yeast farming prepwork and tools

[mashins]

I was told about an old abandoned and broken incubator by a friend. Managed to go get this a while back. It is a sizable tabletop unit, my guess is 150 Liters in capacity. It was broken and the outside was badly rusted. The electronics was only partially working. No temp control was not working

I had a small PID controller and SSR so modified unit to accept the PID. Now it looks so.


PID controller setup now


The yeasts can now be incubated in petri's here. Its also store cabinet with broken handle for other equipments for now.

[still_stirrin]

Years ago I tried to manage prime yeast strains. PITA. You need a “white room” to keep things sterile. And all the medium must be properly steralized too. Your equipment needs an autoclave to kill all the potential bacteria as well. After but-a-few generations of culturing, the wild spores and bacteria contaminated my slants to the extent that they weren’t worth messing with. I gave it up and went back to buying fresh yeast as I needed it. Much more economical and very much less hassle.

But...ymmv.

Good luck with it.
ss

[Fiddleford]

I thought about this a few months ago with a really good batch of yeast I got and in my gallon jug I was thinking to inject oxygen into the culture while adding in boiled yeast trub to see if it was possible to get the yeast to reproduce strongly this way. never thought about isolating the culture it would be very hard due to the yeasts tendency to mutate to its environment but it already does that in the mash and all the airborne bacteria.

[mashins]

Since I want to experiment with wild yeast to try and get Schizosaccharomyces pombe the fission yeast isolated from sugar cane, I am hoping ti isolate this. So I need to culture them. As I cannot buy S.Pombe anywhere, this is my only option. Yes I will also build a down flow clean room table top hood to get the nasties away. That will be another project Autoclave in a pressure cooker at 15psi for 30min is easily achievable to.

As you say YMMV, for me there are other ways to get this done. In America and elsewhere easy, here not so much.

[Jimy Dee]

Mashing, can you please elaborate more on the yeast you are trying to extract from sugar cane. I know nothing about this yeast and never heard of it. Why is this a unique yeast. Why are u after it. Has it special qualities? Why can you not purchase a commercial strain? All such info would be welcome. It sounds intriguing. Jimy Dee.

[mashins]

Hi Jimmy, let me start with what it is first, please see here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizos ... yces_pombe
It was isolated in Africa from a sour beer a long time ago, and thus identified. Currently, it is not a commercial strain that can be bought anywhere at reasonable price. Some place do sell but for me only overseas and with shipping cost added not viable. Also long time shipping cause yeast to die, so may spend many hundreds dollars and maybe get deat yest, risk is high.

Almost all commercial bakers and distillers (fermenting type yeasts for alcohol) are type Cerevisiae strains. They ar budding yeast vs S.Pombe that are fision type yeasts, a top fermenter mostly. From my research, the original yeasts wer naturally occuring yeast strains on sugar cane. At the beginning of Rum making, wild yeasts were the only ones available. S.Pombe was eventually identified as a majour (dominant but not the only one) used by most Rum makers when we had the tools in last century to identify and understand this all. As yeast development and different strains in beer and wine were identified, commercial value took over. Cerevisiae Strains work much faster so commercially much better viable.

For Rum making, fast is not better as we know. This is so because Rum oil. Esterification dependant on yeast and other bacteria to create it, (it being different ester types), and then esterification over time in the wash. This creates the desirable alcohols for Rum.

So now this is why I am trying to document the processhere, to show with our modern tools, and time available we can isolate a strain and remake traditional style Rum at home. Not to saywhat we currently show and make is not Rum, but this way is going back to traditional for me. It is also facinating, I now learn about planting and growing a few square feet of sugar cane for myself. Then look for natural yeast on sugar cane, look in microscope and isolate S.Pombe if its on there, maybe its never there, who knows?

Will also try and get S.Pombe from somwhere else if some good person samarithan can shere this strain to me? Maybe Univarsity have in yeast bank and can send slant plate, who knows. Guy on web by name of Sui Generis Brewing has yeast exchange where thay send yeast in envelope, seems to work. Its cheap and fast according what he says, maybe this can work?

[mashins]

On the tools, I got some already, others still waiting. For current, got the incubator, hotplate stirrer, petri’s, 2 scales one can weigh 0,01g, tubes for slanting and alcohol lamp. Still need build a filtered downdraght clean cabinet for bench, but later.

