dandelion yeast cluster

[ba-brewer]

Have a small starter of WLP007 made from a whole stant in like 180mL of wort.
After 48 hours the wort is still fairly clear but I can see a few large groups of flocculated yeast that look a bit like dandelion heads or fuzzy snowflakes.

IMG_0408 - Copy

• ba-brewer
• Dec 26, 2017

dandelion yeast cluster

I have seen compact chunks/cluster before but never airy stringy ones or ones this big. This one is not as stringy as other flying around. Anyone ever see this before?

I am pretty sure the starter I made from the source vial a few months back did not do that, but it did act a bit funny. That starter stratified while still spinning with bigger chunks near the bottom and progressively small chunks/cluster toward the top.

 

[Smellyglove]

Stringy? Doesn't sound to good. 007 should exhibit good chunks, not any strings or tentacles.

 

[ba-brewer]

not long strings more like thin spots in the arms of snowflake, but yes I agree it does not seem good.

Turning up the spin rate does not bust them up and they do drop out if the stir plate is turned off.

Not sure I want to step it up, think I might let it sit still overnight and see if it forms a pellicle.

edit:
there are about 6 of these large cluster. Size is maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the diameter of a normal pencil hard too tell as they whip past.

The wort never got uniform cloudiness it seemed to just form clusters.

 

[Smellyglove]

not long strings more like thin spots in the arms of snowflake, but yes I agree it does not seem good.

Turning up the spin rate does not bust them up and they do drop out if the stir plate is turned off.

Not sure I want to step it up, think I might let it sit still overnight and see if it forms a pellicle.

Sonds like a good idea. 007 should settle overnight. Let it sit for a few days if you have that time.

 

[ba-brewer]

I let it sit over night and most yeast had fallen by morning and by the afternoon the rest was clearing pretty good too but I decided to abandon that first step and try again anyways.

As soon I got the new one going I noticed weird stuff again so I went fishing and pull up a few thin slivers of agar. When I made both starters the yeast was not coming loose from the slant so I used a loop to scrap it loose from the slant. Thinking I transferred some of the agar into the starter and yeast was either growing on it of sticking to it.

Plan to still abandon the first try and build up the new one to play it safe.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I'd be tempted to streak out yeast from the slant onto a Petri dish, and start with a single colony so you know it's "clean".

 

[ba-brewer]

I'd be tempted to streak out yeast from the slant onto a Petri dish, and start with a single colony so you know it's "clean".

I am using the process outlined on the yeast slanting sticky here, so that particular slant is gone as I used it all at once.

That slant and the one I am building up were inoculated at the same time so if this current attempt turns funny I may consider that approach but most likely I will just dump the other slants from that batch as it is a easy yeast to get.

Additionally I now feel confident the dandelion clusters were caused by yeast attaching to bits of agar agar. When I rinsed the slant (by shaking) the slant detached from the vial so it was able to slide around inside the vial. In my slants along the edge of the agar agar mass there are some places were the agar agar is very thin. I either cut some of that thin agar agar with the loop or it sheared off when I shook the vial. Working with tiny bottles and thin flimsy wire is a bit fiddly for my stubby fingers so I occasionally stab the slant while inoculating and may have also while trying to gently loosen the yeast back off the slant so that could of allowed bits of agar agar to detach from the mass when shaken.

I was nervous about dissolving agar agar from a long soak so that is why I scraped the slant. I guess that is what I get for thinking. I will be more patient next time and allow more time for the yeast to naturally loosen and dont shake so hard.