plating incubation.

I'm thinking about building an incubator for a couple different things. Does anyone know the best temperature to grow both sacc. and brett. at? I'm aware that they grow just fine at room temperature but I know they grow better at higher temps I'm just wondering what the best temp is to grow yeast on an agar media.

Not sure about Brett, but Sacc in general grows best around 25°C/77°F. The exact optimum temp is probably strain-dependent - different yeasts evolved to grow in different climates.

ipsiad said:

Not sure about Brett, but Sacc in general grows best around 25°C/77°F. The exact optimum temp is probably strain-dependent - different yeasts evolved to grow in different climates.

Click to expand...

you got a source on that? I'm having trouble finding a good consistent answer.

In the lab, we grew Sacch at 30C, and that doesn't cause any mutations. most strains crank up at that temp, despite optimum brewing temps.

Poppin, with 5% co2 as well?

mewithstewpid said:

Poppin, with 5% co2 as well?

Click to expand...

I'm hoping on agar with 02

No need for 5% CO2, that's for pH controlled growth media for liquid cultures. You're good with ambient air on agar. You can easily grow these at room temp, but an incubator will significantly speed growth.

Ah nice I wasn't sure if it was the same conditions for bacteria or not

Tinga said:

you got a source on that? I'm having trouble finding a good consistent answer.

Click to expand...

I'm speaking from personal experience, but I'll see if I can find a source. Lab strains of Sacc grow great at 30°C, but I tried growing brewing strains at that temp and my viability went down (this is in liquid medium, btw, not plates). I got the best results in our non-heated shaker, which holds steady at 24-25°C.

Interesting. I never grew them in liquid at that temp, only on plates for quick culturing. Maybe that's a factor.

Well I built the incubator last night for about 30 bucks. could be done a lot cheaper if you have a few things. Still needs some fine tuning but it rocks!

How did you do this? I am curious.

edecambra said:

How did you do this? I am curious.

Click to expand...

build an incubator or plate yeast?

I think I might make a build thread sometime today after work, school and date night. After all the fine tuning and cosmetic work I'll snap some pictures and do a write up with a parts list and such.

Incubator!!!! Granted I have accumulated so much crap the past few months (brewing related) that SWMBO might not let me get any more.

I actually just plated my first colony from some old yeast last night (got my pressure canner yesterday and it was on!)

I have a ghetto incubator that I use. Sometime I'd like to make something a little nicer and actually controlled.

I have a cardboard box, with an electric heating pad in the bottom, on top of that sits a piece of cardboard and then a smaller cardboard box with short sides (I think it was the kind a case of cans of soda comes in at costco).

I keep the heating pad on low to keep the temp in the perfect range. I've got a remote thermometer sitting in the box so I can monitor the temp.

Well cool, I'm glad people are interested. I'll see how much time I have tonight.