[S. cerevisiae]

In another episode of "No Guts, No Glory Brewing,"  I am preparing to pitch yet another mystery strain.   This strain is from the old Wallerstein Laboratories Culture Collection.  The scientist that brought the strain back to life from a 67 year period of deep sleep believes that it may be a petite mutant isolate.  It is the slowest growing strain that I have ever propagated.  However, one whiff is all I needed to positively identify it as Saccharomyces pastorianus.  There's nothing like the smell of H₂S in the morning. 

Initial inoculation after incubation



Shaken, not Stirred



The strain is powdery, which leads me to believe that it is a Saaz-type yeast of Danish origin, maybe even a descendent of Hansen's Carlsberg Bottom Yeast No. 1.  If the strain turns out to be a non-petite mutant isolate, I am curious to see how well it handles a Bushwick-style Pilsner wort.   The time that the strain was deposited correlates with the golden age of brewing in New York. Wallerstein Labs was located in New York City.

[jeffy]

I may be intersted in making a CAP with that if you want to share.

[S. cerevisiae]

If the strain pans out, I may consider sharing cropped yeast with other CAP lovers (Jeff, a.k.a. hopfenundmalz, is at the top of the list).  However, I need to be certain that the strain is not a petite mutant isolate.  I also need to be certain that the strain is stable.  We are dealing with a strain that has been in cryostorage longer than most of us have been alive.

[hopfenundmalz]

If the strain pans out, I may consider sharing cropped yeast with other CAP lovers (Jeff, a.k.a. hopfenundmalz, is at the top of the list).  However, I need to be certain that the strain is not a petite mutant isolate.  I also need to be certain that the strain is stable.  We are dealing with a strain that has been in cryostorage longer than most of us have been alive.

I would be willing to give it a try!

I think Jeffy should be on the short list, too. He has a fine palate and might discern nuances to the yeast better than I could.

[TMX]

That 5l media bottle is the bees knees

[Wort-H.O.G.]

may i ask how you acquire these strains...like i said before-love your passion for yeast.

[S. cerevisiae]

The strains that are available via the home brew trade are small proper subset of the strains that are held in culture collections around the world.  The primary customers for culture collections are scientists.  However, anyone who can work with a lyophilized (freeze-dried) or slanted culture can order yeast cultures from most culture collections if he/she is willing to pay the propagation and shipping fees.  Propagation fees range from just under a c-note to over $300.00 per strain. One often has to sign a research or material transfer agreement.

The major downside to ordering from culture collections is that one often has to spend hours browsing culture catalogs to find gems because the research community only works with a tiny subset of the available cultures. Once one scientist uses a culture, other scientists come behind him/her and build upon his/her research.  That means that many there are many cultures held in collections that are poorly documented and indexed.  I find most of my cultures by literally reading the catalog data for all cultures within a given species.  The process of finding cool yeast strains can be painful at times, but one has to dig to find gold.

Here's an example of a well-researched culture that I have in my bank.  The strain goes by many accession numbers (e.g., CBS 1171, NCYC 505,  NRRL Y-12632 ...), but what it is is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) strain that was isolated by A.C. van Wijk in February of 1925 at the Orangeboom brewery.   Most scientists are interested in this strain because it is considered to be the "neotype" strain for S. cerevisiae.  I was interested in it because, well, it was an ale yeast that isolated at the Orangeboom brewery in 1925.  The culture from which it was isolated was a mixed culture that contained at least one lager (S. pastorianus) yeast strain (it wasn't uncommon back then for lager cultures to contain ale and lager yeast strains).  The accession number for the lager strain that was isolated by A.C. is CBS 1484.

CBS 1177

http://www.straininfo.net/strain/687562

CBS 1484

http://www.cbs.knaw.nl/collections/BioloMICS.aspx?Table=CBS%20strain%20database&Name=CBS+1484&Fields=All&ExactMatch=T


By the way, CBS stands for Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (Central Bureau of Fungal Cultures in English).  CBS is a Dutch organization. Today, CBS is known as CBS-KNAW.  Many countries have organizations that are dedicated to the collection and maintenance of microflora cultures.  The main public organization in the United States is called the USDA ARS NRRL Collection.  There are many cool cultures in the NRRL Collection (including Ballantine cultures that are listed as being deposited by a Ballantine brewing scientist), but the ARS only ships to research facilities because they handle quite a few pathogens in addition to harmless microflora such as brewing yeast.

[S. cerevisiae]

That 5l media bottle is the bees knees

It makes my 100ml media bottles look like toys.

[S. cerevisiae]

Well, I sampled the beer on Sunday, and it does appear that the Wallerstein Saaz #64B culture that I received is a petite mutant isolate.  From the small colony size to the slow growth rate and lackluster fermentation performance, the isolate behaves exactly like a petite mutant isolate.