn't! I got thick, tangy yogurt. Success! May 31st: After repeating the above method successfully, today (since I had run out of the powdered culture) I used a little over a teaspoon of leftover homemade yogurt as a culture in two cups of soy milk and did my usual rice cooker/warm water eight-hour soak. Somewhat to my surprise, it worked. I'm getting good at this!

I continue to purchase this product because when it works, I love the yogurt it produces; but it works only about 3/5 of the time, so I find it frustrating when - upon doing everything the exact same, there are 2/5 times when the yogurt does not work. Then not only am I wasting the money on this product but I am wasting the money on the soy milk I have purchased too. I feel like it was nearly perfect until they changed the packaging - then the number of failures increased threefold at that time.

The price feels like a lot but it worked! Made great yogurt I recommend using the Korean vegans soy milk recipe then fermenting in the insta pot. Great texture.

So far I've only used the culture directly and haven't tried making a batch with leftover yogurt yet. I'll update the review if I have any issues. I'm on the autoimmune protocol, and wanted yogurt for eating and also for Greek food. The only "milk" base allowed is coconut. Unfortunately, this starter is based on soy, but it's such a small amount I wasn't concerned about it. To make thick, good smooth mouth feel yogurt I recommend the following: 1) 1 can (14 oz) of no additives coconut milk. They're already pasteurized in the can so you can skip that step. 2) Heat to ~110 degrees and add 2 tsp gelatin (grass fed beef gelatin for my AIP friends) or agar agar for a vegan option. This helps incorporate the coconut milk fat too. 3) Strain through fine mesh cheese cloth or nut milk bag or yogurt strainer to get any gelatin chunks out or clumps. 4) Add starter, incubate at ~110 for 8 hours to 24 hours depending on tartness preferences 5) Refrigerate for 8 hours. 6) Enjoy. I use my insta pot with an insert. The yogurt isn't super tart but definitely a little. Generally, the failure behind vegan milk is an absence of fat and an absence of protein. The gelatin adds the protein, and full fat coconut milk covers the fat. Follow the above and you'll get smooth, flavorful yogurt.

Funcionó muy bien en leche de soya espesa perfecto incluso te recomiendo filtrar al final con una malla limpia para que quede como el yogurt convencional ojo en consistencia si está muy bien pero no hace milagros la soya siempre sabrá a soya pero pues si eres vegano eso buscarás

This is a nice product. Glad that it's vegan and I like the packaging and easy instructions. Worked well when making vegan yogurt.

Each week I attempted a new batch. Only once was there a small portion that I would call a thicker consistency. Yes, they all tasted fine as it was still coconut. But was it yogurt? no. I used 3 different techniques, varying time frames, and online tips. Not successful.

Pedí estos cultivos hace mucho tiempo, pero desde el principio no salieron bien. Se formó en hongo de color rosa en el yogurt y el sabor no estaba bien desde el primer día.

Este producto contiene soya y no se especifica en ningún lado. Nosotros lo compramos para hacer yogurt vegano porque somos alérgicos a la leche de vaca y a la soya. Ahora no podremos usarlo pues la información de listing no estaba clara y cuando llegó el producto y vimos la etiqueta nos enteramos. El vendedor no acepta devolución y amazon no tiene ninguna solución. Les dejo este comentario por si en un futuro alguien busca la información, pueda verlo. Ojalá puedan mejorarlo. Saludos