So I know some like to wash and repitch yeast, but I though why not make some slants. Right now I have 3 strains and they are looking good. Now on slants is US-05, W-43/70 and WLP001.


Each strain was streaked on 2 petri dishes, and then signal colonies were selected to inoculate four slants for each strain. I decided on 4 so I have some for pitching and a backup if ones becomes infected.

In the future I will use agar, but for this batch I used 1/2 cup of 1.036 wort and 2 packets of gelatin (one would have worked, but seemed to soft).

Anyone else out there using slants?

Sweet pictures.

Wish me luck, I just did my first every pitch of yeast (WLP001) stored on a slant. Looked healthy and starter looked great.

That's awesome! Let us know how it turns out. When it comes to yeast you are now in the realm of the pros.

We have success! Less than 12 hours of lag time, and the brew is bubbling away. Now only time will tell if I have the right bugs in there. The process is fairly simple, made a 25ml starter from the slant, then bumped it up to 200ml, and finished with 1.5l. Each starter was left to ferment out for 36 hours on the stir plate, and pitched directly into the next, with the final starter being decanted before pitching. I used 10 million cells as my starting figure and the calculator showed I should have ended up with about 234 billion for a pitch rate of .76 .

LarryBrewer said:

When it comes to yeast you are now in the realm of the pros.

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Thanks for the compliment, but I am no were near a pro, just a guy that likes growing yeast as much as making great brew.

Very impressive Foster

What do you do when you are not brewing beer and growing yeast?

I have a chemistry degree and was a bench chemist for 6 yrs (long time ago). Skills I learned at the bench have been awakened. I wish I still had access to the lab!!

Krimbos said:

What do you do when you are not brewing beer and growing yeast?

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I am an Army Officer, currently working as an instructor teaching mid grade Logistician, however I am a Welding and Fabrication Engineering Technician by trade.

So way yeast :? ? My father worked as a microbiologist when I was a kid (he has not worked in the field for almost 15 years), and frequently had us kids doing projects at home to see just what was growing around the house, which I guess has stuck with me over the years. Needless to say it provided invaluable knowledge on the process of growing our single cell friends. In addition I have always enjoyed doing/building/growing things myself vs just going to the store (there is a certain amount of satisfaction for me, even if there is no real cost savings).

All in all I thoroughly enjoy the process of making great beer, as much or more than drinking a great beer.

My father worked as a microbiologist when I was a kid

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I knew it

as much or more than drinking a great beer.

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OK, lets not get crazy... :lol:

I agree, this has almost become my #1 passion (see avatar for #1)

I culture yeast just for my own use, usually takes me a week to divide 1 into 6 with the right set up, always make sure you have a flame going near the open container helps to keep wild yeast from joining the colony, also never get in a hurry, and always smell the finished product, pitch the sour smell ones right away lol