Yogotherm Yogurt Maker

The Yogotherm Yogurt Maker is different to most of the other yogurt makers on the market. It may be a low-tech solution, but it's simple and very little can go wrong with it. It doesn't use any electricity and doesn't actually have a heating unit as such.

Rather, the Yogotherm uses an insulated incubator to maintain the heat required for fermentation to take place. The incubator is insulated with polystyrene which reportedly maintains the heat for hours.

To use the Yogotherm unit, you will need to first heat the milk to around 180 degrees (Fahrenheit) then remove from heat and allow to cool to around 115 degrees. The starter culture is then added and mixed in well. This mixture is then poured into the incubator unit and sealed up. You can make up to 2 quarts in each batch.

Because of the polystyrene insulation, the temperature of the fermenting milk is kept at a constant temperature. I guess that it works kind of like a vacuum flask or thermos.

This model is similar to the Easiyo yogurt maker which I've written about before, in that it doesn't require electricity to operate. The difference with the Easiyo offering is that the fermentation vessel sits in boiling water inside the unit and that's is where the heat is drawn from.

One of the advantages of Yogotherm yogurt makers is that because they don't draw any power, they are cheaper to run and better for the environment. The only concern I have is how well the optimum temperature is maintained within the incubator.

The only criticism I've come across so far is from someone who said the yogurt produced tasted a little like plastic. This was solved however by placing a glass container inside the unit.

You can read some customer reviews here.