SNPA! Reculture?

[Link]

I'm so excited. After years of hearing about this beer, I just walked into the HB shop and there on the shelf was a single, solitary stubby of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. So I bought it.

Now, given that this may be my only shot, I'm thinking that attempting to reculture the yeast might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

Only one stubby, usually I'd use two. Also, I know there's a very long thread already running about this beer, but I'm excited and don't have time to read it all now - will on the weekend though. I'll need to find a really good recipe for extract and grains - not up to AG yet...

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Link.

[rwh]

Just get WYeast 1056 liquid yeast. It's the same strain.

[warra48]

Or White Labs WLP001. It is also the same strain.
If you want it in dry, just get a sachet of American Ale yeast, or US05, it is also much the same thing.

[Trough Lolly]

What's the use by date on the bottle? Any doubts and I'd recommend using fresh liquid/dry yeast (1056/WLP001/US-05) instead...

My personal preference is Wyeast 1056 (Sadly no affiliation, yada yada!)

Cheers,
TL

[Kevnlis]

Sadly no affiliation

[Trough Lolly]

Heh, they should issue "Frequent Yeast Users" cards!

[Kevnlis]

Heh, they should issue "Frequent Yeast Users" cards!

I keep meaning to make slants. I have all the gear...

[rwh]

What equip do you need? I reckon the sterile area with the fume hood would be the most difficult...

[Trough Lolly]

LMAO!

Full bore yeast wrangling is not for the time poor - I remember visiting Kurtz many months ago and he was having a yeast swapping night - there were pressure cookers, plates of agar, wire loops and all sorts of sanitary gear in use. I nodded sagely at the right time and watch two blokes take out single clusters of yeast, as well as surgically plating out separate yeast colonies from a Wyeast oktoberfest blend that they'd succesfully plated a month or so ago.

They spent several hours making all manner of yeast starters - I managed to drink an obscene amount of beer and I think I had the slightly better evening, safe in the knowledge that my bottles of slurry were snoozing away in the fridge!

I'm not slagging off the practice but to be honest, it's just easier to buy a fresh smackpack from the local HBS and off you go...

Cheers,
TL

[James L]

I do this crap for a living.. subculturing bacteria and ameoba... and havent managed to get my arse into gear and start slanting..

I'll have to try it soon.. i'm going to use sterile disposable centrifuge tubes instead of sterilising glass ones, and i'm going to just boil my malt/water/agar in the microwave for 10 minutes (in those pyres borosilicate bottles).. and i have agar, 70% ethanol and sterile equipment at my disposal, not to mention an autoclave.

I think it will be a good way to collect yeast.. you'll be able to go to brew days, and just ask your mates for a dip of their yeast to put in your test tube, and then you're set...

[drsmurto]

So far i havent been tempted to use slants, storing under sterile water in the fridge is working for me and requires very little effort.

If you do want to get into slants - have a goosey as this - Linky

Without having to get into slants i have the following yeasts in stock in my fridge - either under sterile water or still in the smackpack.

Wyeast 1007, 1028, 1084, 1187, 1275, 1469, 1968, 4766
Whitelabs WLP 001 and 401.

If anyone has any yeast to swap (adelaide only) am willing to trade......

And just to make sure my post isnt moved, I would just use a fresh pack of either of the 3 yeasts already mentioned - wyeast 1056, WLP 001 or US05.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[Biernut]

Just had a read on that link Doc. most interesting and fairly straight forward. As T/l says time is the master for this procedure but if you have plenty of it, it would be quite a save in brewing costs.

[drsmurto]

Just had a read on that link Doc. most interesting and fairly straight forward. As T/l says time is the master for this procedure but if you have plenty of it, it would be quite a save in brewing costs.

There will be a master class at the AHB SA xmas case swap this year which will be held at my place (December, possibly the 13th). One of the boys is doing his PhD in microbiology so i handballed the job of demonstrating this to him. I'll stick to berating people on no chill and water chemistry and the far too liberal use of z's....

Time wise, and this is from what people tell me rather than my own experience, you can make the blank slants days in advance so that once you open the smackpack/vial its not a lengthy process.

The reason i cant be arsed with it is that each slant holds 4/5ths of bugger all yeast that means several step ups in starters.

I store my yeast in 50mL tubes which normally have between 15-30mL of solid yeast so stepping up is much faster. I usually dump a vial into a 1L starter and then step up to 2-5L depending on strain and wort volume etc

With the cost of liquid yeast coming down thanks to competition between retailers slanting doesnt seem necessary unless you are planning on storing VSS strains......

My 2 c
DrSmurto

see how nice my posts can be early in the morning if i have a coffee first!

[James L]

I guess the best thing about slanting/plating, is they take up bugger all space in the fridge.. I ahve about 10 different yeasts growing on plates, and they take up about the same ammount of room in the fridge as a longneck..

sure they do take a while to grow up a starter, but you can pretty much guaruntee that the yeast will be a pure culture, as you have picked the yeast from a single pure culture on the plate. Plus you possess the ability to isolate pure colonies from a contaminated batch of yeast (yeast and bacteria, not yeast/yeast, that requires molecular isolation techniques).

I'm going to be doing a demonstration at the WCB meeting in November. its a piece of piss to do... once you know what you are doing. the hardest thing is ensuring your plates/stants are sterile to begin with...

It pays to make your plates in advance as you can see whether any are contaminated with fungus before you start spreading your yeast on it... they store very well at about 15C, aslong as they are kept in zip lock bags.

I guess it all comes down to time management, if you can work out what you are going to be brewing a week in advance, you'll be able to grow up a nice sized starter within the 5 or so days you have. managed to grow up a large enough starter within about 3 days of inoculating with a pin head sized ammount of yeast from a plate.

Each to their own, i you have a yeast storing/culturing technique you are happy with and it works well, stick to it.... this is just another option for those confident enough to give ti a crack...

[Trough Lolly]

...I'll stick to berating people on no chill and water chemistry and the far too liberal use of z's....

Take no prisoners!!

Cheers,
TL

[tazman67]

Just O/T a bit...How long can you store splits off a smack pack for ?