Yeast cells under microscope

Greetings everyone! I am posting some photos I took under a microscope at a dilution 1:4000.

I used methylene blue to stain the cells and although there are a lot dead ones, there are still some viable ones and have calculated them at 800.000.000/ml . I pitched about 350ml in total and the age of it was 2 1/2 months in the fridge at 4C.

I also see something that looks like tissue or fiber that is also stained blue and wanted your opinion on whether or not this is some bacteria.

I pitched this yeast in a 1.060 IPA 0.822 IBU/SG

Fermentation is going and I guess if the yeast had been infected I may get away with it because I used it in an I.P.A.?

 

I only see yeast cells - no bacteria. They also all look dead

You would benefit from more magnification (though, perhaps the photo is the problem - looks like a cell phone shot through the eyepiece tube). Is that 100x?

It's pretty normal to see a few random bacteria cell in your starter. They are everywhere. Look for rod shapes, much thinner than the oblong/round yest cells.

 

I see a giant hydra in that first photo. Kraken! He's gonna take down the whole ship - beware

 

Thank you, Yes it is a photo taken by my cell magnification was 200X and 400X

The weird think is that I took another 4 samples without staining them and only yeast cells were visible and nothing else .

Then I stained a fifth sample and again there was nothing else but cells .

I was thinking that something might be in the methylene blue solution, but like I said nothing showed up in the fifth sample .

P.S. Yesterday I got my hands on a crystal violet solution and after I stained a different sample,OMG there were hundreds of tiny "crystals" everywhere at 400x. I shook it as well as possible but to no avail.

 

I used to use the violet. I did not have any crystals. Did you get it in crystalline form, or was it liquid already?

 

It's in liquid form. I will try to upload a photo...Please see attached photos

 

That's the one on Amazon. I got mine from White Labs. I need more, maybe I'll try that Amazon one.

I wonder why the crystals didn't dissolve?

 

Hmmm, I thought to use this time less crystal violet, than a final solution of 1:1 as I have read pretty much everywhere, and as you will see there are no crystals! I used 2 drops in a 40ml de-ionized water .

P.S. I think I am getting better with the photos

 

Your cells look like they are huge - not sure why that is. Here's a pic I took where you can see those squares - note that those squares are 20 µm on a side. That means that the yeast are about 3 or 4 µm long. These lines are pretty standard on these counters, so I'm not sure why the cells on your's look like they fill the square.

 

I don't think the things in that last picture are yeast cells. I'm no biologist, but they look much too large to be beer yeast cells.

 

No wait...the last picture has no yeast cells, just de-ionized water and 2 drops of crystal violet. It was just my point that by using only 2 drops in a 40ml de-ionized water I didn't see any crystals as when I used a 1:1 (1ml to 1ml) in the final solution (yeast - de-ionized and crystal violet.) Wait a second now that I am thinking about it does "crystal" violet mean that there are crystals in it and perhaps in larger concentration as 1:1 you see them??? Definitely I will try a 1:1 again tomorrow

The first pictures on the the thread have yeast cells

 

By the way, yes I got it from Amazon.