How do you get the yeast of a yeast slant please?

[Frostyp]

Started making yeast starter to try and improve the kits im using, still quite a newbie.
Used a Yeast Slant, instructions said to pour cooled wort over and shake vigorously to dislodge yeast.
Dont know about yeast dislodging! the whole jelly like thing went into my starter wort, all im seeing its bits of jelly spinnningb around within my wort!
So two questions
1:Will it all be okay?
2:How are you actually supposed to get the yeast from the slant?
Please help !
The yeast slant was a BREWLAB slant.

 

[Mark1964]

Should be fine as its all sterile the yeast should grow ok but when its done fermented etc just seive the yeast through something sterile into another container

 

[wilsoa1111]

dont worry is just agar-ie seaweed-used in some kettle finings eg irish moss- personally wouldnt even bother seiving-could just add contaminants-and should settle out

your supposed to remove a good looking colony/bit of surface growth(ie leaving some for laters and comparision) with a sterile dabbler bung in a sterile wort solution and grow up using a series of starters-initally v small then slowly adding to till get a pitchble volume-
dont really see point in using them unless you have more agar plates and microbio stuff as smackpacks etc give a pitchable concentration and therefore a bit less technique and equipment sensitive

bottom line will take you a while to get going-maybe as much as 2 weeks-
unless fancy getting really techy most people settle for a frozen yeast bank cultured from a big starter made from a smackpack giving a solid supply for a good 20 brews(that could be over many years)

 

[calumscott]

Haven't used one of them but I would imagine that there's "vigorously" and there's "VIGOROUSLY"... :lol:

Having done a lot of microbiological plate stuff in the past I would have thought that a thorough swooshing was more appropriate than a vigorous shake. Probably fill about half the airspace and slosh around, back and forward over the agar agar until it's really nice and cloudy.

I the lab they were cultured off the agar agar by swabbing a sample and growing on in the medium (in this case wort) that they were ultimately heading for. Again that was mostly bacteria but I would imagine that yeast aren't too different...

As for the jelly stuff, that will just be agar agar - seaweed extract. It'll be sterile apart from the yeast, and it has no flavour. Like really no flavour at all...

...and yes. I have tried...

 

[hotstuff]

I used a slant for the first time the last week and exactly the same thing happened, the agar slant plopped into my cooled wort starter along with the dislodged yeast cells .
I did go into a slight panic mode, quickly sterilised a suacepan and sieve, tipped the wort + yeast + agar through the sieve into the pan and then back from the pan into the demi-john.
Anyway, took a few days to get going, but was successfully pitched into my fermenter last Sunday and by Monday it was fermenting vigorously.
What i've read since suggests that this unfortunate addition into the wort starter isn't a concern.

 

[Aleman]

I normally use a sterilised transfer loop (Platinum wire), to remove one or two colonies from the slant, and put that in a very small starter (2ml) . . . then step up a couple of times to 2L.

This means that I can go back to the slant repeatedly

 

[Good Ed]

I've used the Brewlab yeast slants and this is what they recommend http://www.brewlab.co.uk/pdf/yeast_cultures.pdf

I usually do what GW recommends and use a starter with 50g DME to 300ml water, and then for an ale, step up with 100g DME and 1L water.

You just need to slosh the vial about, rather than shake vigorously to avoid the agar breaking up.

 

[VSat]

+1 to Aleman. Just done this using 2 loops of yeast (TV3) in 10ml then to 100ml to 500ml and to 1.25 l. Pitched today for a 23l brew :smile: Slant back in fridge for later brews

 

[The Goatreich]

How long do you guys safely keep these slants going for in the fridge? I have 4 petri dishes of yeast colonies in my fridge that are coming up to 3 months old now, and I really need to restreak them onto new agar before they get too old.

 

[Aleman]

12 Months . . . but that is pushing it, around 6 before they need restreaking

 

[The Goatreich]

Cheers.