Guide to Making a Frozen Yeast Bank

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How do you transfer the yeast to the tubes? I see that fly guy used a stainless steel turkey baster. Could I use my wine thief safely without contaminating the yeast?

Thanks.
 
I use a 500ml separatory funnel I snagged from the lab at work. I use a short piece of silicone tubing on the funnel, and on the other end I have the snapped-off end of a glass pipette. Works fantastic. You might be able to find a cheap funnel online. I'm on the hunt for a cheap 1-2 litre size myself.
 
I use a 500ml separatory funnel I snagged from the lab at work. I use a short piece of silicone tubing on the funnel, and on the other end I have the snapped-off end of a glass pipette. Works fantastic. You might be able to find a cheap funnel online. I'm on the hunt for a cheap 1-2 litre size myself.

Thanks for your response. Would a pipette work, if used in a manner similar to a wine thief... ie stick into yeast-rich fluid until full and then place thumb over the end to maintain a vacuum?

Thanks.

http://secure.sciencecompany.com/Sibata-Serological-Pipette-25mL-P15992C2616.asp
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Probably would work as well as a baster. I'd get a 50ml size minimum and do a bunch at once, and maybe bigger size if they exist. Or you could get a smaller size and do them one at a time. Sometimes you have to snap the end off if it clogs or is too slow.
 
so i eneded up finding tubes that were 8 ml....think that would work or should i go bigger?
 
I dont think it does. It just says to dilute it with some water and apply to dry skin.

If it does not indicate additives or smell like perfumes, it should be fine. Even if it did, the effect will be tiny. You're going to put ~6.4ml into a 32ml tube. Half of that will be discarded, and pitched into a 1-2L starter. 90% of that starter will be discarded. Assuming none of it settles, gets stored in the yeast cells (which it does), or is lost to racking waste, the glycerin in the final beer will be about 0.064ml per gallon (3750ml) or 0.0017%. And 0.0017% is the mathematical equivalent of RDWHAHB....

scinerd3000 said:
so i ended up finding tubes that were 8 ml....think that would work or should i go bigger?

Bigger. I use 32ml's and they are workable but I wish they were a bit bigger. IMHO, 175ml is to large. When I buy again, I will look for polycarbonate/plastic tubes in the 50-100ml range.

cugel said:
Thanks for your response. Would a pipette work, if used in a manner similar to a wine thief... ie stick into yeast-rich fluid until full and then place thumb over the end to maintain a vacuum?

If you're talking yeast in suspension, yes. If you're talking a compacted slurry from a crash cooled wort, probably not.

I either swirl and pour through a sanitized funnel (usually) or use a 10ml plastic syringe (for giving kids liquid medicine) and a piece of aquarium hose. With the latter, you can suck up slurry from the bottom w/o pouring off the "beer" and deposit it into the tube directly.
 
For those of you that have the 16mL vials or any size for that matter...

When your yeast seperates out after placing in the refridgerator for 48 hours, how much of your vial is "yeast" compared to the wort, water, glycerin, etc.

I feel I didn't get enough yeast when I used the pipette to transfer from flask to vial. I only have a small settlement of yeast in the bottom of my 16mL vial. Maybe 1/16" of an inch ? I imagine I need more that that ?

Any tips on how to get more yeast and not so much wort/beer out of my starter flask via a pipette?

Warren
 
When your yeast seperates out after placing in the refridgerator for 48 hours, how much of your vial is "yeast" compared to the wort, water, glycerin, etc.

About 20-30% solids, the balance wort/water/etc. Read up on yeast washing and look at my pics. If you're putting washed yeast of about that opacity into your vials, you should see about 20-30% yeast fallout.
 
OK not exactly specific to this topic but don't think it's worth starting a new thread for.

I made my second starter with a tube of WLP028 to freeze the yeast as outlined.

It was a 2L starter, ~1.030, on a stirplate for 48 hours, cooled in the kegerator to approx 7degC for 18 hours and it fell pretty clear. I tasted a little and it tasted like fermented beer. Poured off all but about 30mL of beer, and swirled the remaining up to suspend the pretty thick sediment. I managed to fill about 10 tubes with 10mL of medium-thin slurry so about 100mL of slurry was gained from the 2L starter. But judging from...

...You should still have plenty of yeast left in the flask to pitch into a batch of beer...

Does what I got (100mL/3.4oz slurry including hot break) sound about right? Seems like a small amount of yeast from such a large starter. Was 48 hours too short? Did I bugger up somewhere?

Cheers.
 
After decanting the beer and adding back distilled water, I harvest about 180ml of slurry from a 1L starter and that settles out into about 60-65ml of compacted yeast.

1.030 is a little low (I use .040) and I would have stepped up the starter from 500ml to 2L in 500ml increments. Also, be sure to use a foam plug or foil instead of an airlock to encourage air exchange.
 
After decanting the beer and adding back distilled water, I harvest about 180ml of slurry from a 1L starter and that settles out into about 60-65ml of compacted yeast.

