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There isn't really any good reason to buy commercial microbiological media, not for the home-brewer. As you've noticed, they are not cheap. You may get slightly better growth of desired organisms, and may have slightly less risk of contamination from others, but given the cost difference its...

I'm not sure a gram stain will help you much; any brewing bacteria that you want in there will be gram-positive; so unless something is very wrong with your brew-day, the gram-stain probably won't help you much. I'm not sure how good methyl blue will be, as is it primarily for histology of human...

There are camera setups that will connect to a normal binocular scope - we use them in our teaching labs. But, if you can afford the extra and plan on taking a lot of images, the trinocular is the way to go. Bryan

I have two; one on setting up a clean work space: The other on aseptic techniques: So long as you can find a relatively draft-free area which you can clean up reasonably well, you should be good to go. The kitchen is often a good place, but I do most of my home-culturing in our unfinished...

Most of the plastic ones can be rinsed with water and reused, so your dollar goes even farther. If you are starting with pure cultures, it is best to keep them on separate plates to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Most of the time when I have mixed cultures on a plate, its because the...

I have a video on selecting a microscope, which while it doesn't recommend specific brands, goes through the key features to look for: For a hemocytometer, it doesn't really matter. The cheap plastic Chinese ones are good enough for home use (+/- 10% accurasy). You can spend a lot more on a...

I doubt it - as part of my work I've setup clean stations in some of the dirtiest clinical environments you can think of (i.e. backwood African clinics) and not needed one. B

I have a series of youtube videos intended to get people like you (i.e. no microbiology experience) started. You can find the current video list here; I add a few videos per year so it is always (but slowly) growing. Likewise, I have two series on my blogs on yeast wranging and on isolating...

We flash-freeze stuff using this method in the lab. But I'd have to echo the above comments - your risk of freezing the lines is high, as is the cost, and you do get ethanol vapour formed when you do this, which is a fire risk. A simpler/safer/cheaper method would be to setup the same rig, but...

I do trades: http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/p/yeast-exchange.html

166 commercial strains/mixes, plus an additional 32 (soon to be 38) wild strains/mixes. MOOWHUUHHAHAHH!

Bacteria are much smaller than what you have there. Edit: Here is a picture comparing normal brewing yeast (slightly out-of-focus) to an average-sized bacteria

The big give away is the formation of rosettes (clusters of cells attached at the poles) and chains, and the very large bud sizes (some upto 2/3rd the size of the mother cell). Sacch species separate completely upon cell division (so no rosettes or chains) and tend to form buds that are much...

Those are yeast; not likely a Saccharomyces species based on the elongated morphology, bud size & bud location. Other than that, its not really possible to nail down what they are. Bryan

1040 is not an arbitrary number - in "Yeast" as well as a number of other sources, yeast yield per point gravity has been assessed. Most strains of yeast give the optimal number of yeast, per mass of sugar, at gravities between 1.035 and 1.040. Below that and you are not providing sufficient...

High gravity brews, such as the one you just completed, require additional ageing to give the yeast time to clean up the many off-flavours which tend to be produced during stressful (i.e. high-gravity/alcohol) ferments. It is unlikely that this beer will be ready for packaging for several more...

As you've now seen, several yeasts form large flocks. Scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it too - thought I had infected it somehow. Bryan

In the future, a single drop of fermcap-s will prevent foam-overs. In a shameless self-plug, a long while ago I made a video on a cheap way of doing a yeast starter if you lack a stir plate (or sufficient stir-plates for multiple yeasts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UGJ_b-MfbE B

In this context, the processes may be parallel; one thing not clear from history is whether the grain was partially malted in advance. Some reconstructionists claim to get conversion with flour from unmalted grain (I did not achieve this with my attempt, and had to add base malt to complete...

If you google for 'bappir' you'll find the recipe & all the details. Long story short, after cooking the bread was soaked for several days in water along with dates. The residual enzymes in the bread (plus, likely enzymes from the wild bugs from the dates) break down the starches which are then...