Lawrence Brewers Guild

Not too long ago, Jensen and I were talking about yeast slants. I told him I always wanted to do some and said that he has seen it in action. That got my fever up so I started messing around with getting my formula worked out.

Encase you don't know what a slant of yeast is, here is a picture:
http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer/slantgrowth.jpg

Most sources use agar-agar for the firming media. I used gelatin since it is readily available.

Since I can my starter wort, the wort was already available and cool. I sprinkled 1/2 ounces of gelatin onto 1 cup of cool wort. The gelatin was stirred as it was added to the wort to keep down the clumps. The microwave was used to heat the mixture up. This mixture was poured into various objects for a trial run.

I have yeast growing now and it is pretty interesting to see the bugs.

Here is the full version that I used:
http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer/slantuse.html

Chris, you might enjoy "plating", and I have some plates if you want to try it (and I owe you a favor from the free Munich). The plates and test tubes can be found at "Wild Territory" (a store on Mass., next to a tattoo shop).

You probably already know this but; the idea of streaking on a plate is to insure purity (allows insolated colonies to grow from one organism). Then you can pick it up with a loop and make a slant.

Agar, which tolerates heat better then gelatin is available at the Merc..

Thanks Will. I don't need anything at the moment.
If you don't mind, I might borrow your plates for a while someday.

I also have a nice plate going with some very nice single dots spreading out.

Thanks for the information about the store on Mass and the Merc.

The gelatin is holding it shape very well in the slants.

Basically, I am working backwards into my sour dough bread which is basically lacto and yeast. I will also use it for the beer yeast.

Great info and thanks again Will.

What are you using for vials? I found test tubes local but not with caps. I was planing to us plastic wrap.

The plates are one time use, they come sterile, I bought a package (~20) of them but haven't gotten around to doing any of this yet.

So what yeast do you have in stock so far?

Right now, I am using plastic test tubes with aluminum foil as a cover. These were a test run to check the process and sanitation. In the test tubes, I just used 2565 Kolsch yeast with a pointed needle pick to treat the slants on gelatin/wort. I have some borosilicate glass culture vials ordered from e-bay with screw on lids. The cultures in the plastic tubes look real nice with no fungus showing and a very nice white color.

For the dish, a Gladware Interlocking Lid container was used. The dish was streaked with 2565 on gelatin/wort and there are several single colony groups in the dish that can be moved to slants to play with.

As a test for growth on gelatin a glass vial was used as a slant. This was also treated with 2565 and left open to open air for about 30 minutes. The yeast colonies are visible but are not producing as quickly as the gelatin/wort media. The is also a nice colony of fungus growing with a brown center, almost has a cotton ball appearance. The fungus will over run the gelatin before the yeast ever get going.

The following is the yeast that I have on hand that I work from. Most are frozen from starters or 2nd generation parallel culture generations that are frozen in vials. These are frozen in a 15 percent glycerin/water solution:

WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Attenuation: 73-80%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-73°F
Alcohol Tolerance: High

WLP002 English Ale Yeast
Attenuation: 63-70%
Flocculation: Very High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast
Attenuation: 69-74%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast
Attenuation: 72-78%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-69°F
Does not ferment well less than 62°F, unless during active fermentation.
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

2565 Kölsch™ Yeast
Flocculation: low
Attenuation: 73-77%
Temperature Range: 56-70° F (13-21° C)
Alcohol Tolerance: approximately 10% ABV

WLP036 Düsseldorf Alt Yeast
Attenuation: 65-72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-69°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

1007 German Ale™ Yeast
Flocculation: low
Attenuation: 73-77%
Temperature Range: 55-68° F (13-20° C)
Alcohol Tolerance: approximately 11% ABV

WLP051 California Ale V Yeast
Attenuation: 70-75%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 66-70°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast
Attenuation: 65-70%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 58-65°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

WLP820 Oktoberfest/Märzen Lager Yeast
Attenuation: 65-73%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 52-58°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

WLP830 German Lager Yeast
Attenuation: 74-79%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 50-55°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast
Attenuation: 70-76%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 48-55°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

Thanks Will - got some Agar at the Merc. It seems easier to work with than gelatin.

The picture is from the plate on gelatin. These are colonies of Wyeast 2565. A single, isolated colony is moved to a slant with a wire loop that I made. I did 5 slants with a single colony to play with.