Frozen Yeast Gel 1 year old

[klickcue]

You might find this interesting, 1 year old frozen gel. German Lager WLP830. 35ml frozen vial after 24 hours in 1 quart wort.

Most of my frozen yeast has been moved over to Agar slants to take up less room. Freezing is still a viable answer.

[fergmeister]

More details please. Think this would work the same with ale?
Chuck

[klickcue]

Freezing Ale yeast works great also.

Glycerin can be purchased in quantity at the Merc in Lawrence.

We have another person in the group that is now freezing yeast and is preparing to work from agar slants also

Basically, the way that I have done it is a 15 percent solution of glycerin to yeast/water. That would be 30 ml glycerin mixed with 70 ml water and boiled; for 100 ml total (30 percent). This cooled solution is mixed with 100 ml of suspended yeast slurry in water (now 15 percent glycerin).

The yeast/glycerin solution is poured into a container suitable for freezing with a little head space for water expansion. For larger batches, the little PET pop bottles (Coke) work great but more storage room.

After the yeast/glycerin solution is bottled place in the refrigerator for 48 hours . This chilling before freezing will create smaller ice crystals once frozen. Place in some form of insulated container, once frozen, to protect the yeast from the defrost cycle of most modern freezers.

Now with some advanced planning, you will have your favorite yeast on hand.

Here are just a few links to get you started:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtop ... st#p712884
http://www.schwedhelm.net/brew/yeast_harv_freeze.html
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Yeast_bank
http://www.ipass.net/mpdixon/Homebrew/F ... 0Yeast.htm

[DJ in KC]

More details please. Think this would work the same with ale?
Chuck

Chris does a nice job of this. I'm planning on doing the same. I've made probably 120 - 150 gallons from his frozen yeast (counting harvesting to get multiple generations). Just put together a starter with WL036 from 3/09 that I plan to use next weekend. They've all done well, but started a little slow in 2 - 2.5L starters.

I need to get off my butt and buy some glycerin.

[fergmeister]

Thanks Guys this is very valuable information

[klickcue]

I just looked back through my records since I am getting ready to grow up some WLP002 English Ale yeast (Fullers).

Purchased 10/13/2008.

[klickcue]

It is interesting to note that Wyeast started in 1986 AD.

Weihenstephan licensed beer in 1040 AD.

Weltenburg is 620 AD.

So, I am just a pimple on yeast.

Some of the beers and yeast that we know today weren't created until after 1900.

I guess what I am saying is that most people will not Know the difference anyway plus some of the beers are brewed with multiple stains.

Have at it and start your own house yeast.

I have WLP029 going strong at 57 degrees that is over 1 year old that has been frozen and then cultured to a petri dish, to a agar slant and still brewing beer today.

Remember the PET ROCK, (swagman and dj might), turn your yeast into your Pet Rockl Love Yum!

[Jensen]

Great info Chris! Look forward to more notes from you down the road with strains, age, etc...





Man oh man, sure would like to maybe see a show-and-tell of how this gel stuff is done-- in a seminar sometime down the road...

[klickcue]

I can do that.

If you have a pressure cooker, I recommend agar slants. A pressure cooker is great for foods in the kitchen anyway.

Without a pressure cooker, glycerin/water - yeast/water could be used.

[Jdl973]

Thanks Chris for all the info and help. You got me hooked on yet ANOTHER hobie.

I brewed up a batch of Yeast Food. Basically 8lb of 2 row and 0.5 lb carpils. Added some 5.2 buffer and yeast food to the boil. Ended up with 5 gal of 1.032 wort.




Setup a CO2 pressure filler and put the wort into 1/2 and pint jars.




Canned all the jars at 15psi for 20 min.



Took some of the yeast food, mixed it with agar agar (about 8%w/v finally made it gel with the stuff i was using). Placed 10 ml in a glass vial. Put them in the pressure cooker, 15psi for 20 min. used a chopstick to let them cool on slant.








Just waiting on some Petri dishes and an inoculation loop to come in, and the yeast growing will begin.

once again, thanks Chris for all the help.

Building a glove box out of an old aquarium, will post pics when it is done.

Jason

[klickcue]

Jason,

That is excellent and you are quick learn

All your pictures are great. Swagman did a great job on your brewing rig! And your CO2 filling device is kick butt.

I am a little surprised that it took 8 percent w/v for your agar but your slants look nice. I am using 3 percent agar to wort w/v as you know ( 3 grams agar to 100 ml wort).

I think that as you get into it more, since you are creating your slant supply a head which is a time saver later, that you will move over from frozen yeast to your slants. Let use know which you like better as time evolves.

