April 23 2026
I was not sure how the vat will over winter in the färberhutte. This winter was especially cold, it went multiple days under -10degrees. I could not even come to hutte to check as the roads were frozen and I could not bike. I opened the vat the fist time on the April 23, and this is how it looked. Rainbow colour shines out! what a surprise.
PH is low, 8.63 and the vat temp is about 16 degrees. still very cold. The colored things are probably mold, and I see some white mold developping on the side. I scouped out the mold culture o nthe surface, wiped off the white mold on the wall. To prevent mroe mold to develop on the wall, I mixed calk with small amount of water and painted the wall + the back side of the lid.
Mixed the vat, and surprisingly it makes the hana blue bubble. The ph after mixing is 10.7. not bad. and the color test even shows a lot of blue. surprising!
Maybe we will have a nice blue season this 2026 summer? it feels like a good start.