Why use slants ?

I am about to start maintaning my own constant supply of yeast and have read up on slants. But it seems to me that I could put a 1mm layer of gelatine malt mixture into the bottom of a jam jar and innoculate that (when cool and set) with yeast from my "master" jar and then harvest it and multiply it up in 3% malt solution with added ammonium phosphate, citric acid and vitamins C and B complex. Any thoughts?

I know that there are people here who have done that, although I have had trouble finding the appropriate thread(s). Specifically they used baby food jars as I recall, although the small jam jars would work too.

I think the main argument for using slants is that you can store a lot more slants in the same space, so it is easy to have a lot of redundancy and/or a larger collection.

thank you for speedy response, I will ask the wife if we can have another baby then....

Agreed. I think the advantage of slant tubes is the minimal surface area available when they are open. Think infection. They are also fairly cheap, autoclavable and reuseable.

I don't necessarily think there is a problem with using another type of container.

I would sterilise baby food jars in a fan oven at 220 deg C rather than use chemicals, although lids would be doused in chemipro.

BOBTHEukBREWER said:

I would sterilise baby food jars in a fan oven at 220 deg C rather than use chemicals, although lids would be doused in chemipro.

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You could also use a pressure cooker, which IMO is a lot easier and faster.

DrawTap88 said:

You could also use a pressure cooker, which IMO is a lot easier and faster.

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This is one of the problems with using baby food jars, the lids need to be 250*C proof. Not an issue if your preffered brand can take it though.

theredben said:

This is one of the problems with using baby food jars, the lids need to be 250*C proof. Not an issue if your preffered brand can take it though.

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I don't think that's a problem, since they have to sterilize that stuff anyways. Unless I am mistaken, which is a very good possibility.

Slants work good for me since I'm storing them in the house fridge. At first I was washing yeast and the wife was annoyed at the 15-20 jars in the fridge. Now I have 36 slants in a 6 inch by 6 inch box. I also liked that I could process all at once in the pressure cooker. In fact, I probably could prepare about 12 dozen at once.

DrawTap88 said:

I don't think that's a problem, since they have to sterilize that stuff anyways. Unless I am mistaken, which is a very good possibility.

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Someone correct me if I am wrong here, but many foods are sterilized with gamma rays. Given the lack of headspace in baby food jars I would think that is the case. Regardless, many people have had great sucess with those kinds of containers, just have to look for the right ones.

Personally, for storing small amounts of sterile wort I have found the glass containers from Fleishmann's Yeast work great.

I think the main argument for using slants is that you can store a lot more slants in the same space, so it is easy to have a lot of redundancy and/or a larger collection.

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and

Agreed. I think the advantage of slant tubes is the minimal surface area available when they are open. Think infection. They are also fairly cheap, autoclavable and reuseable.

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Thumbs up

Someone correct me if I am wrong here, but many foods are sterilized with gamma rays. Given the lack of headspace in baby food jars I would think that is the case. Regardless, many people have had great sucess with those kinds of containers, just have to look for the right ones.

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theredben, I think that may be in decline because of a bacterium that is pretty resistant to rads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans

From my microbiologist days, we used slants because you had the advantage of maintaining small, easy to hold and sterilize vessels, while creating greater surface area for growing.