Agar feed to pour, mineral oil and glycirene for long term storage in -18C. This means yearly maintenance then. It is big task to get this all, and as Still Stirren says, a pita. For me there is no other way all this is accesible now. So I do this on my own with all your help here, and by reading lots, and still readinf more tomorrow and next days and years. This is exciting and very interisting now, want to absorb and learn and understand more every day. Will see and take picture sometime on all the things for farming layed out, so other can see and follow what is documented here. But now, more work on professional side for salary.

[still_stirrin]

Interesting venture. But I read this:

S. pombe has traditionally been grouped among the spoilage organisms by the wine industry. Unlike its friendly, helpful cousin Saccharomyces cerivisiae (the major player in wine fermentation and bread making), S. pombe tends to throw off a lot of icky-tasting or -smelling byproducts as it turns sugar into alcohol. Sulfur is not a desirable aroma in wine!

But the fission yeast does have the ability to reduce malic, tartaric, and citric acids. So if the ferment has gone sour as a result of bacteria or wild flora contamination, the S. pombe yeast can reduce these acids in favor of producing alcohol.

It may be an opportunity in the rum producing areas, especially for dunder infected rums where crazy things happen. Certainly, culturing the fission yeast for this intention will pose challenges. But diversity here (on HD) is a benefit to the present and future of our hobby.

Best of luck to you with your endeavor.
ss

[Jimy Dee]

Mashing,
Thanks a mil for that info. Really interesting. I am sold, have subscribed and please give us regular updates on this yeast if at all possible. To me it's like your are a version of Indiana Jones searching for hidden treasure.
On a second note, the lad who exchanges yeasts is wired correctly. I would love if there was a likker exchange system in place where we could go to to swap our product, via post. That's another dream.
Best of luck on your voyage. JD

[mashins]

Jimy &n still stirrin, guys thank you soo much! I will tempt to give regular updates. Someone promised me a sample of S.Pombe so I can use this to look at under the microscope, sadly the sample will be dead, its all they got.

@still stirrin, it appears that for wine and beer its correct, those S.Pombe excreting bugs are indeed bad. But now for Rum, it may appear to be ideal.... Today we know different than yesteryear. them yeast buggers may be in our favour (or is that flavour)? Never shay away from challenge, it may prove to be fortuitous. It was way back when people did farm S.Pombe, and they were not so sanitary then. So today, with what we know, it should be ok, microscope to inspect and a good protocol, yea! Well I will try anyhow....

@Jimy, really glad to share, remembering that in this yeast culture, I am completely novice. Buy my failures and successes may help in learning for others, so share all I will.

[Jimy Dee]

Mashing, we are only all learning while going through life. Stick with it. JD

[mashins]

I managed to get Sugar cane seeds from a friendly nursery botanist after a long wait. I specifically wanted seeds even when most sugar cane are propagated not from seeds. Want to check what natural yeasts grow on this seedlings. So now planting soon, growing indoors for a few months and then plant and grow. Once outdoor for a while, will collect and incubate whatever is collected. Have get the hemocytometer to count and look at what is viable and all the rest paraphernalia to grow them things. Autoclavable slant tubes, media n growth medium, loop and also got the document with proper protocols for doing this without or at least minimising contamination or infectious materials.

One thing now to get is oil immersion type microscope, hopefully with dark field or phase contrast or such type. This is in for the deep end Rabbit hole red pil here thinks....

[mashins]

My seeds germinated after 10 days, this is week later. Now we grow them to size for about 18 months or so. Then we harvest some and see what we get. Bit extreme to grow sugarcane to get yeast I know, good fun tho


The idea for this is to use the naturally occurring yeasts on the plants like they used to 100 years ago. I want to see if I can isolate fission yeast (top fermenting type S.Pombe) from these plants. I will also get real S.Pombe from research place, so want to compare strains and see about speed to ferment, will make batches to compare. Also compare on smell, taste, abv of ferment etc etc.

[Jimy Dee]

Mashins, well done and thanks for keeping us informed of developments. Looking forward to seeing how this one develops. Please keep us posted. JD

[Simpo]

Mashins, any updates on your S. Pombe quest?