Pics of Yeast under my new microscope

[passedpawn]

Here's how my scope looks with the little OEM video camera on it. The camera is mounted onto the eyepiece tube. There is no lens on the camera. The camera looks like the following. It's held onto the scope by a highly sophisticated arrangement of rubber bands.

 

[smokinghole]

Violet is better because it's a more pure stain and it has a lowered incidence of false viability. In the Yeast Performance book I linked that no longer has a preview, they showed that methylene blue showed viability up to 15% or greater on heat killed cells. Methylene violet showed near 0% viability.

 

[passedpawn]

I accidentally froze this yeast, so I grew a starter from the frozen stuff - that's why the violet stain is there - looking to see how many I killed.

But man, look at this crazy yeast. This is the yeast I brought back from Fuchschen Brewery in Dusseldorf Germany. Those "long-skinnies" have to be wild yeast, right? They use open fermenters at the brewery, so I suppose it should be a surprise, but it is anyway.

Brewing with this yeast was officially a mistake (and learning experience). I kegged it and left the carboy with yeast sitting on my patio (I was thinking about harvesting the yeast). Uh, no. This, after 2 days:

The beer looks good, but there is a slight funk there. It's a dry stout. Just barely tolerable, but I'm dumping this weekend.

 

[SGFBeerBuzz]

Just a slight funk? Sounds tasty. I like a sour stout.

 

[passedpawn]

Just a slight funk? Sounds tasty. I like a sour stout.

Actually the stout turned out OK. I thought it would get worse, but it didn't and is probably not completely out of style for a dry stout.

 

[jagec]

Actually the stout turned out OK. I thought it would get worse, but it didn't and is probably not completely out of style for a dry stout.

The great thing about beer is that it almost always gets better, not worse, if you just forget about it for a while!

 

[COLObrewer]

Actually the stout turned out OK. I thought it would get worse, but it didn't and is probably not completely out of style for a dry stout.

Dood! I'm glad you ended up following the #1 rule, never dump your beer.

I was wondering if you saved any of your juniper yeast and looked at it? I haven't searched through this thread though.

 

[passedpawn]

Dood! I'm glad you ended up following the #1 rule, never dump your beer.

I was wondering if you saved any of your juniper yeast and looked at it? I haven't searched through this thread though.

No, I didn't. Would have been interesting though. If you ever want me to get some pics of yours, PM me and I'll give you an address.

 

[H-ost]

Anyone have anymore pics of yeast to add? These are fun to look at.

 

[passedpawn]

Anyone have anymore pics of yeast to add? These are fun to look at.

I've got loads; maybe I'll get some more up here.

The Brett Project is a neat site put up by some dude working on his masters thesis. Check it out. Some pics of yeast, smears, etc.

http://www.brettanomycesproject.com/2010/06/brettanomyces-yeast-cell-images/

 

[14thstreet]

Not much information here but maybe a few of you would like to see naked yeast

Picture 1 is a third or fourth generation washed sample of Wyeast 3068. Trypan blue staining to check viability, which was about 10%, after 8 months in the refrigerator. Note some sort of coccus strain, perhaps our friend Pediococcus (diacetyl, sourness, etc). I won't be culturing this up for my upcoming Oktoberfest party.

Picture 2 is a harvest from Lakefront Brewery's Wisconsinite from earlier this summer. Looks very different from 3068 and is much cleaner. Viability was determined from a different sample and was 6%. I might try stepping this culture up to see how it goes.

 

[passedpawn]

Not much information here but maybe a few of you would like to see naked yeast

I love naked yeast! What type of scope / objective? How are you taking pics (trinoc?)

Alright, I'm gonna do some viability stuff and get some more pics up here!

 

[passedpawn]

eyeMicroscope iPhone app assists picture taking on your microscope. Looks sorta neat for anyone who is taking cell phone pics through the eyepiece. All the app does is store the scale bar next to the pic, which is pretty neat. Worth $3? You be the judge.

[edit] actually, I was just experimenting with taking iPhone pics through my eyepiece and it sux. Unless you've figure out how to do this easily, don't bother with the app.

 

[diS]

Alright, I'm gonna do some viability stuff and get some more pics up here!

Please do, when I see this thread bolded I get excited and hope we"ll see our buddies..

Also, it would be great if some of you advanced guys/girls make some viability testing, like w/yeast frozen in glycerin solution...

 

[14thstreet]

I love naked yeast! What type of scope / objective? How are you taking pics (trinoc?)

Alright, I'm gonna do some viability stuff and get some more pics up here!

This was done at work on an inverted Nikon microscope with plastic slides, 400-600X. It wasn't an ideal setup because I had other work to do and I don't want to waste resources. Sorry I'm not more specific but this isn't a do-it-at-home type microscope.

Regarding glycerin stock viability, I could do something like that. I'd have to come up with an experiment that would be practical. I think with 6+ months in the fridge with a multi-repitched wheat strain I'm pushing my luck with sanitation and other qualities.

 

[passedpawn]

COLOBrewer sent me some of the yeast he harvested off juniper berries found in the wilds of his state. Here's some pics. I've got video I'll add to this later of me staining it with violet and blue. Looks like normal Saccharomyces to me.

More later... hot date to attend to.

Watch as I add a drop of violet stain to the hemocytometer. The ones that go dark are dead.




Here it is, plated and after 2 days of growth.

 

[COLObrewer]

Very interesting sir, looks like you are learning alot about yeast, I can hardly wait for your morphology experimentings.

 

[passedpawn]

Plated Berliner Weisse yeast. There is Lactobacillus Delbrueckii in there and Saccharomyces (S-05) too. I looked at the cells before I plated it and it looked just like sacc, but these long stringy things probably are bacterial growth. No idea what I'm saying here, but it sure sounds official.

Here's the plate on the scope stage. I accidentally stuck the 100x objective into it when I was pushing the lighting condenser up from below. Plate is contaminated, need to clean objective. Meh.

My scope:

Stuff (lacto?) growing across the plate

 

[passedpawn]

I'm making a 15 minute video of this bacteria. It's growing pretty fast. I'll speed it up into a 30 second video and we'll all get to see the growth in fast mo! Stay tuned. (Is there anybody tuned?)

 

[passedpawn]

Ok, this is sorta cool. I recorded 22 minutes of that bacteria growing across the slide. I then dropped that video into Pinnacle Studio and compressed it into 2 seconds, then uploaded to you tube.

 

[14thstreet]

Picture 2 is a harvest from Lakefront Brewery's Wisconsinite from earlier this summer. Looks very different from 3068 and is much cleaner. Viability was determined from a different sample and was 6%. I might try stepping this culture up to see how it goes.

I used this culture in a 1 gallon batch and it went all sour/acetic on me. Nothing from the starter or the fermented batch looked bacterial, so maybe I got some wild yeast in there or the Jeremy King strain went wild.

I'm tuned in, let see some bacteria dance

 

[passedpawn]

I used this culture in a 1 gallon batch and it went all sour/acetic on me. Nothing from the starter or the fermented batch looked bacterial, so maybe I got some wild yeast in there or the Jeremy King strain went wild.

I'm tuned in, let see some bacteria dance

I'm jealous of those pics you put up there. I see very crisp images in my eyepieces, but I get some crap from this camera mounted on there. Not only is the resolution terrible, but I've got to keep playing with the RGB and exposure to get the pics to look right. I've got an IR filter mounted on the light source to help since the huge IR from the lamp causes all sorts of problems. Argh.

Glad someone is looking at this. I thought I was talking to myself again.

 

[bottlebomber]

Surprised I've never noticed this thread! Very cool. I also enjoyed watching your Pool as Wort Chiller vid where you stood there wondering what to do with the overflowing carboy as your pooch licked off the wort chiller are you still doing this?

 

[passedpawn]

Surprised I've never noticed this thread! Very cool. I also enjoyed watching your Pool as Wort Chiller vid where you stood there wondering what to do with the overflowing carboy as your pooch licked off the wort chiller are you still doing this?

Bomber! No, my old IC is long retired (attic) much to Marlee's dismay.

 

[bottlebomber]

Bomber! No, my old IC is long retired (attic) much to Marlee's dismay.

Marlee. I thought you called him Barley. Wouldn't be the worst name, just funny

 

[14thstreet]

passedpawn, don't be jealous, it is a work microscope. You'd be wasting your money if you wanted it. I think your setup is pretty cool and all you need actually. It would be neat to have my own home yeast lab but I only get to brew 12 batches a year and fear it wouldn't be worth the extra trouble for me alone.

 

[passedpawn]

I found some decent time lapse software (VideoVelocity) that I just tested and works with camera I have mounted in my scope. So I should be able to do some better video of that sort. I want to record a sequence of yeast budding.

FYI, I'm probably going to stop updating this thread soon. It's reading mostly like a personal blog, which I already have for yeast and beer stuff. I know there's a few people interested, but it's mostly a one-way conversation here and not really appropriate for a forum. I'll post a link to my blog when I get it better organized.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Gross. You brew around dead bugs! ; )

 

[passedpawn]

Gross. You brew around dead bugs! ; )

Dead bugs?

 

[COLObrewer]

Ok, this is sorta cool. I recorded 22 minutes of that bacteria growing across the slide. I then dropped that video into Pinnacle Studio and compressed it into 2 seconds, then uploaded to you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTChFSQdcpo

Very interesting, I can picture this creating the streaked film on top of the beer. It's too bad it takes so long of video to show the growth. Great effort PassedPawn.