I just salvaged the yeast (WLP007) from carboy today. I had a few questions:
1) I could keep my Keezer at 33 to 34 degrees using my temp controller, on the verge of freezing, but not quite. Anyone else doing this vice freezing? Would this be considered medium term storage, under the perception that fridge is short term and freezer is long term, and deep freeze "eternal"?
When I put my glycol in my vials (50ml) for storage I shot for 10% overall volume. This is my first yeast ranching adventure and all I did was eye-ball 10% of the vial and filled it with 100% pure glycol. I also filled the vials with yeast to the top (90% yeast). There is very little water/wort remaining in the tubes because I used a turkey baster to fill the vials. I just put the baster in the yeast I collected, but not so far as to collect trub. I did rinse the yeast a few times prior.
2) Second question, the glycol drops to the bottom of the vial after shaking. There is roughly .5 to 1 inch of glycol in the vials (they are the baby soda bottle vials). What is the benefit of adding glycol if all the glycol sinks to the bottom and doesn't stay mixed with the yeast/water/wort? Was my first attempt at keeping yeast a wasted effort. Perhaps not, but my concern is freezing if the glycol doesn't serve the purpose.
All-in-all, I'm happy with the end product. 50ml vials almost full yeast to the top. I was able to salvage 24 WLP007 50ml vials. Not bad. I'm considering not freezing though. As of now they are just sitting at the bottom of my keezer at 34. This just means that my serving temp is now 34 as well. That is fine by me though.
1) I could keep my Keezer at 33 to 34 degrees using my temp controller, on the verge of freezing, but not quite. Anyone else doing this vice freezing? Would this be considered medium term storage, under the perception that fridge is short term and freezer is long term, and deep freeze "eternal"?
When I put my glycol in my vials (50ml) for storage I shot for 10% overall volume. This is my first yeast ranching adventure and all I did was eye-ball 10% of the vial and filled it with 100% pure glycol. I also filled the vials with yeast to the top (90% yeast). There is very little water/wort remaining in the tubes because I used a turkey baster to fill the vials. I just put the baster in the yeast I collected, but not so far as to collect trub. I did rinse the yeast a few times prior.
2) Second question, the glycol drops to the bottom of the vial after shaking. There is roughly .5 to 1 inch of glycol in the vials (they are the baby soda bottle vials). What is the benefit of adding glycol if all the glycol sinks to the bottom and doesn't stay mixed with the yeast/water/wort? Was my first attempt at keeping yeast a wasted effort. Perhaps not, but my concern is freezing if the glycol doesn't serve the purpose.
All-in-all, I'm happy with the end product. 50ml vials almost full yeast to the top. I was able to salvage 24 WLP007 50ml vials. Not bad. I'm considering not freezing though. As of now they are just sitting at the bottom of my keezer at 34. This just means that my serving temp is now 34 as well. That is fine by me though.
