Cultivating yeast

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I have a bottle of homebrew with Vermont yeast and another with American ale 2. I want to build this yeast up to a 2l starter for a 23l brew. Is there a idiots guide about?
 
I'd opt for 5.6pH dextrose agar and VERY good hygiene as the risk of contamination is substantial. I'm actually about to try and do a la Chouffe one, but that's in a cleanroom with laminar airflow.

Edit: grow it out on agar and use that strain to make the starter, to prevent contamination ofcourse. You might also want to keep the pH around 5.5pH to make it a little harder for pathogens.
 
I'd opt for 5.6pH dextrose agar and VERY good hygiene as the risk of contamination is substantial. I'm actually about to try and do a la Chouffe one, but that's in a cleanroom with laminar airflow.

Edit: grow it out on agar and use that strain to make the starter, to prevent contamination ofcourse. You might also want to keep the pH around 5.5pH to make it a little harder for pathogens.

I've been culturing yeast on agar over the last few weeks. I've got 4 strains successfully slanted.

I didn't have a clean room. In fact my kitchen is quite the opposite, although I did give it a good wipe down beforehand and worked near a flame to create an up draft.

I made about 16 blank slants and a few plates.

I used the plates for isolating strains and the slants for long term storage.

Saying that, if I was just wanting to culture up some yeast for one pitch I would use MyQul's method, especially if I didn't have all the equipment for culturing on agar.
 
From a microbiological standpoint that makes me cringe, but if it works.. it isn't stupid. For my ease of mind I'd rather invest in some cheap chinese petridishes and buy some sabouraud agar. 20 petridishes will cost you about 10 quid and the agar is another 10 quid (sufficient for about 36 petridishes)..

So for about 20 quid you can grow out about 9 different strains of yeast (as much volume as you like). And you don't have to do all at once.

I can understand the described method is a lot cheaper and easier (and it can work perfectly well for 1000 times if you work hygienically), but I think it's just a discipline thing that snug in..

Your solution is by the way quite an effective method. A little gas stove or bunsen burner would even be better, but it works very well like described.
 
From a microbiological standpoint that makes me cringe, but if it works.. it isn't stupid. For my ease of mind I'd rather invest in some cheap chinese petridishes and buy some sabouraud agar. 20 petridishes will cost you about 10 quid and the agar is another 10 quid (sufficient for about 36 petridishes)..

So for about 20 quid you can grow out about 9 different strains of yeast (as much volume as you like). And you don't have to do all at once.

I can understand the described method is a lot cheaper and easier (and it can work perfectly well for 1000 times if you work hygienically), but I think it's just a discipline thing that snug in..

Your solution is by the way quite an effective method. A little gas stove or bunsen burner would even be better, but it works very well like described.

Don't get me wrong. I'm completely convinced by culturing on agar as a method of yeast propagation and storage but I also had good luck with more basic methods. If you don't have petri dishes or vials for slants then it may not be worth the effort.

I would love to have proper lab conditions to work in but I don't. I do what I can to make my workspace clean and work with a spirit burner to help stop dust or other contamination drifting down.

One thing I haven't done so far is use a pressure cooker to sterilised the wort at high temperature. I just boiled it for about half an hour in a conical flask. I them left the vials at room temperature for a few days to see if anything grew.

So far so good.
 

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