Hag Yeast Slant Library

[goatherder]

I'm keen to be a part of this but I'm not going down the agar road.

I've found a yeast slurry can live for months (years even) in a well sanitised tube in my fridge. Sometimes they take a few days to fire up but they do nonetheless.

It sounds like we are mostly talking about sharing the commonly available yeast strains so I'm comfortable with simply tipping some clean starter into a clean tube and sharing this around.

I know agar has some advantages over this method but is anyone violently opposed to it?

 

[Tony]

Mate i tend to agree. that tube of yeast i got from you was what 1 1/2 yeast old........... more.

I put it in a starter and 24 hrs later it was climbing out the airlock.

I have always just stuck some in the old white labs tubes of a sterile jam jar and they keep for ages. Jam jars arnt so good with their steel lids but the sealed tubes are great.

Might do the same. LEave a bit in the starter, add some cooled boiled water and fill the test tubes.

Another problem is i dont have a pressure cooker......... more cost. I just spent my spare hundred bucks on an electric mincer/sausage maker

Mmmmmm.... Bhut Jolokia pork sausages this summer for anyone keen

back on topic.............. may give both a go and see which i prefer.

Schooey.......... i will buy a bit off you to try if you have got to much.

cheers

 

[MHB]

Hi all anyone thinking of making slants, this is one of the best easy to follow guides I have found.

MHB


Yeast handling and Storage

 

[Sammus]

Just incase it hadn't been mentioned too frequently yet, every asian grocery store I've ever been into sells agar-agar, and in my experience (3 different stores, one in newcastle next to dominos which is now closed - havent tried to new better one in hunter st yet) they are all this packet:




And you only need sweet FA.

And for this local trading business, do we have to do it on slants? I like what this site reckons about storing under distilled water - agar is too messy and annoying to clean out of stuff I use agar to plate and select the colony (based on nothing in particular, just to make sure its a clean specimen), but like to store under distilled.

 

[schooey]

The shop next to Dominos is open again, but they don't carry it. The one around the corner on Hunter St does though, as mentioned above

 

[Sammus]

The shop next to Dominos is open again, but they don't carry it. The one around the corner on Hunter St does though, as mentioned above

Weird, I've bought it from there a bunch of times before they shut. Maybe different owners now or something. Oh well, its still not far away

 

[braufrau]

Ok ... not wanting to hijack your HAG slant fest .. but I just want to share ... here are the blanks I made on the weekend with the same agar as Sammus

Looks like someone sneezed in the vial doesn't it?

 

[schooey]

Innoculated my first 3 slants with Wyeast 1388 tonight, will let you all know how it goes..... :unsure:

 

[goatherder]

Is anyone interested in some bugs? I saved the dregs out of my Lindemans Gueuze Cuve Ren. Should I culture up a few vials?

 

[Tony]

What did they taste like first?

 

[goatherder]

Super funky horse blanket. Sour as hell. Awesome.

 

[schooey]

Yeah i'll have a crack, Scotty. Any suggestions on a recipe?

 

[goatherder]

Not sure there Schooey. You could go the whole hog lambic route - turbid mash, debittered hops, ferment it for a year or three then blend or add fruit. I haven't really got the motivation to do that just yet.

I was thinking something a bit simpler - maybe make a Belgian Strong Golden (or dark for that matter) and add the bugs to secondary along with some wine-soaked oak chips. Bottle it after 3-6 months and see what happens. Or maybe use it to sour up a small batch of stout or porter and blend it back into an unsoured beer for just a hint of funk.

 

[schooey]

You could go the whole hog lambic route - turbid mash, debittered hops, ferment it for a year or three then blend or add fruit.

I might nick some off you and give it a rip, Scotty. I have a great big (54L) glass fermenter and a spot under the house that I can forget about for a long looooooooooong time, why the hell not.... I also have a mix half empty packets each of B Saaz, POR, NZ Cascade and Pacific Hallertau that I can use for the hops that have been kicking around in my fridge not really being looked after for the last 12 months, could be interesting.... :blink:

 

[Weizguy]

Is anyone interested in some bugs? I saved the dregs out of my Lindemans Gueuze Cuve Ren. Should I culture up a few vials?

yum...aromas of faeces will be absent.
"Super funky horse blanket", what is that? an oldwave funk band?

I believe that all recipes should include raw or rolled wheat. turbid mash, too.
Unfired oak barrel.

Get motivated now, and by the time you can appreciate it, you'll have it there for your appreciation.
A small outlay for an aged project ale, paying off dividends for your tastebuds.

I've been aging some HallertauCascade plugs. They have been plucked apart, and are losing their aroma. They have scenting my beerspace for some time; although much less successfully lately.

We could innoculate the barrel with oak staves, for everyone to take home. Anyone? Bueller? Trent?

Can I hear a "yeah" inna house?

Les the beer evangelist

 

[goatherder]

Sounds like a plan. I'll culture them up. I'll also do the dregs from the bottle of Cantillon Bio Gueuze which is waiting to be drunk.

 

[Benniee]

My tubes arrived from ProSciTech yesterday so I'll be aiming to get some slants happenning shortly. I'm getting 4 wisdom teeth ripped out tomorrow so it probably won't be for a week or so though.

Back on topic - I inoculated my "test" slant in a baby food jar with some US-05 slurry collected. Before I get posts about "why bother - it's a dry yeast", it was just to test my methods and get a little familiar with the process.

With the cooler weather at the moment is has been slowly forming a nice white growth where I've streaked the slant - and toward the end of the streaks there are some single white dots, which I believe are isolated colonys of yeast. So to my untrained eye it seems to be going well.

I will try and post up a pic tonight when I get home.

Benniee

 

[MHB]

This topic is generating enough chatter that I thought it might be a good idea to get together and sort the bugs out.

We will be running a slant workshop on the 23rd of this month at the shop, start about 2:30 PM (yes that’s a Saturday afternoon).

Les the Weizguy has been dragooned into doing most of the work, in case you weren’t aware Les did his degree in microbiology (among other things, but mostly biolgical studies: Les note / edit) so what he has to say should be worth listening to.

Hopefully there will be some freebees for those who attend as well as a good opportunity to improve your skills and hear what other brewers have to say on the subject.

I will make sure there is some beer on hand and some snacks, please let me know if you are coming.

MHB

 

[schooey]

Sounds good to me, always willing to learn when there's beer included...

My first slants seem to have worked ok, it's not really that much of a long winded process, just a lot of cleanliness care needed.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Oooo that sounds like a good offer there Mark. I shall keep you posted. Would be good to hear about it from someone who really understands the chemistry behind it.