The Big Job

One of the downsides of maintaining an yeast library is the work involved over time. Among the most annoying of these would be the periodic re-slanting; I know that it's been recommended that this be done once every 4 months, but I usually do it once every 6 months as those Corning cell culture flasks are really good at keeping the medium moist and fresh. However I've decided to switch over to the more 'traditional' slants using tubes, due to their lower cost. Yes, Corning cell culture flasks are through-the-nose expensive.

Using a haemocytometer

I've been getting some questions on how I do cell counting, so here's a quick documentation. It also serves as a quick reference for me to go back to, if I forget my calculations. My cell counts are done using a microscope at 400X magnification, and using a haemocytometer - i.e. manual cell counting. A good hemocytometer can set you back by hundreds of dollars, but I managed to get quite a decent one off eBay, even if it's made in China.

This is the central grid of the haemocytometer.

A microscopic look at "酒饼" - Chinese wine yeast

Remember the stuff I used to make the Chinese rice wine? I've been wondering what the hell this thing actually is. Is it pure yeast in some sort of a powdery binder? Does it have bacteria in it? Or even more sinister stuff?

Saccharomyces boulardii

This is going to be fun.

From Wikipedia:
"Saccharomyces boulardii is a tropical strain of yeast first isolated from lychee and mangosteen fruit in 1923 by French scientist Henri Boulard. It is related to, but distinct from, Saccharomyces cerevisiae in several taxonomic, metabolic, and genetic properties. S. boulardii has been shown to maintain and restore^] the natural flora in the large and small intestine; it is classified as a probiotic."

S.boulardii under the scope

How great would it be to brew beer which you could actually say is healthful and probiotic??

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted! Several things had been happening during this time, including a PITA Neurology rotation, our first baby on his way (soon!), me brewing almost every weekend in a bid to get a full pipeline before baby Bryan comes, and finally a step along getting my home yeast lab started.


I've finally bought a Celestron digital LCD microscope, after months of consideration. I'd have loved the alternative - a trinocular 2000X scope with an attached camera, but the cost was almost prohibitive, and I had misgivings about the camera attachment working properly on a Mac. Although the Celestron only gives a true magnification of 400X, I figured it would be enough for most of my applications - namely cell counting, and perhaps to identify contaminants.

Let's look at some first pics!


Wyeast Kolsch II cells on a haemocytometer grid


400X magnification, with a budding yeast cell on the left

Bottle-Culturing: St. Bernardus Blanche

Culturing from a commercial beer is fun, and gives the brewer access to strains of yeast which may not be available otherwise. Obviously this only works if the beer has been bottle-conditioned. Although it is often quoted that some breweries, in a bid to protect their proprietary strains of yeast, do sometimes filter out the yeast before using a different yeast strain for bottling, this is is fortunately the exception rather than the rule.

 In Singapore, most peoples' experiences with Belgian Wit are limited to the ubiquitous Hoegaarden, and perhaps at best Kronenbourg's 1664 Blanc. Don't get me wrong - both are good examples of Wits, but due to the near-extinction of this beer style and its fortunate revival by Pierre Celis, the Belgian Wit has perhaps gone into the equivalent of a genetic bottleneck. I procured a couple of bottles of St. Bernardus Blanche, a fine example of a Belgian Wit, and thought I'd culture the yeast to add to the library.