50 Shades of Blue Indigo

My Indigo Fermentation Vat

A Day in the Life of an Indigo Fermentation Vat
An Indigo Fermentation Vat needs daily care and feeding. I tried to do this before but ran into problems with providing a constant and even temperature to keep the fermentation going. I am trying this again.

I use a large beaker for the Vat and Beer Fermentation Vats as a heat source. I tried to do this before with slow cookers or crock pots, but couldn’t maintain a constant temperature. The Vat got either too hot, or too cold or someone in the household would walk by, see the power on, and turn it off.

I had a large vat filled with Indigo that had been sitting abandoned for several months while I contemplated how to solve this problem. I didn’t want to throw all the Indigo out. Most of the Indigo was still in the bottom of the Vat – dried out.

So I added some warm water and turned the beer mat under the Vat on. I left it overnight and the temperature of the Vat was about 28 degrees C. A fermentation Vat should be around 30-35 deg. C – from what I had read. This is not a problem in summer months but in winter the Vat isn’t able to reach those temperatures.

So I made a sleeve using leftover wool from my stash. Then I thought perhaps I should do a short video on the daily success or failure of my Vat. (Sometimes I need a bit of motivation to keep on top of things)
So I will post these little Indigo Vat videos on my YouTube Channel.

Indigo Vat – Day 1

I started with an old vat that had dried up Indigo in the bottom of the Vat. I didn’t want to waste it so am hopeful I can get it going again.

Indigo Vat – Day 2

Indigo Vat – Day 3