*sigh... its been a hectic roller coaster weekend. I hope you guys aren't getting tired of my posts. I'll settle down after this one.

Here's the short version: I got frozen yeast to work !

Here's the long version.

My FIL unexpectedly brought me an activator pack of Wyeast 3942 from out of town. My LHBS was out of stock.
http://picasaweb.google.com/beermeister1/YeastStuff/photo#5046030916808457202

I purchased 7 small pill jars with rubber air tight seals from my local pharmacy for $35 cents each.
http://picasaweb.google.com/beermeister1/YeastStuff/photo#5046030912513489874 http://picasaweb.google.com/beermeister1/YeastStuff/photo#5046030912513489890

I gathered all my yeast equipment together. 2 syringes, one 5 ml and another 10 ml. The pill jars. A couple measuring cups, etc. I placed them in the pressure cooker at 15 PSI for 20 minutes.

Although they looked really good, those jars didn't work. The pressure cooker destroyed the inner rubber seal and thus they were no longer airtight. As a makeshift measure, I ultimately put plastic wrap over them and held it in place with rubber bands.

I kept the equipment in the pressure cooker with the lid on after it depressured until I needed it. I removed a small measuring cup, poured 50 ml of glycerin in it and heated it in the microwave until it was hot. Then I covered it with plastic and let it cool.

A few hours previous to this we had activated the yeast pack.

When the glycerin was cooled down, I got the syringes ready and got out my scale. I then swabbed the yeast pack and a pair of scissors with rubbing alcohol. I then cut the yeast pack entirely open.

One by one we took out the sterilized pill jars and put 6 grams of glycerin and 16 grams of yeast in and sealed them. We used one syringe for the glycerin and the other for the yeast.

I then put the yeast in the deep freeze. Our deep freeze does not have a defrost cycle and its about -15C in there.

The yeast was in the deep freeze for about 4 hours when I pulled one out, thawed it in hot water and made a starter from it. I pitched the starter into the chilled wort at about midnight. At 6PM the next day, 18 hours later, I have this.
http://picasaweb.google.com/beermeister1/YeastStuff/photo#5046030912513489858

One must remember that this was about 1/8th of an activator pack.

The yeast was fully frozen when I pulled it from the deep freeze. I didn't check if it was a solid or a slurry, I just thawed it and pitched it into the starter base. I know it was frozen because I turned the jars upside down and shook them and the yeast did not move. It was not a liquid.

There was no action in the starter base before I pitched it into the wort. I had also prepared another starter a few hours early from the yeast pack itself. Right now it shows a bit of activity, but nothing nearly like the yeast in the wort. My guess is that this yeast does not grow well in water and sugar. It seems to grow very well in wort. I think all starters for this sort of yeast are gong to need a wort base, not a water/sugar base.

This fermentation has an awesome aroma. This wort has orange zest and coriander in it and if it tastes half as good as it smells, it will be a great beer.

I have 4 more jars of this yeast frozen in the deep freeze. I think I've found an economical way to utilize liquid yeast for small batches.