Chicago Homebrewers Yeast Bank Project

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”List Price: $301.18 Medix Price: $235.06 per Case(s) You Save: $66.12 (22%)

Size: 1 Case(s) 1000 per case”
 
Doesn't seem to be much interest.

Anyone need 2038 munich lager?
I'm about to make some slants. I can make extra if anyone wants one, let me know in the next half hour.
 
wegz15 said:
Doesn't seem to be much interest.

Anyone need 2038 munich lager?
I'm about to make some slants. I can make extra if anyone wants one, let me know in the next half hour.

I will take you up on your munich lager slants. I've been busy at work but once it subsides I'll try to get this project moving. Not sure how but I'll try. Maybe a group buy with a prerequisite that you must exchange yeast with others to participate. :)
 
Made you a couple of slants. They should be ready in about a week. I still have to use your belgian? yeast you gave me. I need a recipe.
 
Hey all,
So I have some Petri dishes with yeast and some culture tubes with yeast and I'm not entirely sure how to fill out this information out. Some of the yeast are straight out of the bag, i.e. I had some left over in the bag post pitching and I just diluted it down with some clean water and placed them on petri dishes and on slants. So in this case are they generation 1 or generation 0? The reason I ask is because most my "slants" are in this format, thought I do have some stored away in liquid form as well.

Also, if anyone is interested in having slants made I might be able to do them for you, as long as you provide the materials. I work in a lab and have access to an autoclave, and some sterile pipettes, as well as glassware and ultrapure water.
 
Also, another thing i should mention, although slanting and washing of the yeast is fine, another alternative, which might be even better, is to save them in a glycerol "freezer stock" which will remain viable for a much longer period of time, and which only requires that you scrape some of the freezer stock into a solution and let it go.
 
I want to say again that i like the idea of the yeast bank but im not sure how to overcome problem of logistic, simply i have a hard time to justify long drive to pick up yeast if i can get them at lhbs for $3.5-6.5 when shopping for other ingredients anyway. In my case it would work for club meetings or during group buy pickups or for strains that are not commercially available (right now im making starter from bottle of orval that i will be freezing) but this doesnt happen too often
 
Im with Polboy it has to be economical for this to work.

Everyone move to the city :)
 
I thought about this as well. I figured I could throw slants in a padded envelope and mail them.
 
im still in the city limits but just on the edge, it took me 30+ min to get to bmason and probably he is the closest.
btw i have jar of 3068, 3787 and in 3-4 weeks (brewing tomorrow :)i will have 3711 and orval, if you are around midway and want to pick it up let me know
 
So I got another question...

I have access to a lyophilizer, and liquid nitrogen, do you guys think lyophilizing yeast will be a good idea? I head that it's possible to lyophilize and then just store in a fridge while it's dry for years.... Also this will make sending them out easier, cuz you know, dry powder and such doesn't weigh too much and you can just drop them into a starter like a dry packet.
 
i dont know how pros do it but dry yeast are most stable so why dont you give it a try, if you can measure viability do it over time if you cant i can count it with hemocytometer and live/dead dye for yeast so you could send it to me
 
sounds like a plan, I will probably lyophilize them tomorrow night, and hopefully I'll do a quick dirty test with sugar water, and if that works I will probably send them to you to test the viability
 
I can check for viability and also offer counts ... Cfu per gram to see what your innoculm would be .... I work as a food microbiologist and have access to many supplies and toys ... Lyophilization is some cool stuff ... Your probably gonna wanna use a small bit of glycerine to keep from rupturing cell walls tho that will increase viability
 
Yeah I was thinking about adding some glycerol, but I didn't this time around, this is just some sefal US-05 i decided to save, so nothing special.
 
Rt on let me know if your successful without glycerol ... I always wondered and I would like to keep the yeast as pure as possible ... From a scientific standpoint I don't think it's possible so I would be curious to see your results ... :) I know I'm a nerd but that's science for ya !!
 
got the yeast powder, it has some yeast extract and tryptopne, i stored it ina 2xty solution rather than pure water. So I will drop it into some sugar water and will see if i get any activity at all.
 
Alright, sorry this took a while to respond to... I think the lyophilization killed the yeast, I'll try another time with some glycerol, I wanted to give it some extra time to see if they would start growing but as of now I don't really see any activity.
 
Yeah try a 50% glycol yeast blend that should do it you may wanna go to a 60% glycol 40% yeast to be on the safe side
 
So i lied... there are viable cells, after 2 days I added the rest just to see what will happen and it grew and fermented, had a nice krausen. But the viability is probably pretty low. I'll try with some glycerol this weekend though.
 
I've got a washed 2nd gen 3787 and a split from a starter of 3711 that both have a suspicious light grey sediment on the very top of yeast. Both were put into boiled mason jars in 11/11 and I've used siblings of both without problem. The catch is my yeast fridge lost power this spring for about 72 hours...

So what do you guys think... Step em up or dump 'em?

Crappy cell phone pic below.

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Does anybody have a jar/vial of Wyeast 1968 London ESB they can trade for whatever I have in my "vault"? Thanks.
 
I think I have some washed. Its really old though. Not sure if there are any viable cells. I can check, when do you need it by?
 
wegz15 said:
I think I have some washed. Its really old though. Not sure if there are any viable cells. I can check, when do you need it by?

In about a couple of weeks or so. Thanks.
 
Bill I'm about to rack over a 10g batch of neopol's gumballhead clone made with 1968 you're welcome to all the cake you can eat. He wasn't kidding, the starter looked like cottage cheese after 24h. Its in a sanke so no clue how clean it is / or could be. It was whole Amarillo and drained thru the hop bed so hopefully not too truby.
 
starman said:
Bill I'm about to rack over a 10g batch of neopol's gumballhead clone made with 1968 you're welcome to all the cake you can eat. He wasn't kidding, the starter looked like cottage cheese after 24h. Its in a sanke so no clue how clean it is / or could be. It was whole Amarillo and drained thru the hop bed so hopefully not too truby.

Are you washing it?
 
Yes, 3L boiled and cooled but I'm skeptical on how well that will work. Here's a pic of the starter after 24 on a stir plate. Notice the clumps.

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Who knows what it will look like after 3 weeks of sitting. My DIY hop screen did a decent job of scrubbing the worth though so hopefully most of the gunk is yeast.
 
Matt, share some of your washed 1968 yeast with me. I won't need it until 2-3 weeks. I can always buy some but I'm trying to get this yeast bank idea going again. On a separate note, does the marker on your flask wash off easily? I'm currently using labels to identify my flask's contents.
 
That's actually Crayola washable crayon. A little moisture and it comes off with a quick rub.

I'm in the loop again weekdays so anytime works or I could pop off the metra at clyborne if you feel like venturing east.
 
That's actually Crayola washable crayon. A little moisture and it comes off with a quick rub.

I'm in the loop again weekdays so anytime works or I could pop off the metra at clyborne if you feel like venturing east.

that will work. I'll let you know. Thanks.
 
I also racked an Oberon clone today if you want to pick up another Midwest micro's house strain. My neighbor gave me the last couple pints from his Bells keg to harvest.
 
I have some 1450 I use for ESB's its in primary but im going to wash it in 2 weeks or so.
 
I have a few jars of 2nd generation of washed 1450 (thanks RC0032) and 1968 (thanks starman) yeasts. I can give some away during the grain pick up. Just try to either exchange with different yeast (let me know what you have) or an empty mason jar. Thanks.
 
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