Slanting leftover yeast from WL vial

[jnr1005]

So I want to start doing slants..and just made my first vials last night with the agar mix. This last weekend (3 days ago) I used two WL yeasts for my brews and noticed some yeast stayed in the vial...so I tossed the vials with lids on back in the fridge.

Can I use this yeast to slant with? Or is that a no, no? I really don't want to buy more of the British and Irish strains at $7.50/each at my LHBS...but I am not sure if this is ok. I was sure to sanitize the vials when opening and poured the yeast out quick when doing my starters.

Thoughts?

Or if not for slanting..could I make mini starters and store those in the fridge for a little while. (Not as great in terms of storage as slants..but ya gotta do what ya gotta do...)

 

[PLOVE]

The simple answers are yes to slants and yes to mini-starters. Slants will definitely take some doing since you have to make up agar, pour it into tubes, cool, and then innoculate with a loop of yeast. Alternatively, you can collect and wash yeast, and just store it in the fridge. I routinely rack to secondary, and after remaining yeast has fallen out of suspension I collect a portion of the yeast cake or slurry. You could wash this yeast with sterile water (there are lots of good threads on this at HBT), or you can just store the yeast at 4°C in pint or quart canning jars topped off with sterile water. I usually use add the yeast to a starter, so I know it's active and ready to go, but even healthy slurry will get the party started. I've kept yeast for more than a year in fridge in this manner and had it start right up overnight with a starter.

Good luck!
Pete

 

[IslandLizard]

I'd say "yes" to all of the above.

Building pitchable starters from slants takes a while, so the few drops of leftover yeast give you a jump start. Plus you can get a few slants out them as well. Only takes a scrape, per.
Congrats on your slants. Haven't gone that far yet. Just storing used yeast slurries in pint jars in the fridge.

Use utter sanitation though...and prevent any air flows (AC, doors, windows).