Take THAT Crockpot Yogurt!

Take that crockpot yogurt, I beat you! (Insert evil laugh here)
I signed up to make crockpot yogurt at a church function for this upcoming Wednesday night. I had never made it before, but thought, "How hard could it be?"
Pretty hard, in fact.
I tried for the first time two weeks ago, following the instructions carefully. In the morning, I was expecting gorgeous yogurt, instead I was greeted with sour smelling milk that was a little lumpy.
Try #2 happened a week after that. A little different instructions, same results. My hopes for homemade yogurt were quickly going down the drain.
Try #3 was yesterday. I asked anyone and everyone on tips they had to make homemade yogurt. I was ready! Instead of a list of ingredients, I'll just give you my timeline of events with the ingredients, it will make it easier to understand.
11:30 AM- Pour 1 gallon milk in to large crockpot. Turn on high, let sit for 4 hours. If you take a peak during this time, there will be bubbles forming on the top, but it SHOULDN'T be boiling.
3:30 PM- Unplug crockpot, and let it cool down slowly. This will take 3 hours. You are wanting to be able to stick your finger in the milk for about 10 seconds and for it to not be too hot.
6:30 PM- Now that the milk has cooled down, it's time to add your yogurt and powdered milk.
These are what I used. For every 1/2 gallon milk, you will use 1/2 cup yogurt (with active cultures) and 1/2 cup powdered milk. Since I used a whole gallon of milk, I added 1 cup yogurt and 1 cup powdered milk. ***The first two times I tried this recipe I went and bought super expensive yogurt. You don't need to do that. I got this Yoplait Greek yogurt for .99 cents each. Super cheap and the flavor is really good.
To add the yogurt, remove 2 cups milk in to separate container, add the yogurt and whisk together. Combine the yogurt mixture back in to the crockpot and whisk. Do the same thing with the powdered milk (Remove 2 cups milk, whisk in the powdered milk until combined. Add the powdered milk mixture back in to the crockpot and whisk together).
The next part is the hardest: Wrap it in a big bath towel and just let it sit....for forever! Well, not forever, but close to 12 hours.
7:30 AM - I got up this morning really excited and nervous to see if it had worked. 3rd time's a charm, right?? I carefully unwrapped my crockpot from the towel and took off the lid. I put my spoon in, and SCORE! It's yogurt. Below is my accomplishment!
So, now I have A LOT of yogurt. The consistency is pretty good to my taste. If you want it thicker, like Greek Yogurt you should line a collander with coffee filters and then spoon in your yogurt. Make sure to put something under your collander to catch some of the stuff that will separate. The extra whey (I don't know if that's exactly right) will drain, and you will be left with thicker yogurt. I went ahed and put the whole crockpot in the fridge to thicken up a little bit. In a few days it will be carted off to church and enjoyed by many.
The sad thing is, I don't even like yogurt that much...haha. It was just bugging me that I couldn't figure it out. Greg was really happy I only wasted 1 gallon of milk instead of more.
If you try it, good luck!