Choosing Liquid Yeasts

[Trough Lolly]

I'm not sure about the longevity of the tubes, John. I largely use the Wyeast XL Smack Packs - there's something very reassuring about smacking a pack a couple of days before brewday, seeing it blow up like a pillow and then using that to make starters for my brewday and stubbies!
The last one I used was only 6 months old and I made 12 stubbies out of that - that was back in Jan this year. Last weekend I made a Kilkenny clone using one of those stubbies and it is happily fermenting away as I type this.
Cheers,
TL

 

[jaytee]

It's been a nervous few days .. but everything worked a treat

Activated the pack Friday morning, looked like it was going to burst by mid afternoon
Made up the starter that afternoon, stepped it up Saturday and pitched 500ml Sunday
Slow but regular bubble through the airlock tonight

Thanks for all the instructions and advice guys, really appreciated
I'll have to add a lager yeast to the inventory next !

 

[Trough Lolly]

Nice work Jaytee - once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy and when you taste the difference these liquid yeast strains make to your beer, you'll never turn back!
Cheers,
TL

 

[pr1me]

I just bought my first liquid yeast, a scottish ale yeast, which will go into my Newcastle Brown Clone. Hopefully all will go well!

I'm planning on trying to propogate this one so i always have some around for other ales.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

The scottish is a GREAT yeast. Good for Scottish ales, barleywines and big stouts. Quite attenuative too, and will work down to 13C so a great winter yeast.

Jovial Monk

 

[pr1me]

cool, its been hard to keep temps up on my fermenters lately, as i cant really afford the heating pads at the moment. So 13C sounds perfect.

 

[dougy]

What kind of containers do you guys use to store yeast cultures in the fridge.

I run very short of space as I only have a bar fridge (and dont have room for another large one), currently i have starters in stubbies, but if i could find smaller bottles, maybe smaller than little juice bottles or something I could fit heaps more in the fridge.

Any ideas out there?

cheers

 

[Justin]

I use test tubes and petri dishes but I have seen people talking about using vials that you give urine samples in. You could try a pharmacy to see what they have or look for lab supplies. If you know someone who works in a lab I'm sure they could get you some containers of some sort.

Justin

 

[dougy]

Thanks Justin.

Test tubes sounds like a good idea. How do you seal them off to the air though?

dougy

 

[Hoops]

cool, its been hard to keep temps up on my fermenters lately, as i cant really afford the heating pads at the moment. So 13C sounds perfect.

I am looking at getting one of these heater pads from Oatley electronics......
8 Watt Heater $18 or
15 Watt Heater $25
Half the price of a normal heat pad.

Hoops

 

[Hoops]

What kind of containers do you guys use to store yeast cultures in the fridge.

I run very short of space as I only have a bar fridge (and dont have room for another large one), currently i have starters in stubbies, but if i could find smaller bottles, maybe smaller than little juice bottles or something I could fit heaps more in the fridge.

Any ideas out there?

cheers

Dougy

I use Grolsch bottle for my yeast starters. Takes up a bit of room in the fridge but I am willing to make that sacrifice.
I just bought my first liquid yeasts recently from ESB - WLP001 Californian Ale and WLP940 Mexican Lager (whitelabs). I have split the WLP001 into 10 Grolsch bottles following Batz great intructions and have used 1 for a SFPA - it was going nuts so the yeast starters certainly worked well.

Hoops

 

[Jovial_Monk]

you are better off choosing suitable yeasts (e.g. Nottingham, WY 1728 or just making lagers in winter) and wrapping the fermenters in blankets etc than using a heating pad

Jovial Monk

 

[Hoops]

you are better off choosing suitable yeasts (e.g. Nottingham, WY 1728 or just making lagers in winter) and wrapping the fermenters in blankets etc than using a heating pad

Jovial Monk

Why do you say that JM? Is it because the heat is too localised in one area?
I have a temp controlled fermentation fridge that I plan to put the heater in using a themostat so that the ambient temp is even and constant.

Hoops

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Because it is WAY too easy to have the fermenting beer reach 30C

JM

 

[Hoops]

So they should really be used with a thermostat then.

 

[johnno]

I just brewed an ale using a brew belt. The temp was a constant 22c in the bungalow out the back. and you can move these up or down on the fermenter to have some sort of control.
I got it at kmart last year. $32. 25 watt
cheers

 

[Hoops]

I got [brewbelt] at kmart last year. $32. 25 watt
cheers

Anyone know what power rating the heating pads have? :huh:

 

[RobW]

I use test tubes and petri dishes but I have seen people talking about using vials that you give urine samples in. You could try a pharmacy to see what they have or look for lab supplies. If you know someone who works in a lab I'm sure they could get you some containers of some sort.

Justin

Try lab supply companies & ask for sterile serum & urine containers. The serum ones come in 5-15 mL & the urine ones are about 50 mL. The 5 mL ones are fine to store yeast under sterile water (ala Graham Sanders method on Craftbrewers) & take up very little space. Make sure you get the preservative free ones - they're plain with no label. If you are in Melbourne try Biolabs (1300 735 292) or Interpath (03 9457 6277). Price? Not sure but they usually come in bags of a couple of 100 so you could split a bag between a few blokes.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Hmmmm the sterile water method has one little improvement that will make the cultured yeast last 2 years instead of just one.

That improvement is to add sugar to the water. I dunno the details, search the HBD.

Oh, and "sterile water" does NOT mean boiled water! the water would need to be boiled in a pressure cooker to be sterile, or sourced from a lab supply place (i.e. $$$)

Personally, I don't bother culturing yeast.

Jovial Monk

 

[Darren]

Oh, and "sterile water" does NOT mean boiled water! the water would need to be boiled in a pressure cooker to be sterile, or sourced from a lab supply place (i.e. $$$)


Jovial Monk

More misinformation from the HBS guy!
Sure the water may not be sterile. Neither will a bottle of sterile water purchased from a lab supply place as soon as you open it to the air.
A 10 minute boil will easily kill beer spoilage organisms found in tap water.
Have no fear about storing yeast undeer bioled and cooled water!