Making slants from dry yeast?

[dye4me]

I have been using Nottingham dry yeast for several years. It now cost $4/pack+shipping, and Im getting tired of the $8 yeast tax on every 10 gallon batch i make. I like the idea of making slants and building up starters as sometimes i brew 5 gallons, sometimes I make 35gallons. The silly question i have is should i just rehydrate the notty and dip the clip to innoc my slants or should I make a starter, decant and dip into a starter of notty?

 

[Gavin C]

I have been using Nottingham dry yeast for several years. It now cost $4/pack+shipping, and Im getting tired of the $8 yeast tax on every 10 gallon batch i make. I like the idea of making slants and building up starters as sometimes i brew 5 gallons, sometimes I make 35gallons. The silly question i have is should i just rehydrate the notty and dip the clip to innoc my slants or should I make a starter, decant and dip into a starter of notty?

If you use the same yeast all the time why not just harvest the slurry from one batch for the next umpteen batches? Pretty soon you'll have more yeast than you know what to do with.

Preparing slants when you use the same strain all the time seems like a lot of work with no greater reward than offered by simple slurry harvest.

 

[dye4me]

I am under the impression that a month would be about max time for a slurry sample to survive, and sometime i just cant get to brewing that quick from my last batch. I would also like to start trying other stains for my existing brews and im starting to brew lagers so storing other types of yeast will become more important as time goes on.

 

[Gavin C]

I am under the impression that a month would be about max time for a slurry sample to survive, and sometime i just cant get to brewing that quick from my last batch. I would also like to start trying other stains for my existing brews and im starting to brew lagers so storing other types of yeast will become more important as time goes on.

I've stored and used slurry many months later no worries.

If building a bank of a variety of yeast is what you want to do then slants are a great idea. I have 4 or so strains in the fridge at any one time but have never made a slant.

I was under the impression you were concerned with always using Notty and having to buy two packs each time. My mistake.

 

[RM-MN]

I am under the impression that a month would be about max time for a slurry sample to survive, and sometime i just cant get to brewing that quick from my last batch. I would also like to start trying other stains for my existing brews and im starting to brew lagers so storing other types of yeast will become more important as time goes on.

You must have been looking at Mr. Malty. In somewhat proper storage yeast viability is much better than what Mr. Malty perdicts. Check out this experiment done by WoodlandBrews. http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12/refrigeration-effects-on-yeast-viability.html

 

[dye4me]

It seems lots of reputable sources say slurry can be kept for 6-1year with good results. How does everyone estimate their cell count?

 

[brewerdoc]

Slants are what one makes when yeasts are needed to be stored for a prolonged period of time (months to maybe up to a year depending on the strain and temperature stored). What I do is make a slant, then I take a little from the slant to pitch into a starter solution. I don't much like "washing" yeasts for several reasons. I then replate the slant ever so often.

In regards to OP's question on how to make a slant from dry yeasts. It has to be re hydrated. Once rehydrated you can decant and then put the yeasts on a slant. The other option is plating the yeasts to find an isolated yeasts, then let that colony grow and plate a pure colony from one yeast isolate. Either way you cant put dehydrated yeasts on a slant and expect quality results. Hope that helps OP.

 

[flars]

It seems lots of reputable sources say slurry can be kept for 6-1year with good results. How does everyone estimate their cell count?

I estimate 2 billion cells per milliliter in my harvested yeast. I think this is a very conservative estimate, but I use it for consistency. (Harvested yeast had hop debris strained out of the wort during the pour into the fermentor.) I don't rinse the yeast, just pour into a quart jar and store under the beer which remained in the fermentor.

I use the starter/pitch rate calculator by Brew United for estimating viability after storage.