I made freezer stocks of 15 strains today....150 vials

My shoulders are tired from working in the hood. Time for a beer!

is this for personal consumption or are you planning on sending any out to fortunate fellow homebrewers?

I can say the same thing about my tongue. Bazinga.

It's for the homebrew club I'm part of in College Station. I work in a lab and like adding science to brewing, so I figured why not take advantage of the biological hood, -80C freezer, stir plates, etc.

It benefits me too because now people give me samples of the vials/packs of yeast when they brew, so my collection is growing rapidly.

thats pretty cool. I just started harvesting yeast to save myself. Granted i'm just making bigger starters than neccessary, decanting, swirling back up and then pouring some extra into a sanitized vial, but its a start and with making starters it saves me all the $$ of buying yeast every time i want to brew

Very nice. I've been wanting to start slanting/freezing but I don't have the gear required for it and it looks expensive. Maybe one day.

Curious, do you have unusual or interesting yeast strains, besides WhiteLabs/Wyeast?

I think Thanksgiving should be the new homebrewer holiday - Yeastgiving! I scored some ECY saison/brett blend at my club meeting, fermented with it, rinsed it, and mailed 3 vials out to strangers. I think two said they were sending me some yeasts or bacteria- if one does I'll be stoked.

bierhaus15, the only strain I have besides WLP/Wyeast is a pack of Danstar Windsor for making hard cider.

I'll be freezing some vials of Wyeast 1882-PC either tomorrow or Thursday. Need to get some other things done before I get to that, which is why it could be pushed off until Thursday. If there's anyone in my area, or within a reasonable drive of Nashua, that would like a vial, PM me. I'll have a few 'spares' that I could either donate (to a good/bad home ) or trade for/with.

Golddiggie said:

I'll be freezing some vials of Wyeast 1882-PC either tomorrow or Thursday.

Click to expand...

That's a great yeast. Part of the reason I want to get into freezing/slanting is that I can keep some of special release, English strains around all year, without having to worry about yeast health via washing.

Over the years I've managed to get some pretty unique yeasts, (like the *original* ringwood) but without a way to store them for more than a few months, they eventually end up down the drain.

bierhaus15 said:

That's a great yeast. Part of the reason I want to get into freezing/slanting is that I can keep some of special release, English strains around all year, without having to worry about yeast health via washing.

Over the years I've managed to get some pretty unique yeasts, (like the *original* ringwood) but without a way to store them for more than a few months, they eventually end up down the drain.

Click to expand...

That's so sad when you dump an otherwise promising strain. I've made starters to use packets that were almost a year old, and had great results. Granted, I did either two, or three, starter steps in my 2L or 3L flask (on a stirplate of course) but that's besides the fact.

If you're coming through this area sometime soon, let me know and you can pick up a vial of 1882-PC if you like. Just don't wait too long since I could be interviewing for a job up in Maine (Brunswick area).