Yeast Lab Equipment

[newbuffalo]

Good Afternoon,

I'm looking for advice on a lab centrifuge to measure yeast slurry density. They seem to price from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. I have seen a couple of the other local operations using it along with a microscope to figure out there pitch rates. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Bill Campbell

[chronolite]

We use a dremelfuge for most of the small stuff (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1483). It is far more centrifuge than what's needed for cell counting, but it's cheap and dangerous (it will spin most eppis apart at about 70% power).

When we were ready to spend $500+ on a used one, we got a Thermo Centra CL2. If you're buying used, make sure it comes with the rotor, the trunions and the buckets in the right size for your science. We found 50ml buckets that hold a falcon tube and adapters that fit in them to hold 15ml test tubes and 2ml eppendorfs. Most methods I read only need 1000G, so almost any centrifuge will work. These things are all over ebay. Good Luck.

[Yeast]

if you're just trying to figure out pitch rates you only need to harvest into a brink, take a sample of your yeast brink as is. do a serial dilution to 1:100 pipette to a hemocytometer. count. and then multiply back to your cell count. multiply by the volume of the brink and find out how much you need to pitch.