Hello All,
I am a biology student at a university (Second career. I am in my 30's) and I want to get into a particular bio lab of a microbiology professor that I would love to study for my PhD starting next year.
Anyway, I do not have any direct lab experience (I have done HR for the last 7 years) and learned through my little brother that these schoosl and profs love home experience. He got into an ace school by isolating ecoli plasmids at home using a home electropheresis set up).
I was thinking being a brewer and all, I could do my own little home scientific experiment that would also be tons of fun for brewing. I was thinking of capturing a wild yeast, growing it, and drying it.
I read in the lambic section how to capture a wild yeast by setting a bit of DME and water on the window seal for two weeks which is very doable. Maybe honey would work better because I would think thanks to the antimicrobial properties of honey, there would be a higher chance of catching yeast and not bacteria. I would rather do an agar plate and then microscope it to ensure I actually have yeast but I don't have access to a microscope at home...
Then I would imagine that I could grow more cells in a sugar(DME or honey) and water environment and collect cells that fell out in suspension.
How would I then go about making the cells dormant (cold obviously) and drying them while maintaining them as active? do you think spreading on a tray and drying in a refrigerator or in a cool environment with a fan blowing across it might accomplish this?
I do not only plan on documenting this for school related benefits but I also fully plan on brewing with the resulting yeast as well!
Thanks!
E
I am a biology student at a university (Second career. I am in my 30's) and I want to get into a particular bio lab of a microbiology professor that I would love to study for my PhD starting next year.
Anyway, I do not have any direct lab experience (I have done HR for the last 7 years) and learned through my little brother that these schoosl and profs love home experience. He got into an ace school by isolating ecoli plasmids at home using a home electropheresis set up).
I was thinking being a brewer and all, I could do my own little home scientific experiment that would also be tons of fun for brewing. I was thinking of capturing a wild yeast, growing it, and drying it.
I read in the lambic section how to capture a wild yeast by setting a bit of DME and water on the window seal for two weeks which is very doable. Maybe honey would work better because I would think thanks to the antimicrobial properties of honey, there would be a higher chance of catching yeast and not bacteria. I would rather do an agar plate and then microscope it to ensure I actually have yeast but I don't have access to a microscope at home...
Then I would imagine that I could grow more cells in a sugar(DME or honey) and water environment and collect cells that fell out in suspension.
How would I then go about making the cells dormant (cold obviously) and drying them while maintaining them as active? do you think spreading on a tray and drying in a refrigerator or in a cool environment with a fan blowing across it might accomplish this?
I do not only plan on documenting this for school related benefits but I also fully plan on brewing with the resulting yeast as well!
Thanks!
E