Using a friends pressure cooker to make yeast slant?

[ekjohns]

I have a friend with a new pressure cooker that said he would let me use it as long as i didnt destroy it. I know that heating agar tends to smell really bad so i was going to make slants using gelatin. Does anyone know if making slants this way will make the pressure cooker smell bad after i use it?

 

[bknifefight]

Well first of all, you do not want gelatin but glycerin. I am not sure of the procedure you are using, but the pressure cooker will heat the slants up enough to sanitize the glycerin/water mixture before adding the yeast. Personally, I just make up my mixture and put it in the microwave for 1 minute and it will boil all the same.

 

[Scimmia]

No, he's talking about gelatin. Glycerin is for freezing, which is a completely different process from making slants. Putting it in the microwave isn't the same as using a pressure cooker, either. Sterilization vs sanitation.

I haven't noticed any lingering smell from using agar.

 

[shelly_belly]

I don't think gelatin works very well. It melts and loses it's shape at room temps. Former member Mordantly tried and posted his results. I've done some with agar & wort and that worked really well. I didn't smell anything awful. Smelled like wort to me. Here's where I learned how...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slanting-yeast-133103/

 

[bknifefight]

My bad, I guess I should have realized you said nothing about freezing them.

 

[ekjohns]

so if i use agar i dont need to worry about the smell? I work in a lab and when we autocalve agar to make plates the autoclave smells terrible for quite some time after

 

[shelly_belly]

Well are you going to use just agar? I thought wort was needed to sustain the yeast. I'm not sure what just agar smells like, but I used 2.5g agar (powder), 35g DME and 400 ml water. I couldn't smell the agar for the DME. Just smelled my pressure cooker-didn't smell anything.

 

[spareparts]

so if i use agar i dont need to worry about the smell? I work in a lab and when we autocalve agar to make plates the autoclave smells terrible for quite some time after

Usually our autoclave doesn't smell from the nutrient agar but from who ever processed either media or waste and spilled something inside the autoclave. That stuff kind of burns and carmelizes in there for a while.

When I mix up an agar and wort solution it only makes the pressure cooker smell like beer wort. And only until I clean it. It shouldn't hold the smell.

 

[JohnMc]

Usually our autoclave doesn't smell from the nutrient agar but from who ever processed either media or waste and spilled something inside the autoclave.

+1 on that, the spilled media gets kind of burnt on the inside. Stinks!
With a pressure cooker/canner, just wash it well, like spareparts said.