Brewlab Slant Starter

[Belter]

I'm a little confused by the brewlab instructions.

"To grow the yeast from the slope prepare a nutrient solution of malt broth by dissolving three table spoons of malt extract in 300 cm³ of boiled water in a clean sterilised flask or bottle of at least 500 cm³ size"

I emailed Brewlabs to ask what sort of size batch that was for and they replied:

"Hi Lee for a 20l brew so maybe make another 100ml of starter culture for 23L
Regards"

I take it she means instead of a 300ml starter I should make a 400ml starter with 4 table spoons of DME?

I'm happy with that by my understanding is that I should step it up from such a small quantity of yeast.

Anyone use Brewlabs often and willing to share their methods?

Cheers

Belter

[gnutz2]

I've used brew labs a couple of times and I just put it in a 1 litre starter. It worked fine.

[Belter]

Cool. I'll try that as a last resort but was after something a little more predictable and scientific.

Cheers

Belter

[Goulders]

Belter, if you want to keep the slant for future use, you can take a couple of loops of yeast and put it in 10ml of wort for 24 hours then tip that into 100ml and step up again to 1l. I did that and have just reslanted the brewlabs yeast onto 4 new slants successfully

[Belter]

I thought about doing this but I'm concerned that I would contaminate it as I'm not set up to work in the updraft of a flame yet.

[Goulders]

To be honest nor was I the first time. I used a sterile loop and held the slant upside down. Maybe luck. Alternatively look at wolfy's thread on stepping up from a starter. There is a link on one of his stickies

[Goulders]

viewtopic.php?t=34275

[Belter]

Cheers Goulders!

[orlando]

I work almost exclusively from slants now (my own) and have followed a fairly simple technique that follows Goulder's fairly closely and is very successful. You can get away without having to use anything but one of those domestic creme brulee gas flames as your updraft flame. They are very handy as you can use them to sterilise the openings of flasks and of course a metal loop if you get one. I have standardised my approach to starting with 100 ml of light DME wort, which I get to within 3c of the slant (really important all transfers and steps adhere to this), I then lay the gas torch on its side and work next to the flame. Lay a piece of tin foil onto the table and spray this with starsan, loosen the cap of your slant so you are ready to transfer the wort to the slant. I cover the flask with some more tin foil that has had starsan sprayed onto it then quickly pour a small amount into the slant vial, shake until you are sure all the yeast cells have been transferred into the solution, if you have a loop this can help any reluctant cells to lose their grip. Its at this point that things can get very efficient and cost effective, if you have a loop and some blank slants already made up you can flame the loop dip it into some starsan so you don't fry your yeast then run it into the wort and yeast solution and then inoculate a new slant: yeast forever . I usually do more than one in case you get a problem. Once you are happy you have all of them transfer to the flask containing the rest of the wort, cover again with the foil and leave in a warm place. I use my brew fridge for this even if it has a brew in it, it is typically at 20c so a good start, for really quick starts 22c might be better.

I don't use my stir plate at this point as the Yeast book advises against it (can't remember why now), I leave it for 24 hours before adding another 500 ml of wort, this then goes on the stir plate for another 24 hours. This is then stepped up again with 1.5 litres of wort for a further 24 hours, once again on the stir plate. It won't have escaped your notice that this is now quite a large amount of liquid so I have to transfer to a 2 l flask at this stage. I do it this way if in a hurry, ideally you would chill at after each 24 hour step and decant, this is to ensure you are getting all the yeast cells into the right amount of wort for each step, the problem is it can take quite a time for all the yeast to drop out. This is important as you can effectively select for highly flocculent yeast and end up with attenuation problems. Just a quick comment about 24 hours, you are only looking at using the lag phase of yeast growth if you leave much longer you can see the starter beginning to ferment, you want to grow yeast not make beer.

The only other issue for my quick method is do I chill for a few days before decanting off the wort or pitch the lot, often I will do the latter as I have not really noticed a great deal of change in the wort profile from doing so, however, with bigger starters you may consider this.

I was incredibly nervous about doing this to start with but as long as you follow good aseptic techniques it can become a really fun part of brewing, the downside is of course that it takes time.

[Belter]

Cheers Orlando. Yeah I can't wait to have my own yeast bank. I have a Bunsen burner for updraft but no gas sorted yet. May get a Creme Brule torch for the short term. I need a bit more lab ware and a pressure cooker but I want one like yours so saving up.

The only issue I can see with your technique is the use of starsan to cool your loop. Like you say it works for you but I've always read and seen people cooling the loop on the agar or wort as its pretty instantaneous. Starsan is a risk to such a small number of yeast but if it works for you then cool.

[orlando]

The only issue I can see with your technique is the use of starsan to cool your loop. Like you say it works for you but I've always read and seen people cooling the loop on the agar or wort as its pretty instantaneous. Starsan is a risk to such a small number of yeast but if it works for you then cool.

Well remember it is sterilised by the flame and the starsan is a very hostile environment, either works of course but my feeling is that the agar is the best place to grow bacteria, starsan isn't. Another thing I noticed is that my loop is quite long and requires flaming the whole length, as it can find itself all the way inside a slant vial, cooling it on the agar means having to not only find a piece of agar long enough but also ensuring you do both sides, so it's just easier in the starsan. We are at the extreme end of sterile issues so you can get away with it but when working with so few cells running the risk of frying any should be avoided.

[bob3000]

I have tried brewlabs slants three times and each with out success. The first time i followed their instructions and i got the symptoms of massive underpitching, fermentation took about three weeks and the beer was very sulphery. Second and third time I grew it up by a factor of 10 each time till i had a 1.5l starter. I still don't think I got enough yeast as the beers where not good, could have been mild infection as well.

I won't attempt it again until I have a stir plate and a clean environment to work in.

[orlando]

I won't attempt it again until I have a stir plate and a clean environment to work in.

I wholeheartedly agree, risking 5 gallons of hard fought for brew is very disheartening.

[Goulders]

i have read of other people having issues with brewlab slants when following their instructions to only do 300ml. I had no issues following the procedures outlined by Wolfy/Orlando above.

Because I don't get to brew as often as I would like, making slants is quite fun. I streaked some Hop Back yeast last night from a bottle of Summer Lightning and some US-05 from my Tomahawk IPA; I diluted the yeast slurry with cool boiled water that had been sterilised in my pressure cooker. I am having a go at isolating some yeast colonies and then reslanting those.

Having a go at slanting yeast from Proper Job tonight.

The creme brulee torch only works horizontal for me. When I turn it on its side the flame goes yellow. However, you can feel the updraft and work under that.

[molehill]

Hi Orlando, I would be interested to know what make of creme brulee gas torch you went with?

I was going to buy a Bunsen burner but this sounds the way to go.