White Labs Vials

[Mat B]

Hello!

Does anyone have any white labs yeast vials they want to get rid of?

I'm planning to start a small scale yeast bank.

I'm located in Melbourne.

Cheers!

Mat

 

[carniebrew]

I have a couple of dozen laying around I reckon, happy to send them your way. PM me.

 

[welly2]

I have a couple of dozen laying around I reckon, happy to send them your way. PM me.

That's a book! Or almost a White Labs mug!

 

[MartinOC]

Forget the Whitelabs vials.

Try contacting Adam at: www.fusionscientific.com.au

CT50S is what you want - $8.50/pack of 50 ($0.17 each).

No-brainer.....

 

[mofox1]

Food for thought - those vials can't be heat sanitised/sterilised (ie - steaming or autoclaving). Although the results when attempting to do so are vaguely amusing in a OMFG kind of way...

The only option for these are a good clean and a chemical sanitiser (star-san, ido, etc).

50ml (and 15ml) centrifuge vials work well. I've probably got some spare 50's I can part with if you want to travel to the eastern 'burbs.

 

[Yob]

WL vials are a pita

50ml vials as Martin said fookin rock

 

[Blind Dog]

Ditto the advice above - they're not a lot of use for a yeast bank where you want everything to be sterilised as they deform fairly spectacularly in boiling water; least mine did

Not sure how they'd go frozen either, but never tried (edit: and might be completely irrelevant if its not a frozen yeast bank you're contemplating)

 

[Yob]

They go just fine in the freezer but they can't stack for ****

 

[Mardoo]

But yeah, they're great for turning in to the loyalty club.

 

[carniebrew]

That's a book! Or almost a White Labs mug!

I shudder to think what it'd cost to post 20 of those WL vials to California....add the $5 you have to pay for their postage and I wouldn't think it's all that cheap a book?

 

[Bribie G]

White Labs vials are just the blanks that are produced in the billions, literally, and used for all PET bottles before they are heat-blown into their final shape, and what a great flash of inspiration to get onto the idea in the first place. They would arrive from the factory basically sterile anyway and probably just a blast of Starsan whatever at White Labs prior to filling, no boiling necessary. Not too brilliant for reuse.

 

[Yob]

I never had trouble boiling them, sure they soften, but overall kept their shape and hardened again just fine..

 

[Mat B]

Wow, I'm a little overwhelmed by the volume and speed of responses! First time post, was expecting nothing.

Lot's of awesome advice, thanks! I'll PM a few of you. Perhaps I'll experiment with the WL vials and the 50L centrifuge tubes.

I can imagine the WL vials don't like being boiled for too long (as Bribie said, they're just PET bottles) but I can't see why there'd be any issues freezing them. I saw a few posts where some guys were using them for yeast storage.

I've only really just started looking into the yeast bank idea. Seems like fun!

 

[Yob]

solid yeast banking method reading HERE

you do need a bit of kit will end up with a fair bit of kit, but totally worth it, Ive got yeast stored in WL vials, just much (by far) prefer the 50ml tubes

:icon_cheers:

 

[Blind Dog]

I never had trouble boiling them, sure they soften, but overall kept their shape and hardened again just fine..

That's kind of unfair. I ended up with little more than weirdly shaped blobs and a farked pressure cooker

 

[Yob]

That's kind of unfair. I ended up with little more than weirdly shaped blobs and a farked pressure cooker

made me laugh a little that..

I didnt trust them to the pressure cooker and just boiled them a bit..

still.. better products available for the storage of yeast long term..

Tip: wrap the lids in teflon tape, the point of oxygen ingress is at the lid

 

[mofox1]

I steamed mine. Looked like pawn crackers.

Needless to say, the lid didn't seem to go on. Wasn't sure were to try to put it either.

 

[Hoploader]

100℃ boiling should be perfectly fine for PET. At that temp they'll deform if you squeeze them but unlikely without that. They're heated slightly beyond that whilst being fed through an oven spinning, and sometimes even flipped over, before being blown into a bottle. Possibly pay to put a rack in bottom of saucepan where metal might be hotter.

 

[Reman]

Mat, a local yeast producer would be awesome. Would you consider setting up a kickstarter campaign? I reckon you could get enough guys on here interested to contribute. Listening to the guy who started the Yeast Bay on a podcast I think there would be enough interest in locally produced liquid strains, especially if we could access some Australian strains on a permanent basis.

 

[Mat B]

Yob thanks for the link. I'll have a read. Good suggested re the teflon tape!

Regarding the kickstarter campaign, I probably wouldn't be able to commit. Working fulltime, baby, etc. I am, however, interested in a yeast co-op or something. I'd have to have to get the process down pat first. I'm sick of paying $10 for yeast.

I better check out this Yeast Bay podcast then...