Frozen Yeast Bank- Strain Exchange?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

flyangler18

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
5,557
Reaction score
47
Location
Hanover, PA
I've been thinking about doing this for a while, especially as I have been banking more and more of the strains that I commonly keep on hand. Given the popularity of FlyGuy's frozen yeast bank tutorial, I'm guessing that there are a few HBTers keeping a bank of strains. Is there any interest in exchanging vials to expand our own yeast libraries?

Note your interest here, and I'll have a go at organizing some more formal.
 
I've thought about the same thing. Although, I don't keep my bank in frozen storage, just in cold storage. Either way, a vial exchange would be great.
 
I've thought about the same thing. Although, I don't keep my bank in frozen storage, just in cold storage. Either way, a vial exchange would be great.

Ted,

Since you aren't freezing, are you slanting on agar or gelatin? I've not committed to one method vs. another just yet.
 
I would love to exchange a few. I have Antwerp Ale (White Labs), Chimay's, Brooklyn Brewery's (local one), Rogue's PacMan, California Ale (White Labs), and am in process of aquiring White Labs British Ale strain. All are 4 ml of clean slurry (cells) in 15% glycerol and are stored at -4F.
 
Question for yeast-freezers: do any of you plate the culture after rewarming to room temp or does everyone pitch into a small starter like the tutorial shows?
 
I pitch a 20 ml vial into 1 liter of wort on a stirplate

I write about it a little here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/aging-beer-facts-myths-discussion-84005/index3.html#post1082404

here is the article, and snipped text
Close examination of Figure 3 indicates that yeast should not be diluted more than 200 times the previous volume. In otherwords 10 ml should not be stepped up to more than 2 liters. The rationale behind this is simple. During yeast propagation it is important to keep the yeast growing exponentially (Figure 3, phase III). Diluting the yeast out too far will slow down their growth and give bacteria a chance to overtake the culture.
MB Raines, Ph.D. - Guide to Yeast Culturing for Homebrewers - Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society (Los Angeles Homebrewing)
 
I also pitch into a starter, 4ml cells into ~500ml lme, with a stirplate.

Great article from Dr. Raines. Thanks
 
I'd be interested in this. Only yeast I have right now is WL SanFran yeast.
 
I think this is a great idea for local people. I wouldnt trust any shipping comapny to get a frozen sample to you still frozen. That being said, shipping slants is the much better way to go.
 
I would ship in a foam cooler with dry ice. That is how my research lab receives things so I have a surplus of small foam shipping containers.
 
I was just planning on shipping them (sometime soon before it gets too warm) and then pitching whatever I got immediately into a starter to propagate it. On the other hand I suppose I can find dry ice somewhere.
 
That might work out but it was 90 here today. I do agree though, pitch it as soon as you get it and it really might not even matter if it is a bit thawed. Well, I'm still in.
 

To be fair, the sentence before that quote referred to a "a 10 ml saturated culture". This may mean that the 200x guideline is in effect only when the pitched culture is at maximum yeast count and might not be valid for, say, a recently defrosted frozen culture.

Fig. 4 shows the 10ml is a stepped up volume from the pure culture (which I would
assume would be frozen sample, slant, plate, etc).
 
Seems like there is good interest in doing an exchange.

I have 8 dram vials of WLP400 and WLP013 available. I'll be preparing a few vials of Wyeast 1469: West Yorkshire and Wyeast 1728: Scottish Ale in the next week or so. Currently, I'm freezing although I may try slanting as well.
 
To be fair, the sentence before that quote referred to a "a 10 ml saturated culture". This may mean that the 200x guideline is in effect only when the pitched culture is at maximum yeast count and might not be valid for, say, a recently defrosted frozen culture.

Fig. 4 shows the 10ml is a stepped up volume from the pure culture (which I would
assume would be frozen sample, slant, plate, etc).

True, though I'm pitching 20 ml into 1 liter, the example was 10 ml into a 2 liter start, so I'm already 4 times as much yeast as in the example, even if I really only have 15ml of yeast slurry in there. Also I don't harvest from primary, instead I make a starter with the smack pack, then harvest from that for my bank.
 
I just did my first freezing round yesterday.

WLP380
WLP500
WLP566
WY3787
Top-cropped S-05

Going to assess viability before I swap though, so I'm not trading anyone bum vials. If all goes well then, I'm down.
 
Seems like there is good interest in doing an exchange.

I have 8 dram vials of WLP400 and WLP013 available. I'll be preparing a few vials of Wyeast 1469: West Yorkshire and Wyeast 1728: Scottish Ale in the next week or so. Currently, I'm freezing although I may try slanting as well.

I'd be interested in swapping for the west yorkshire yeast if you wanted to. All I have to offer in return is WLP002 English Ale and WY1275 Thames Valley, although you probably already have the Thames Valley as you said it was one of your favorites. Also, they're only washed, not frozen, though they are fresh at less than a week old. Let me know!:mug:
 
Updating my current stock:

WLP400 frozen and slanted
WLP013 frozen and slanted
WY1469 frozen and slanted
WY9097 slanted
WY1728 slanted

In the interest of saving space in my freezer, I'm now slanting all current and future strains (3-4 slants per strain) with a 2% agar media.
 
