First Attempt At Yeast Farming...

[hockadays]

I have made starters the same sort of way as Ross but recently threw one out as I thought I had an infection. It was a Belgian Strong Ale that I had stepped up twice and it was going quite strong but before I stepped it the third time I noticed a tiny bit of mold on the rubber stopper and the smell of the starter stank of band aids so I chucked it. It wasnt untill I thought bout it that the medicinal smell may be due to the style of yeast. doh.

I tasted it b4 chucking it and it tasted a little odd. This is my first possible infection. Has any one noticed this with this yeast and does an infection normally taste pretty bad?

Sorry for the diversion from the main topic..

Matt

 

[Steve]

Well I got my 12 test tubes yesterday for my 3 smack packs and split them directly into the test tubes - 4 tubes for each of the packs. All went smoothly (I think)! I was as clean as possible - I found I was even holding my breath without noticing and then wondering why I was getting out of breath! It was pretty bloody nerve racking. Little boy running around the kitchen trying to help, my wonderful wife trying to prepare our dinner whilst I was sat there at the kitchen bench doing a very good impersonation of mad scientist (beer in hand). Labelled each tube and put them to bed in the fridge. And then I had a terrible thought! When I picked the tubes up from LHBS the only caps/seals he had were these little corks. They were brand new and I put in a bowl of boiling water and then into a bowl of iodophor for half an hour. But then im thinking hmmmm cork, cork contains little gaps n crevices, nice places for things to live in! Does anyone else use cork? Have I just wasted 3 smack packs? Will the cork deteriorate and turn mouldy! Anyone help?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Steve]

Anyone?

Im half thinking of rushing home and swapping the corks with glad wrap and elastic bands?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Weizguy]

Steve,

You might wanna swap the corks when you get home, but in the meantime it should be OK.

As you thoroughly cleaned and sanitised the corks, and the yeast is not in contact with those surfaces anyway, it should be fine.

I would have recommended rubber bungs or alfoil perhaps.

Please advise in future, when culturing for a brew, if you get a problem from using corks. I would think not, though.

Seth

 

[Stuster]

Since you did such a thorough job on the corks, I'd say you'll be fine. If bottled wines can last for hundreds of years intact, your yeast samples in the fridge should be roses. You could swap half of the corks over to al foil and do your own experiment. You could also just rush home, relax and have a homebrew. :super:

 

[Steve]

Cheers Seth - will swap with alfoil and elastic bands when I take my early early mark today
Steve

 

[Airgead]

Cheers Seth - will swap with alfoil and elastic bands when I take my early early mark today
Steve

[post="125897"][/post]​

if you are really paranoid, swab down the inside if the alfoil with meths before you put it on the tube.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Steve]

Cheers Dave - I was going to immerse it in boiling water for a while and then immerse it in iodophor for half n hour. Should be right.
Cheers
Steve

 

[NRB]

I would also recommend sterilising your tubes next time rather than simply sanitising. My other recommendation is to do the split away from everything and in a relatively still environment rather than in a kitchen with vigorous activity

Don't stress, you'll be fine; I'm as paranoid about contamination of my yeast bank as Darren is about Clostridium botulinum contamination when using the "no chiller" method. h34r:

 

[Trough Lolly]

Is using a sterile syringe and sharp and piercing the smackpack bag a clean way of decanting the yeast? After sterilising the bag surface with alcohol first?

Pretty much what I did. I wiped down a pair of scissors with alcohol wipes and then the Wyeast package and cut the top off. This way I could be sure that I didn't pierce the smackpack of wort inside. I have collected these wort packs and will use them in a small flask with the vial of yeast. I'll give this about 24 hours before stepping up a into a large flask with a 1.5L wort.

TL or anyone - Do you think I need to boil that first smackpack of wort or just put it straight into a sanitised flask with the yeast vial? I assume that smackpack is sanitised already.

[post="124233"][/post]​

Doglet - Apologies for the late reply...

The smackpack is typically full of pre-boiled yeast slurry so you don't need to boil any smackpack, and of course, doing so will kill most bacteria and all of the yeast there anyway... :blink:
Greg Doss (Wyeast) confirmed to me that the inner sachet is a combo of yeast nutrient and malt so you can use that when you want to kick off some yeast in a starter. He also agreed that a 10 Plato (approx. 1.040) gravity starter is perfect for their strains.

Cheers,
TL