Dear Dr. Cho,

Weak foam unfortunately occurs in most cases for me, and I am still searching for the reasons behind it.

I was wondering whether there was any microbiological activity when no significant foam was present during the preparation of JMP.

Therefore, I decided to conduct a small experiment. I performed an iodine test to determine whether microorganisms consume starch. I started with 200 g of starch, 200 g of leaf mold, and 200 g of sea salt in 200 L of rainwater. The temperature was maintained at approximately 30°C.

After stirring the contents of the barrel, I checked the starch content of the solution several times (please see the attached picture). For each measurement, I added three drops of iodine solution to the same volume of microbial culture taken from the barrel.

The results showed that microbiological activity was present even though there was no substantial foam buildup, as the microorganisms were clearly consuming starch. It also seems reasonable to assume that the culture reaches its peak activity after approximately 20–24 hours.

Greetings from Hungary!