Trial: Oven Sterilization Tek Reliability
Testing the long-term sterility of Oven Tek across different grain types and additives in a standard kitchen environment.
Project: Oven Tek Shelf Life (Pints)
Start Date: Late April 2026
Goal: Test how long grain jars sterilized via Oven Tek remain sterile before inoculation.
Progress Log:
Two pints of grain sitting clean for ~30 days (Photo: 5-23-2026).
6-05-2026 Status: Success! Jars have remained sterile for over 40 days and are now ready for inoculation.
The oldest jars are still clean after 40+ days (Photo: 6-05-2026).
Project: The Coffee Contam Challenge
Start Date: 5-6-2026
Goal: Intentionally increase contamination risk by adding leftover coffee grounds to corn, then testing if Oven Tek can still achieve 100% sterility.
Progress Log:
4 Quarts of corn with coffee grounds, 17 days post-sterilization (Photo: 5-23-2026).
6-05-2026 Status: Success! All 4 jars remain clean nearly a month later. The leftmost jar has been inoculated and is showing healthy growth.
All 4 jars are clean and showing healthy growth post-inoculation (Photo: 6-05-2026).
Project: Half Gallon Scaling
Start Date: 5-21-2026
Goal: Test if dry heat can effectively penetrate the larger volume of a 1/2 gallon jar (with coffee grounds added) to achieve full sterility.
Progress Log:
6-05-2026 Status: Success! All 6 half-gallon jars have remained sterile for over two weeks. These are slated for inoculation soon. This successfully proves that Oven Tek scales effectively to larger containers.
6 half-gallon jars with coffee grounds, still clean 15 days later. (Photo: 6-05-2026).
Next Steps
With quarts and half-gallons verified, the next phase will be testing even larger batches or potentially exploring different dry-heat durations to optimize the process.