Soaked some decomposing oak leaves for 36 hours in preboiled water with some yeast flakes. Stirred, put 1-2 ml into test tubes with 5 ml of malt beer ("Karamalz", I just picked a random brand), filled up with equal amounts of 5 % vinegar and whisky (didn’t have any vodka at hand). Put a thin layer of neutral vegetable oil on top.
Should keep out the vast majority of bad microbes and provide a mostly oxygen free environment for yeast.
IIRC, I’ve also read on suigeneris brewing that oak leaf litter has a 50 - 80 % chance of catching bretanomyce, which I’d be thrilled to find.
Have a good time playing with that ;-)
Microbiology is fun but bit too time consuming, I like it but it's not for everyone.
Btw if you want to make your own agar plates I have good results with classic agar with wort, it has to be ~8°Bx and don't need any more nutrients added. I still have some left in jars that got through pressure cooker.
Thanks!
So long, I find that it's doable since it can be broken down into chunks and I can fit most of those into my everyday life a lot easier than, say, a full 5 - 8 hour brew day. :)
Yes it can be split somehow, but if you have to do lot of samples it can get quite long even at home.
I stored few strains of yeasts in fridge and when I had to reinoculate them on fresh plates to keep them alive for bit longer, I had work for few hours bit time sensitively split across 2 weeks.