Minimum size test tube for yeast banking????

What is the minimum size test tube that you could use for yeast banking? Is 10ml ok? Also, are rubber stoppers ok to use?

I would get screw on caps for storage.

If you are talking about making slants I think you might want a larger tube for more surface area otherwise 10ml is plenty big.

There are several people that use 10 ml vials. I have some 20 ml ones I plan on using (with rubber stoppers) I can autoclave, or at least boil all of it, then it goes in my cooler inside the freezer, so I'm not worried about them getting bumped a lot or anything.

schupaul said:

What is the minimum size test tube that you could use for yeast banking? Is 10ml ok? Also, are rubber stoppers ok to use?

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I am currently using these sizes:



The smallest is 14ml but 10ml should work. I have used both stoppers and caps and I think caps are easier to work with (make sure they're autoclaveable). Note that capped tubes tend to have a much smaller mouth; once you get down to very small openings there's not a whole lot of maneuvering room for getting your loop in there without touching the lip or sides. My hands are not very steady so I find inoculating the 14ml tubes a bit challenging. Doing sterile water suspensions in the 16ml works fine because less motor control is required (no back-and-forth streaking on a slanted surface). The big 43ml is giant with lots of room (throwing a hotdog down a hallway?), but consequently takes up more fridge space.

I personally use Kimax 16X100mm screw-top culture tubes for freezing and for making my slants.

I use the vials the yeast come in...I also get them from a fellow brewer...

fratermus said:

The big 43ml is giant with lots of room (throwing a hotdog down a hallway?), but consequently takes up more fridge space.

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Oh Whoopi, why is Ted Danson so mean???

I work in a hospital and the Lab director gave some like the second one in your picture. They currently have broth in them now so I need to clean them. All that is left to get now is a pressure cooker and then I am all set to go to start a bank. I have a couple of Wyeast packs that I am waiting to starter for this purpose. I also have some washed pints that I really dont want to use at all. I am going the glycerine route in the freezer vs. slants.

I use 10 ml (for freezing). If I had smaller, I'd use them.

For interested onlookers: I have been slanting but am starting to play with sterile/distilled water suspensions.

If it pans out, then we get a vastly simpler, faster, and room-temp storage solution that lasts longer than freezing. I've plated from these suspensions at 2wks, 4wks, and 6wks and they are fine. Won't know for a long while whether the long-term viability is as the old scientific journals claimed (years) but I'll keep posting test results.

I have also mailed a suspended sample to another HBT poster to see how it likes traveling through the USPS with no temp control.

fratermus said:

For interested onlookers: I have been slanting but am starting to play with sterile/distilled water suspensions.

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Very interesing, let us know how it turns out.

i'm just getting started ordered most of my supplies, can't wait to get a little yeast lab going, keep posting please!!

donnieballgame said:

i'm just getting started ordered most of my supplies, can't wait to get a little yeast lab going, keep posting please!!

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