Making yeast slants?

[Wolfy]

I've just made my first attempt at making slants. One of the 'how to do' websites suggested 2g of agar per 100 ml of wort. That didn't work so I tried 4g/100 ml and had about an 80% success rate. What would be the right amount of agar to use, please?

In my experiments, using Chinese grocery shop brought pure Agar Agar powder I have found that about 10g/300ml wort works well, but you could probably get good results with about 1/2 that.

[johnmac]

Having dismantled the ones that failed, it's obvious that my problem was a failure to mix thouroughly - it looked mixed though

[howard]

For the last 18 months I've happily been chucking a packet of Safale S04 into the wort, and have had some superb beer. But a moment of bordom at work got me reading this thread. Now a proud owner of sample bottles, agar agar, loops, and liquid yeasts. Free yeast from now on thanks for the inspiration, I'll let you know how it goes.

My wife is already worried as last time I got the pressure cooker out I was enjoying my latest brew so much I forgot to turn it down. It is quiet amazing how far turkey soup goes when the safety valve kicks in

[floydmeddler]

For the last 18 months I've happily been chucking a packet of Safale S04 into the wort, and have had some superb beer. But a moment of bordom at work got me reading this thread. Now a proud owner of sample bottles, agar agar, loops, and liquid yeasts. Free yeast from now on thanks for the inspiration, I'll let you know how it goes.

My wife is already worried as last time I got the pressure cooker out I was enjoying my latest brew so much I forgot to turn it down. It is quiet amazing how far turkey soup goes when the safety valve kicks in

Yes, I used s04 / a few Belgian yeasts and a few cultures from bottles. This slanting business is a little hard work but I'm really enjoying it. Make sure you keep records and number your vials. That's the only advice I can provide at the minute!

[Wolfy]

Make sure you keep records and number your vials. That's the only advice I can provide at the minute!

I tend to write the strain/production date/generation on mine with permanent marker, while I do try to keep the details in a spreadsheet my record keeping is a little lax, so if I relied on a numbering system I think things would get confused very quickly.
(The marker washes off fairly easily when the vials are washed after use.)

[floydmeddler]

Spreadsheet? That's super organised!

[Wolfy]

Spreadsheet? That's super organised!

I find it a little easier to keep track of production/creation dates, yeast generation and other details - BeerSmith is adequate, but just lacks that little bit of extra info.
Probably a bit of overkill just now with only 17 varieties of yeast - I need to collect some more to make it worth the effort - so wish I had the option of visiting some decent pubs/breweries like you do.

[howard]

Just made the slants, it took a lot less time than I expected, waiting to see if they get infected on their own.

Probably a bit of overkill just now with only 17 varieties of yeast - I need to collect some more to make it worth the effort

17 varieties of yeasts x 5 samples - how do you get any food into the fridge - umm maybe another fridge in garage to go with my brew fridge.

[Scooby]

I've just made my first attempt at making slants. One of the 'how to do' websites suggested 2g of agar per 100 ml of wort. That didn't work so I tried 4g/100 ml and had about an 80% success rate. What would be the right amount of agar to use, please?

I use between 1.5 to 2g of Agar Agar powder per 100mL wort, 4g/L sounds quite a lot. In what way are they failing? How are you sterilizing them?

Yep I use 1.5g Agar Agar, 12g Spraymalt (or 100ml of pre bottle wort) 100ml water, pinch of yeast nutriment. Boil the The Agar Agar for 15mins stirring to fully dissolve before filling the slant and sterilising.

[Wolfy]

Just made the slants, it took a lot less time than I expected, waiting to see if they get infected on their own.

17 varieties of yeasts x 5 samples - how do you get any food into the fridge - umm maybe another fridge in garage to go with my brew fridge.

That's my method for checking them too, just leave them for a few days after they set and see if anything grows.

It's not quite that bad, I think I have 3 vial-samples of each of my liquid yeasts, a couple of un-opened smackpacks/slants and there is also some dried wine yeast (for mead making).
However, I have started a collection of washed-yeast-slurry stored in small beer bottles which tends to take up a fair bit of room in the fridge, about 2kg of home-grown hops from last year, a dozen or so shop-brought hop packets and 1/2 dozen hop-plant rhizomes stored for the winter - which means that about 1/2 the fridge is taken up with beer stuff - lucky we brought a big one.

[johnmac]

Boil the The Agar Agar for 15mins stirring to fully dissolve before filling the slant and sterilising.

Thanks Scooby - I sort of omitted that bit

[Belter]

Revisiting an old very informative post so I don't go over old ground in a new post.

I'm looking for Petri dishes which can be autoclaved and reused suitable for yeast propagation.

Can anyone link me to the right ones on eBay please?

Cheers

Belter