mold on yeast vial

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huxley

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This is the first vial I'm having issues with, I have some yeast in fridge in 40ml vials maybe 30-50 m cell, and some more in the freezer. I torch the top and sterilize them and sanitize with starsan, same on the lids.
Ok so I open the vial and there is a small spot of mold on top of the liquid. So something made it in there. Yeast is still settled, should I remove the mold and hold the torch in, than shake and use the yeast or just dump it. I hope the rest is without mold on that batch.
 
I'd say dump that yeast, but it all really depends on how hard up for yeast you are. If that's the last tube of a particular yeast that is no longer available (or that you harvested yourself) and you want to see if you can rescue it, a small starter after your proposed procedure may be enough to get a clean sample of yeast out of it. If you've got the ability, streaking it onto a plate and isolating a yeast colony will help even more. However, if you've got several tubes of the same yeast sitting around in the freezer that appear to be clean, consider the loss of tossing this single tube versus the loss of a batch of beer. If you're concerned about the other tubes, you could always brew a starter with one of them, or even just move second tube to room temp and let it sit for several days and see if the increased temps allow any more mold to grow. You'll have to toss that tube afterwards probably, but it might help you narrow down whether it was a single tube problem or an entire batch problem.
 
Thanks,
Guess I try another one I should have a few more of this yeast. I took it out of fridge and let it sit for 2 days before opening it. Vials are glass so I'm sure its not from the vial itself. I think I harvested it after a brew, washed and multiplied. I brewed 2 already which had no signs of mold and beer came out fine, so I hope its just the one vial.
 
I do slants. I think it's inevitable. You can sanitize all you want, but every now and again a little mold shows up on a slant. It just kinda sneaks in there when you're not looking. Some dust probably got in while you had the lid off for a few seconds.
 
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