Needle guage size?

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Amiaji

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I am about to start yeast ranching and thought it would be better to use syringes to move the yeast around instead of pipettes.
Any suggestions on what gauge needles would be best for this?
 
For whole blood or packed red cells it is really best to use a 20 gauge or larger needle.

Not sure how big yeast cells are compared to RBCs.

The other thing is volume. If you are moving anything over 1cc I would go for 20-18-16 gauge. 10-12-14 would be fine if you have a friend in an ambulance, those are hard sizes to find inside hospitals.

22ga smaller are just a pain in the tuckus for moving anything over 1cc.
 
I agree with the above, for drawing blood in small animals we typically use a 18-20ga needle. RBC's are typically 6-8um in diameter, while typical yeast can range from 2-40um, although I am not sure what the range is for brewing yeast specifically.

Of course, you can always go with the rule of thumb that the bigger the needle, the easier it is to draw, so go big or go home. Since you are not worried about sticking it in a critter, you could easily go with a 10-12-14ga needle.

A tip on looking for needles of that size, you may be able to find a veterinarian that does horse or cattle work, they will have needles of that size for sure.
 
I don't think I understand how the syringe is being used here. I think it is common to inoculate new media with an inoculation loop.

Now, I hear the mushroom boys use a lot of syringes to get spores into their substrate... yeah, yeah, heard that a meeting one time. Yeah.
 
I don't think I understand how the syringe is being used here. I think it is common to inoculate new media with an inoculation loop.

Now, I hear the mushroom boys use a lot of syringes to get spores into their substrate... yeah, yeah, heard that a meeting one time. Yeah.


I will be using an inoculation loop for most transfers. The syringe will be used to obtain a sample from a smack pack for culturing and storage. I am planning on storing some in distilled water and also freezing some, much as you are doing in your blog on here and your posts on the green board.

Any updates on how your is coming along?

Edit:
I still haven't found a good source for agar. Any suggestions on where would be the best place to get it?
 
I have seen good results from all my distilled water suspensions although it's too early to know for sure. The oldest one is only 9mos old. The downside is that it takes longer to build a starter. The suspensions have to be plated before there is anything to scrape and toss onto the stirplate. I'd say on average I can get a slanted culture built up enough for low-grav pitching in about 3 days and it takes 7 days to do it with the suspension's required extra plating step.

Agar is mondo cheap at Asian food stores. They use it to make aspic/jello type desserts, etc.
The most common brand looks like this and is about 1/10th of the price of the agar you find at morebeer. The packet is maybe $1.50 and I make ~4 batches of slants/plates per packet.
 
I'll have to see if I can find an Asian food store around somewhere, thanks.

I was thinking of using several methods to store yeast. Use the distilled water method for yeasts I dont use often and as a way to keep some of any strain I use. Freeze the yeast that I use on occasion. And I'll probably just wash the yeast that I use all the time, then I can re-culture from a working vial of yeast after washing it a few times.

Does that sound like a good plan?
 
If you can't find any agar easily drop me a PM and I'll drop a couple of packets in an envelope for you. Folks in colder areas can use gelatine but that's not a practical option for us in Tx and NC.

Your plan sounds good. I usually only reculture from pure sources rather than from washes, but that should work if you quadrant streak it it or something to pick out just yeast.
 
Thanks for the offer. There should be an Asian market around here somewhere its just a matter of finding one. I work for a Japanese owned company so someone there should be able to tell me where to find one.

I wasn't planning on culturing from the washes but from a master vial that I will make from the original package. Once I have washed the yeast a few times I can build up a new starter.
 
Just curious why you would want to use a syringe over a pipette? I wouldn't go smaller than an 18g for yeast, and even then move the plunger very slowly lest you lyse your poor yeasties!
 
Just curious why you would want to use a syringe over a pipette? I wouldn't go smaller than an 18g for yeast, and even then move the plunger very slowly lest you lyse your poor yeasties!

A very good point when dealing with live cells of any kind.


One paper I read suggested using a needle to remove a sample of the yeast from a Wyeast smack pack. shake up and sanitize the outside of the pack, insert needle and draw out a 1 mil sample and put it in a vial with wort. Let that ferment out then slant some of it for distilled water storage and use the rest for freezing.
 
Do you have any good books on doing this? Anyone make any howto posts of this? I've been buying yeast now for a year and am ready to start doing some farming as well. I'd really like some good references though before I make that move. Thanks!

Cheers,

Joe
 
I've not seen anything written up on it, though I'm sure the info is there. Try a Google search on it. I would be willing to write (or help write) some guidelines to post on HBT for yeast farming...
 
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