1.030 is a little low (I use .040) and I would have stepped up the starter from 500ml to 2L in 500ml increments. Also, be sure to use a foam plug or foil instead of an airlock to encourage air exchange.

Thanks, I was using foil over the top of the flask.

I started with a 'pitchable' vial from White Labs, is stepping up still neccessary?

Cheers.
 
Thanks, I'm giving it another shot today. I started before you replied but this time it's 1500mL at 1.035. It's a different yeast this time but will be interesting to see what happens.

Cheers.
 
Sorry to double post but,

When you defrost the yeast and make the 250mL starter roughly how many cells should you expect to have once it's fermented out?

Just wondering because when I go to do the second step it would be good to know how many cells I've started with so I can calculate the size of the second step to end up pitching the right amount.

Cheers.
 
You're way over thinking it. Start with 500ml and pitch your keeper culture. Once it ferments, add 500ml and agitate. Repeat until you hit 2L.

Don't worry about pitching rates, you're no where near overpitching.
 
the baby soda bottles are approximately 60ml. they seem just about right for the freezer and to use for starters. I have order a bunch and will be trying them out on my next batch if they arrive in time.


Edit: this answer was for scinerd3000. still learning how to post :)
 
For vials on the cheap, go to your local wal-mart or other photo processing store and ask for 35mm film canisters (usually the little black jars, gray lids). They seem to be somewhere around 40 ML, I sanitize them in star-san for a while (I actually keep them full of star-san when not in use).
 
Taste (lick) and smell those film cans first. A lot of plastics put off some nasty flavors. Also, be aware that pressure may de-cap them.
 
I know there could be some problems with the film canisters, I did taste some hot water I had sit in one for a while, didn't seem to have any taste, plus I'm only pitching 30 ml of possibly tainted solution into a starter, then decanting off that liquid and then pitching it into 5 gallons of wort.

It's not the perfect solution I know, but it's the free solution.
 
I just tried brewing from my yeast bank that I created with this method, and it worked great! I used 50 ml tubes for my frozen yeast.

When creating the starter, I was worried for awhile because there seemed to be nothing going on there, but after 8 hours or so there was a nice layer of foam on top so I knew it was fine.

I created a 1 pint starter for my 50 ml tube of yeast, and it worked great in my beer. This was my first batch with a starter (I've always either just dumped the liquid in or rehydrated dry yeast), and even though I knew to expect a lot of Krausen, I was surprised at just how much there was. I'm really glad my primary fermenter is actually an 8 gallon bucket which had plenty of room.
 
Belated thanks for posting this, Flyguy - I've just placed an order for vials and glycerin, so thanks to this thread I should have a yeast bank up and running by the end of the week. I can't believe how simple it is. Cheers! :mug:
 
So someone asked this question many posts ago but it was not answered: How many generations of the yeast can you freeze? Basically how many times can I wash then extract and freeze the same yeast?
 
I'm working on making a centrefuge for one baby soda bottle test tube, just for the hell of it kinda. im not yet in a position to use a yeast bank, but if anyone is interested in can fill them in on how to whip one up easy for separating yeast.
 
So someone asked this question many posts ago but it was not answered: How many generations of the yeast can you freeze? Basically how many times can I wash then extract and freeze the same yeast?

Good question. I don't know the answer - I haven't tried to wash and re-freeze yeast yet. But I am sure it is possible.
 
From my understanding, there isn't really a specific number of generations of yeast that it's OK to use. The basic principle is that the more generations of yeast you use, the greater the chance of a mutation in the yeast that results in flavors you don't want. Five generations would probably be fine, and I'm sure I've heard of people on here using a fifth generation of yeast to make good beer. Ten generations could be fine. I guess hypothetically 100 generations could be fine, though it probably wouldn't be.

Basically, the cost of using too-old yeast will probably be some off flavors in a batch of beer, but it's hard (or perhaps impossible) to accurately predict ahead of time when the yeast will be too old. Taking multiple samples of first-generation yeast would seem a good way of minimising the risk.
 
So if you could only go 5 generations, you would eventually have to buy yeast again correct?
It is more than it sounds. For every 'batch' that you freeze, make sure that you use one of those starters to make another 10 vials. That's 50 vials of yeast before you have to buy a new package.

If you froze a new batch TWICE per old batch, that's 100 vials.

If you froze a batch of 10 vials EVERY time you made up a starter (in theory, not that hard) then you will have enough vials of yeast to last you a lifetime before you hit 5 generations! :mug:
 
Ya, I suppose you are right 5 generations just makes it seem like it would only be 5 batches of beer but I see what you are saying.
 
I'm working on making a centrefuge for one baby soda bottle test tube, just for the hell of it kinda. im not yet in a position to use a yeast bank, but if anyone is interested in can fill them in on how to whip one up easy for separating yeast.

Sure, post away!
 
Can the yeast from a secondary fermenter be used to start a yeast bank? The equipment I needed did not arrive in time for me to use the yeast in my primary...

Up next ........... English brown: "How Now Brown Ale"
In primary ........ Air
In secondary ...... ESB
Bottled ............ Belgian Double
 
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