Why is my yeast freezing weird?

[itsjoao]

Hello everyone!

I’m new to yeast banking and for the first time I tried freezing yeast. I made a starter, used sterilized equipment and 25% glycerin solution. I did not freez in alcohol, though. I used a thermobag and freezing took more than 4 days. Yet one of the vials froze in some weird crystal shape and the other three actually separated the yeast from the water. Can anyone help if I can improve for the next time?

Pics

[denny]

You said you used glycol.  Did you mean glycerin? And you need a a fridge that doesn’t defrost.

[Saccharomyces]

If you are serious about keeping a yeast bank, you should look into plating and slanting your cultures.  That being said, if you can brew with a culture at least twice a year, I would just store a small crop in your refrigerator and use that crop to make a starter when you are ready.  I have had crops last over a year.  Granted, they needed to be nursed back to health, but brewing yeast is a lot hardier than we give it credit.

Here’s a photo of my last yeast bank on slant:

Today, I am just looking for a lager yeast culture and an ale yeast culture that will cover 80 to 90% of my brewing (I brew mostly continental lager and British-style ale).  That way, I can serially repitch crops if I brew at least once a month.  Lager strains do not have the genetic variation of ale strains, so find one that you like and serially repitch it.  A lot of breweries settle on BRY-96 or one of its derivatives such as “Chico,” BRY-97, WLP001, and US-05.  I want a little more character than these cultures provide.  I just pitched WLP006, which is a culture with which I have no experience.  It is a vault culture, so I will be forced to keep it alive if I like it.  Hopefully, Verdant IPA works out when I finally get around to using it.  I am brewing more during the warm months these days, so having dry cultures that work for me would a godsend.  Diamond Lager looks like it is a keeper so far.

[itsjoao]

@denny

You said you used glycol.  Did you mean glycerin? And you need a a fridge that doesn’t defrost.

Ops! Yes I meant glycerin (i’ll correct it). Yes it doesnt defrost

[itsjoao]

@Saccharomyces

If you are serious about keeping a yeast bank, you should look into plating and slanting your cultures.  That being said, if you can brew with a culture at least twice a year, I would just store a small crop in your refrigerator and use that crop to make a starter when you are ready.  I have had crops last over a year.  Granted, they needed to be nursed back to health, but brewing yeast is a lot hardier than we give it credit.

Here’s a photo of my last yeast bank on slant:

Today, I am just looking for a lager yeast culture and an ale yeast culture that will cover 80 to 90% of my brewing (I brew mostly continental lager and British-style ale).  That way, I can serially repitch crops if I brew at least once a month.  Lager strains do not have the genetic variation of ale strains, so find one that you like and serially repitch it.  A lot of breweries settle on BRY-96 or one of its derivatives such as “Chico,” BRY-97, WLP001, and US-05.  I want a little more character than these cultures provide.  I just pitched WLP006, which is a culture with which I have no experience.  It is a vault culture, so I will be forced to keep it alive if I like it.  Hopefully, Verdant IPA works out when I finally get around to using it.  I am brewing more during the warm months these days, so having dry cultures that work for me would a godsend.  Diamond Lager looks like it is a keeper so far.

That looks awesome! How much harder is using slant instead of glycerin? Also I love Verdant IPA!