The next thing that you need to do, which is also a time saver is to run a bunch of 10 ml starter wort through your pressure cooker. Since the 10 ml starter solutions are already sterilized, they can set on the shelf with your agar slants. Also, do some 50 or 75 ml starters in jelly jars, on the shelf also.

Once you grow your yeast up through 75 ml, there is no need for sterilized solutions since a sanitized wort will work fine (boiled).

So, the progression would be 10 ml wort with either looped yeast from the lawn or the full slant. This will take couple of days to establish (cap loose and shake every time you walk by ).

Pour the 10 ml of beer into a 50-75 ml wort. This will take about 24 hours at room temperature (also shake as you walk by).

Pour your beer into 300-400 ml wort and move to a stir plate, about 24 hours. Then 1600-2000 ml wort for about 2 days and crash. You should end up with about 50 ml of hard pack yeast.

If you have let a White Labs vial go to hard pack (slug), you will have grown up about 3.5 to 5 vials of yeast in a week (depending on yeast cell size). Not a bad investment for your time and vials.

Keep up the good work and let us know how you are doing.

Keep up the excellent work!

[Jdl973]

Chris,

Yes, Swagman makes on heck of a mean brew rig!! And a nice guy to boot.

I too was surprised at the high w/v of the agar I had to use to get it to set. The agar came from a local Asian market and I have no idea how old or what the quality is. What do you use? The final slants look ok and have "wept" a small amount of H2O, which is to be expected. I am going to take some liquid yeast I have in the fridge and inoculate a slant to make sure they are viable before I purchase mother stock.

I have ordered some more tubes to put up some sterile wort in for primary starters.

Is the surface area an issue for the primary and secondary phases of the starter? Is it possible to place the 10-15 ml of the primary in the bottom of a 1 L flask with a stir bar in it and just add the additional sterile wort to the 1 L as needed for the other stages?

One of the experiments I am keen to try is to brew up a simple lager and split it in 3. One will get yeast from the "smack pack" brought to pitching rate via starter, One will get yeast from a slant lawn, and the third will get some of Dale's dry yeast. All the beers will be treated the same, with the yeast being the only variable. Plan on bring the beer to a group meeting for a "blind" tasting. That should be fun. Dale, shoot me a buzz when you get settled in your new home so we can brew this Frankenstein of an experiment. Chris you bring the slant, and I have the grain and rig.

Just picked up a 10gal fish aquarium for $10. Going to use some lexan and PVC joiners for the face and turn it into a glove box. Will post some pics when I get it done.


Jason

[klickcue]

Jason,

You can try a 1 L flask in the Winter and you may get away with it; but in the Summer you risk infection. Try this, treat the surface of a agar/wort solution in a petri dish or just a bowl with your yeast and leave it open to room air. Mold will multiply many times faster than the yeast cells. See which will dominate the surface of the agar/wort area. Your house is also full of Lactobacillus also. Remember my sourdough bread starter and my buttermilk?

The reason for small starters with small surface areas is so the yeast can take over the wort quickly and get the pH down. Since you are giving the yeast a lot of O2, not very much CO2 will be produced with little carbonic acid. The yeast will multiply very quickly with the O2 in the Log phase of reproduction. You are not trying to produce beer, you are trying to grow yeast.

It is worth the experiment for you.

For the weeping agar/wort, just turn the slants upside down and let the liquid collect in the lid area. You have a sterile slant, so just before transferring yeast to the slant, dump the extra liquid.

I am using NOW Agar Powder that I purchased at the Merc in Lawrence.

The extra tubes will be a bonus for you to get your yeast started. Take baby steps to start off with and reap the rewards in the finished product.

Lager will be harder to compare but you take an Ale yeast such as 001/1056, English, Belgian or Wheat at 68 degrees and see what you get. The ester profile will be different as well as the attenuation. If you want a cleaner beer, pick more yeast. If you want more ester production, pitch less. Colder is less ester, warmer is more. It is a lot of fun.

Yeast is a neat little creature that have done a lot for us.

You have my list of yeast, what kind of yeast would you like to play with?

[Jdl973]

Due to Chris' s generosity, I have re-propagated some of his yeast to insure the bank has a backup. Thanks for the vials, I owe you one. most of the slants were a year old, so I will let you know how they do. Just put all of them in 10mL food tonight. Some of them were very dry.

Addition to my family:





Also found a very cool tool



Inside the container are 12 dishes. This will be great for long term storage in the fridge.



once again Chris you have been a huge help and inspiration during this project. Have learned a ton from you hand have had a blast.


Thank you. It is guys like Chris that make the LBG AWESOME.

Jason

[Blktre]

Just something to add. If your going to freeze yeast using a frost free freezer it is best to wrap your tubes in cold packs. This way during the defrost cycle of the freezer the yeast still stays a constant temp and is not exposed to the temp. changes.