Updating my current stock:

WLP400 frozen and slanted
WLP013 frozen and slanted
WY1469 frozen and slanted
WY9097 slanted
WY1728 slanted

Have you tried reusing the WY9097 from your culture yet? I would suspect that since its a blend you wouldn't get the same results as the original. Even if you were able to grab cells from each strain it won't be in the same proportions as the original blend.
 
Have you tried reusing the WY9097 from your culture yet? I would suspect that since its a blend you wouldn't get the same results as the original. Even if you were able to grab cells from each strain it won't be in the same proportions as the original blend.

I haven't - and this is something that I was thinking about while I was making up the slants. Tricky, tricky!
 
Alright time to do a true exchange. Post the strains you have available, how they were stored (frozen, plate, slant, distilled suspension), and a wish list for strains you'd like to try.
 
OK, I'll go first.

I have:

WLP002 English Ale (Fuller's Strain) - Frozen
WY1275 Thames Valley Ale (Henley of Thames Strain) - Frozen

As an aside, I finally found glycerine that wasn't contained in a supository, but not before asking about 20 pharmacists all over my area if they had any. It gets annoying after the first few tries of asking whether they have any glycerine and having them look at you funny. For the benefit of anyone still looking, I finally found a 4 oz bottle of the stuff in the lotion/handcream aisle at the drug store. Apparently glycerine is not only a good laxative, it is a "skin protectant" too!

Looking for:

West Yorkshire Ale
and any other unique English ale strains
 
As an aside, I finally found glycerine that wasn't contained in a supository, but not before asking about 20 pharmacists all over my area if they had any. It gets annoying after the first few tries of asking whether they have any glycerine and having them look at you funny.

One way to get fewer funny looks is to call only pharmacies that list "compounding" as one of their services. They tend to make meds from scratch like the Olden Days, and are very used to having people (and other pharmacies) call and ask about the availability of various ingredients.

There are things they won't sell you, of course, but the funny look ratio should take a nosedive.
 
As an aside, I finally found glycerine that wasn't contained in a supository, but not before asking about 20 pharmacists all over my area if they had any. It gets annoying after the first few tries of asking whether they have any glycerine and having them look at you funny. For the benefit of anyone still looking, I finally found a 4 oz bottle of the stuff in the lotion/handcream aisle at the drug store. Apparently glycerine is not only a good laxative, it is a "skin protectant" too!

I needed some food grade glycerin for a product I was testing at work. Health food stores sell glycerin. I called around and found a store that sold an 8oz bottle.

Now I get it in 50 lb pails at work! :D
 
Jason, I'd prefer frozen but if it's easier to ship a slant that's fine too. I'm planning on getting an innoculation loop soon so I should be able to use it.
 
No worries, I can send the frozen vial. PM me with your address.

:mug:

Oh, almost forgot! A Wish List!

The Duchess de Bourgeone strain. I've not been able to determine if the fermentation strain is in the bottle.
 
Definitely not in the bottle. Just had one recently and I was hoping to get some bugs out of it, but its devoid of any life

Bugger! It was worth a shot. I have a few bottles here, and they looked pretty sterile with zero sediment.

I would mind having some of the Orval strain either.
 
I would mind having some of the Orval strain either.

The Orval strain is released commercially by White Labs as part of the May/June platinum series as WLP510. Ferment like normal, then add Brett Brux. in secondary and age.

I'm really interested to hear someone repitch 9097 from a banked source. I am very curious to see if any growth rate differential between the Sacch. strain and Brett component effect a "second generation" beer adversely or not as I am not totally convinced it would result in the same product - analogous to Orval dregs out of the bottle (where I would think most of the Bastogne Sacch. settles out before the bottling process, so I would assume you are pulling more of the Brett if bottle harvesting).
 
The Orval strain is released commercially by White Labs as part of the May/June platinum series as WLP510. Ferment like normal, then add Brett Brux. in secondary and age.

I'm really interested to hear someone repitch 9097 from a banked source. I am very curious to see if any growth rate differential between the Sacch. strain and Brett component effect a "second generation" beer adversely or not as I am not totally convinced it would result in the same product - analogous to Orval dregs out of the bottle (where I would think most of the Bastogne Sacch. settles out before the bottling process, so I would assume you are pulling more of the Brett if bottle harvesting).

I really think to culture these reliably you would have to separate out each component. I've heard that orval has something like 4-5 strains added at secondary (with one being brett).

To seperate out the brett I've read you can make a media that is better for brett growth vs normal sach yeast. I'd have to find the article I read about it, it might have been in the lambic FAQ.
 
I'm really interested to hear someone repitch 9097 from a banked source. I am very curious to see if any growth rate differential between the Sacch. strain and Brett component effect a "second generation" beer adversely or not as I am not totally convinced it would result in the same product - analogous to Orval dregs out of the bottle (where I would think most of the Bastogne Sacch. settles out before the bottling process, so I would assume you are pulling more of the Brett if bottle harvesting).

I think your logic certainly stands to reason, given the difference in growth rates between the Sacch. and the Brett. The really interesting question would be determining just how much/little Brett is necessary for a perceptible flavor profile. I'll admit- I know very little about the science at work here, but it fascinates me just the same!
 
Updated List, all slanted:

WY9097
WY1275
WY1469PC
WY1728
WLP002
WLP013
WLP036
WLP400
WLP570
WY3787
WY3724
WY1338

Ran myself out of prepared slants, so I just prepped another 25 vials for future slanting. Canning wort before hand saves on time immensely.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top