Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I've been thinking for awhile about starting to propagate & store yeast strains to be able to have whatever strain I want to use on hand & to be able to try some different ones that aren't commercially available. Is anyone propagating their own yeast & storing it long term?

I'm thinking of starting with a few commercial yeasts & isolating the single yeast cell & growing it out on a petri dish to then store it long term in the freezer. I've stored dried yeast this way but unsure if the yeast will survive in viable numbers if they are on a petri dish with agar. Or is there a better way to store the yeast? (Eg test tube with gelatin or similar?)

Then one they have been isolated I'll need to work out the best way to grow them out into a usable size without getting infection etc. This will be done by taking a small amount of the yeast from storage & growing it up in a low gravity, sterilised wort (say 20ml @ 1.01 gravity) & gradually building it up in size & strength until I have a useful starter.

Anyone got any advice or thoughts on this whole process? The main part will be making sure I can store the yeast long term & keep it viable without it dieing & keeping everything sterile while growing the yeast as when using a low number of cells it is too easy to get it infected or taken over by another strain.

Cheers guys

See it done fair bit on the beer brewing forums. Lots good info on them. Check out home brew talk beer forum. Slant plates is one way they do it.

This aint a bad read. Bit about glycerine may be of interest to you.
https://byo.com/article/yeast-ranching- ... 20freezing.

Thanks Bluc,

Have read a few of them articles from various beer places but everyone seems to say something different. I'll check that one out & see what extra info it gives me. Cheers mate

i was thinking of going down the same path for a hard to get (and expensive) yeast i use for a certain beer.
watched a few you tubes.
the slant method seems quite easy. :shifty:
test tubes, glycerine etc.
interesting how most infect the glycerine over a heat source so there are no nasties are floating down.
then a bit of forward planning to step the yeast up from a small sample.
i saw a cheap way to make a stir plate with a cheap computer fan and a rare earth magnet.
plus a flask and stir bar obv.

Well I finally got time to finish off the laminar flow hood to isolate/propagate some yeast. Have a couple of tubes with low gravity DME in it with some fruit thats fermenting atm so I can try and get the yeast. Have another couple in the fridge that I fermented awhile back from a couple other sources. Should be interesting to see how it works out.

Poured a couple of agar plates today to see how the hood/my processes work out so I'll leave them for a few days & see if anything grows on them. Best case scenario nothing grows & I'll try streaking some yeast on the plates next weekend... see how we go

Nice setup HJ looks epic. I got keen a while ago watching these videos (chap has a playlist on yeast), but then haven’t got around to pouring the plates.

https://youtu.be/WtXrsvNLCxk

But laminar flow is getting serious, let us know how it goes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks for the link madjaffa, have looked through that site a bit but hadn't gotten to the videos yet.

I'm just waiting on a couple more parts to come then I can make a start on the culturing. Got a lab incubator on it's way along with a bunsen burner. Still need to get various lab glassware, microscope & a larger pressure cooker or autoclave (annoyed I didn't buy the one that came up at a winery around here, sold for about $400!) But I've got enough to make a start.

All but one of the half dozen plates I poured a few weeks ago turned out perfectly after sitting for 2 weeks, one has a single bit of contamination so overall I'm classing that as a win. Hopefully by next weekend I can make some more progress...

Out of interest, if you're happy to share, what are the details of your agar plates?

What size? looks ~100mm
I’m guessing glass?
Did you source this from Ali Express or domestically sourced?
~$ per plate

Did you go with a DME/LME agar solution?

I got some test ones from Ali, and they were still pretty $$$ and perhaps a bit too small, ~65mm.
I also got a ton of tubes to try slants, but they were a high heat plastic. I still have to test them out to see if they can handle the pressure cooker or steam oven at autoclave temps.

10ml plastic centrifuge tubes and it says they can be autoclaved at 121c. Have to wait and see :liar:

Yep the plates are 100mm plastic dishes, prob too big really but I had a sleeve of them laying around. Not sure what they cost me since I've had them sitting here for ages. Need to find some more. Will be trying to supplier I got my beakers etc from to see what their prices are like, should be better then eBay/Ali.

I'm not sure how well the dishes will do when sterilising, they are meant to be alright but I haven't tried them since they are pre-sterilised. A lot easier then cleaning/sterilising glass each time.

The agar is just DME, nothing fancy atm, will see how it goes but might have to switch to something else if they don't work as well as I want.

Spent last week working down the South East so took a few swabs with me to collect some more yeast. Took a swab from the fliwering Banksia & other flowers. Made & sanitised from DME mixture before pouring into vials &swishing around the swabs to start the yeast growing along with a couple of jars I'vehad in the fridge for awhile now...



After that I streaked a couple of plates with yeast I've swabbed & fermented previously (Bottle Brush, Pink Lady Apple, Shiraz & another grape) and put them into the incubator to get them growing...



Then finally made up some more solution for the Agar plate and poured them ready to streak...



Used up all my plates though so will need to run to the scientific store in Adelaide this week to pick up a carton of 500... should be enough for awhile :laughing-rolling: