yeast trading

Comment by martin w on June 10, 2012 at 2:54pm

yeast harvesting is an easy and cheap way of storing various yeast strains for use when you desire.
there are several storage methods such as freezing,slants,plates and distilled water.
heres a few links
http://www.tigereye.net.au/bluedog/slants.html
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slanting-yeast-133103/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/guide-making-frozen-yeast-bank-35891/
http://www.alsand.com/beer/yeast/store_E.html

all of the methods are easy and have advantages and disadvantages but all result in having as many different strains as you care to cultivate at your disposal and with liquid yeasts at +-$20 a pop the equipment needed soon pays for itself.

please feel free to add any other relevant links

Comment by Tilt on June 29, 2012 at 12:25pm

Good idea for a group this one.  I'm just about to get a freezer space dedicated to brewing - so I'll have room to keep a small yeast bank away from the frozen bread, lamb roasts and kids iceblocks!

Strains I've currently got access to (either underway brewing or stored in the fridge under sterile water) are:

WY 3522, WY 1318, WY 1084, WY 2782, WL 833, WL 029,

I don't do anything very complicated at the moment - just wash with sterilised water and store in the fridge though I'm keen to know more about slants/ freezing et al. particularly if a few of us are looking to send these around the country. 

 

Comment by martin w on June 30, 2012 at 11:41am

hi tilt,would you mind telling me a bit more about storing in distilled water-how much yeast do you store,building a starter,keeping the master going etc.

it sounds like a good method,i've read it stays good for 6 months when stored at room temperature,but i'm unsure about a few of the details.

cheers

martin

Comment by Tilt on June 30, 2012 at 10:49pm

Hey Martin,

I'm don't use distilled water - just sterilised tap water. Generally I save about 125ml washed 1st gen slurry from my first beer with a yeast in a 250ml jar stored under water in the fridge.  When I make a starter I take half of this and kick it off with 50-100ml of 1030-40 wort.  The time it takes to start up depends on how long its been stored.  I then split the cake of the second gen post brew into 2 and use one half straight away while storing a second "library yeast" jar for subsequent brews.  The remaining half of the original 1st gen slurry I keep as a more pure source and get into this if I pick up an infection of I notice changes in character I don't like. I haven't been doing this for long enough (< 2 years) to warrant anything more complicated.  The longest time I've stored yeast without using so far has been 14months and its taken about 2 1/2 weeks from first rousing to a have a 2L ready to go ale yeast pitch.  I use a stir plate too that visibly increased my yeast volume when I started using it.

My system isn't particularly complicated - but seems to work for now.  I s'pose I'm also not too fussed about investing heaps of time and effort in it because if I get a dud lot then I'll chuck it - there's plenty of other tasty yeasts out there to try.

Comment by martin w on July 2, 2012 at 10:00pm

at the moment i have the following-

wlp 011 european ale

wlp 566  saison 2

wlp 862 cry havoc

wlp 838 southern german lager

wy1010 american wheat

wy1762 belgian abbey 2

wy2487 helle bock

wy3068 weizen

wy 3728 farmhouse ale

Comment by Tilt on July 2, 2012 at 10:18pm

How are you storing these yeasts Martin?  I'm not sure of the best way to be sending strains around the country unless they're in slants (i.e in a relatively stable medium - agar or gelatin).  

It might be good to discuss and decide as a group on some sort of relatively easy yet reliable  method to use.

Comment by martin w on July 3, 2012 at 8:17pm

hi tilt,i store mine on slants,i have been doing a bit of reading on storing in distilled water as it sounds like a good method. so far the trades i've done have been slants sent and received,doesn't seem to bother the yeasties and it's easy to re-slant when they arrive,my slants are made with gelatin. i'm personally not to bothered how i receive the yeast,as i'd just slant it when it arrived so i'm open to whatever suits the group.

Comment by Tilt on July 4, 2012 at 1:18pm

Slants sound a good way to go.  Does it take much to get set up for using them?  Where do you get your gear from - tubes, gelatin etc?

Comment by martin w on July 5, 2012 at 8:08pm

i got my tubes from labwarehouse.co.nz,they come in various sizes and are cheaper in bulk so group buys may be an option. another supplier is alphatech.co.nz-its pretty difficult to navigate they're site but if you ask one of the sales reps they'll know what you want,i think quite a few brewers have bought from them,they seem a bit cheaper than labwarehouse.
gelatin was from the supermarket,i've found cheap agar here http://wellingtonspices.co.nz/spices/other-products/agra-agar-powde... which i'll probably buy soon.autoclave(pressure cooker) was from sallies and everything else is just kitchen stuff.malt extract was from liberty.

Comment by Tilt on July 12, 2012 at 12:33pm

That all sounds pretty easy to access then. 

Re the bulk buy option - anyone else interested in a "getting set up for slants" bulk buy from labwarehouse or alphatech?

We could then look to kick this group off into an active collective.

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