Yeast vials

**Hammy71** · 03-03-2009, 09:20 PM

Yeast vials....should I be keeping these things or just chucking them.... My inner pack-rat wants to keep 'em cause they are so neat.....What can I use them for, if anything....?

flyangler18 · 03-03-2009, 09:24 PM

The White Labs Customer Club!

If you get into yeast harvesting, those vials come in quite handy.

winzerz · 03-03-2009, 09:25 PM

if they are white lab vials

you can save em up to turn in for brew stuff look at white labs website

if you save up 5000 of em the owner of white labs will come to your house with a brand new all grain setup and brew a batch with you

and you get to keep the AG setup

david_the_greek · 03-03-2009, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by winzerz

if they are white lab vials

you can save em up to turn in for brew stuff look at white labs website

if you save up 5000 of em the owner of white labs will come to your house with a brand new all grain setup and brew a batch with you

and you get to keep the AG setup

lol who has a plastic fabricating company where we can build vial!?

rsmith179 · 03-03-2009, 11:27 PM

Quick question for Fly... Do you actually reuse those vials for slants? Are they able to be autoclaved? I have a few laying around waiting for something, but never thought of using them for slants. Been washing yeast for a while and I would like to take it to the next level using slants and petri dished. The inner scientist coming out in me!

homebrewer_99 · 03-03-2009, 11:37 PM

After I wash my yeast I refill at least 5 vials...and toss out even more every batch.

I did 8 vials of 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen yeast last night.

I currently have 70 (yes, that's SEVEN-ZERO) vials of yeast in my fridge...so, yes, you can reuse them...

Peel the labels off for sending back to White Labs...they don't want the vials back and will accept only the labels...saves on postage too...

Soak the vials in water and the paper will scrape right off using only your finger. Once dried the glue will be VERY sticky. You can get this off using GOOP and an old sock.

I wash them in soapy water afterwards to get rid of the GOOP solvent.

I sanitize them in StarSan and refill using a sanitized funnel.

I also took a 2X4 and measured (I forget the measurement) 2 rows all the way down and 28 lines across. Then I took a 1 1/4 in (I think) blade bit and used a drill press to keep the holes straight. I had to use a round sand paper bit to enlarge the hole slightly while making it smooth. The vials fit nicely.

Here's an (old) pic of the 2X4 with some yeast in it...it's full and I have another container with many more vials on a shelf.

rsmith179 · 03-04-2009, 12:01 AM

That is beautiful... How long are you able to keep those vials for? You talking about a 3-6 month timeframe max? Funny thing is we're trying to keep our own banks so we don't have to buy new yeast, but then where would we get the bottles from?

**Edcculus** · 03-04-2009, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyangler18

The White Labs Customer Club!

If you get into yeast harvesting, those vials come in quite handy.

I think for 5000 vials, Chris White should pay for the batch too.

homebrewer_99 · 03-04-2009, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edcculus

I think for 5000 vials, Chris White should pay for the batch too.

OK, my local HBS charges 7.95 for 1 vial...round up to $8.

8 X 5000 = $40,000, right?

I would think we could get him to show up for $5000 if we paid him cash...

Rhymenoceros · 03-04-2009, 05:00 AM

I wonder if any one has ever collected