I’ve wondered how to tell that actually. I have been working as close to the flame as I can. Even ended up singing the hair off my arm once, though I was not burned.
I’ll admit: I also haven’t tried because I haven’t just been interested in using the yeast I have banked!
I banked two strains as “practice”: dregs from a Sweetwater beer (Their white IPA, which uses a “Belgian Strong Ale” yeast, and Wyeast 3787.) This was to get some experience and see how things went before trying to bank the WL835 that I ordered from the WL vault.
Would a countertop space adjacent to the burner on gas stove work fine for this or are there practical reasons I’m not thinking of that would make it less than ideal?
Most stoves are not anywhere near clean enough to provide an aseptic zone. White Labs uses a laminar flow hood for low-level cultures. I use a table that is used for little other than culturing. I clean the top with Scrubbing Bubbles, before giving it a 70% isopropyl wipe. I then spray and wipe my alcohol lamp or Bunsen burner with 70% ispropyl alcohol, and let the alcohol flash off before starting my culturing session. I primarily use an alcohol lamp (a.k.a. spirit lamp) because the flame is less harsh, and it is an order of magnitude safer than a propane fired Bunsen burner. I rarely used gloves when I was younger. I merely cleaned my hands with Scrubbing Bubbles and then with alcohol. However, that routine wreaks havoc one’s skin, so I wear nitrile exam gloves these days while culturing.
I used soft scrub on the counter with a clean sponge, which was then used to get enough liquid up that the rest air dried. As far as my hands, I just made sure my fingernail were neatly trimmed and that they were well scrubbed.
Some of that may change, Saccharomyces’ routine has piqued my paranoia about sanitization techniques.
I’ve been doing this since my stir plate died. I follow a two step process with a 2qt starter that I allow to ferment out, crash and split. This gives me a little extra insurance that my yeast is good before I make my shaken starter brewday morning.
I still buy yeast every few batches and do this step with the new yeast as well. Too many brewdays where my starter didn’t take off. Happened with the stir plate as well. I think that is why many still feel the need to make a starter days in advance.
I’m also horrible with scheduling and often buy yeast and let it sit. I have three sour cultures, a Brett, and wlp810 that I’ve been meaning to use for months now. Infants aren’t very understanding of hobbies.
I’m lucky to have a yeast factory in the neighborhood. They don’t sell to individuals, but I can get less than 7 day old packs every Tuesday at my LHBS. I shoot him an email with a will call list, and add Kellers to my wife’s shopping list. Rarely use yeast over a month old
Wow, you are lucky. When I buy local it almost always 3 mo old. It doesn’t bother me. I just spent the last few weeks waking up all my yeast that was a year old. The WY products woke right up. Had some slow starts from the other in the new packaging. One day I’ll give this a try. I could see your fresh yeast being an advantage.
Exactly. If infected starters are an issue, then you have bigger problems to deal with. A SNS starter takes off pretty quick, so you would likely need significant contamination to end up with an infected starter.
Has anyone ever experienced an infected starter? If the yeast starts out infected, then I can see an infected starter, but if typical, reasonably healthy yeast is used I think it would be a very, very remote outlier…
