When I made my very first citrus enzyme cleaner, I harvested them after two weeks of fermentation. I declared it a failure as all I was doing was spraying sticking sugary liquid all over the house. Of course, later I found out that 2 weeks was way too early. But 3 months was a really long wait. So I sought to find ways to stop me from giving ants more reason to come uninvited.
Ahh, a time machine.
Highly unlikely.
I need workable solutions. Yes.
#1 : Sludge from a mature enzyme
#2 : Yeast
And so the experiment began.
Bottle A: Regular (1 liter / 1000g water, 300g peels, 100g brown sugar)
Bottle B: Sludge from harvested enzyme (100ml sludge and 900ml water instead of 1 liter)
Bottle C: Yeast (1 tbs yeast was added)
At 2 weeks
| Regular | With sludge | With yeast | |
| Color of peels | No change | ||
| Color of liquid | Dark Brown | ||
| Peels floating | Yes | ||
| Bubbling | Yes | ||
| Smell | Fruity & sugary | ||
| Conclusion | Not ready | ||
Observations: Interestingly, all three bottles have the same liquid color even though they started out differently. It is opaque and not clear/translucent. Many websites state that with yeast, the enzyme will be ready in two weeks. But based on this, I highly doubt it. Fermentation is definitely not complete.
At 2 months
| Regular | With sludge | With yeast | |
| Color of peels | Orange/Yellow | Dark brown/Grey | Orange/Yellow |
| Color of liquid | Light brown | Dark brown | Light brown |
| Peels Floating | Some | No | A few |
| Bubbling | A little | No | A little |
| Smell | Fruity | Fruity | Fruity |
| Conclusion | Not ready | Ready | Almost Ready |
Bottle B (with sludge) is more than ready to be used. My estimate is that it could have been harvested @ 1.5 months.
Bottle C (with yeast): If this is your first time making enzyme cleaner and you can’t wait any longer, you should be able to use this now.
At 3 months
| Regular | With sludge | With yeast | |
| Color of peels | Pale Orange | Dark brown/Grey | Pale Orange |
| Color of liquid | Light brown | Dark brown | Light brown |
| Peels Floating | No | No | No |
| Bubbling | No | No | No |
| Smell | Fruity | Fruity | Fruity |
| Conclusion | Ready | Ready | Ready |
The end result:
It was visible to my eye when I took this picture, but I don’t think the picture tells at all. Peels in far right (bottle C yeast) is slightly more saturated (paler) than peels in far left (bottle A regular). I believe this shows that yeast do help speed up fermentation.
CONCLUSION:
With the sludge from a mature enzyme, the enzyme is ready to be used in 1.5 months. However, with 1 tbs of yeast per 1 liter of water, 2 months is the right time to harvest. Perhaps 2 tbs of yeast per 1 liter could make the enzyme ready in 1 month’s time. It’s impossible for enzyme to be ready in 2 weeks.
6 comments
Thank you AiPing
I’ve tried adding yeasts to my enzyme and it did speed up the process to about a month and a half. All the peels sank to the bottom. I think it helps when you open up at least 2-3 times to stir the mixture within the first week.
hi, may i noe how do you get sludge from enzyme?
You get the sludge from your previous round of enzyme. 🙂 If this is your first time making it, there will be no sludge.
Oh i see, if the sludge enzyme previous i do is mixed fruit, can i just use it to do for enzyme cleaner with using lemon peel only, is it ok?
ps: thx you for reply
I’ve never used sludge of enzyme made from mixed fruit before. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work since there are enzymes in fruit enzymes. Try it and then update us on it. If it doesn’t work, you’d just have to wait an extra month but at least we’ll all know it doesn’t work. 🙂