Brewlab slope alternative

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Hoppyland

Hoppyland

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
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Location
Dumfries & Galloway
For decades my go-to yeasts have been Brewlab slopes - especially their East Midland 1. A true top-cropper and a clean fermenter - it so suited my style of beer.
But, trying to order from their website recently, I just get a blank page. I've e-mailed them, but no response so far.
So, I did a web-crawl, to try to find decent alternatives. The top two I came up with were both White Labs - WLP038 and WLP039. WLP039 especially sounded like it could be what I'm after. But, my usual suppliers (Malt Miller, HomeBrewShop etc) don't seem to offer either of these. Can anyone suggest why, and - more importantly - from where I can order these yeasts??
I'll certainly contact the above suppliers myself. In the meantime I'm trialling Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire & White Labs WLP023 Burton - but I doubt if they are really what I'm looking for. I just wondered if any members could point me in the right direction here.
Thanks
Bill
 
MyQul said:
Isnt Nottingham/Gervin G12 a dried version of East Midlands yeast?
Click to expand...
No idea, to be honest. I really don't like dried yeasts - but I realise I might be illogical here, because I've never done a true back-to-back.
I've also no idea whether Brewlabs EM1 is the same as WLP039 East Midlands. But, if I can't buy WLP039 then I guess I'll never find out.......
 
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire is a great yeast, I've been using it for over a year and others around here have been going much longer. It's not clean but has very nice fruity esters fermented at 20c, less so at 18c, been advised not to go above 20c but I will have to test this one day.

A lot of people rave about WL007 (WY 1098, both whitbread dry) being a strong attenuator then dropping like a rock and being tasty. I used WY 1099 (Whitbread) for a few brews and it's also good but less characterful than Yorkshire, or maybe I just wasn't as good at managing it.
 
Brewlab are definitely still doing slopes for homebrewers at the moment so I would try emailing them again, I know if at least one person who had gotten slopes off them in the last week.
 
For some reason some of the Whitelabs stains are only available in America. Try phoning brewlabs I have always found them very helpful.
 
Thanks, folks, for the help. I'll be very relieved if Brewlab are still selling the odd yeast slope to homebrewers, as I have styles that are so easy for me with the yeasts that I've used for ages.
Thanks for the advice on Wyeast 1469, Zephyr259. I've just pitched a brew with this & I'll be interested to see how it goes.
I was very interested in the White Labs yeasts, because I'm heavily into top-fermenting, top-cropping yeasts. I have to say, no hugely logical reason here - it's just "what I do". I could change my ways, but don't want to.
For an English style bitter, I'm very happy to use a yeast that adds a bit of "fruity" flavour. However, I have a couple of recipes that are more citrussy, and I like to have a clean yeast for these, hence WLP038 and WLP039.
As an aside, why would some of the White Labs strains be only available in America? Is there some sort of "copyright" factor here?
 
Some yeasts are seasonal and some are vault yeasts, with the latter it is something like they only get released after a certain amount of US orders accumulate, I think it is not that they are US only but it makes it less likely they make our across the pond.
 
Hoppyland said:
As an aside, why would some of the White Labs strains be only available in America? Is there some sort of "copyright" factor here?
Click to expand...

I asked the maltmiller a few years back if he could get one on the list and he said there are some only available in America but he could not give a reason why. I have used all the British style Whitelabs yeast and found them all good and all unique. The Burton one took a bit longer to clear but is a lovely yeast.
 
Hoppyland said:
For decades my go-to yeasts have been Brewlab slopes - especially their East Midland 1. A true top-cropper and a clean fermenter - it so suited my style of beer.
But, trying to order from their website recently, I just get a blank page. I've e-mailed them, but no response so far.
So, I did a web-crawl, to try to find decent alternatives. The top two I came up with were both White Labs - WLP038 and WLP039. WLP039 especially sounded like it could be what I'm after. But, my usual suppliers (Malt Miller, HomeBrewShop etc) don't seem to offer either of these. Can anyone suggest why, and - more importantly - from where I can order these yeasts??
I'll certainly contact the above suppliers myself. In the meantime I'm trialling Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire & White Labs WLP023 Burton - but I doubt if they are really what I'm looking for. I just wondered if any members could point me in the right direction here.
Thanks
Bill
Click to expand...
WLP038 and 039 are 'vault' strains which means White Labs need to receive a certain number of preorders from US customers before they'll put that strain into a production run that generally lasts a few months. You can go to their vault page to see how many preorders each strain is currently at.

Once in production the usual UK suppliers do seem to receive them.
 
T
foxbat said:
WLP038 and 039 are 'vault' strains which means White Labs need to receive a certain number of preorders from US customers before they'll put that strain into a production run that generally lasts a few months. You can go to their vault page to see how many preorders each strain is currently at.

Once in production the usual UK suppliers do seem to receive them.
Click to expand...
The vault strain system really annoys me. I used to be able to get my favourite yeast strain WLP022 Essex Ale on seasonal release. Now it's a vault strain and even if they do get enough orders they don't ship to the UK. I checked with their European office but they said the smallest quantity they would do is 500ml.

Ive got it saved on slants and have kept it going for almost two years now but I'd hate to lose it.

@Hoppyland if you're interested I'm going to re-slant it soon so I'd be happy to send you one. It's got a bit of English yeast character but works brilliantly in hoppy beers. It's a nice reliable top cropper, sediments well at the end (although not quite like Nottingham).
 
Do you mind describing your process for stepping up from a slant?
 
Simonh82 said:
T

The vault strain system really annoys me. I used to be able to get my favourite yeast strain WLP022 Essex Ale on seasonal release. Now it's a vault strain and even if they do get enough orders they don't ship to the UK. I checked with their European office but they said the smallest quantity they would do is 500ml.

Ive got it saved on slants and have kept it going for almost two years now but I'd hate to lose it.

@Hoppyland if you're interested I'm going to re-slant it soon so I'd be happy to send you one. It's got a bit of English yeast character but works brilliantly in hoppy beers. It's a nice reliable top cropper, sediments well at the end (although not quite like Nottingham).
Click to expand...

WLP022 is more or less the ridleys stain? You can get it from the Wibblers brewery for 3 quid

https://www.wibblers.co.uk/product-category/homebrew-yeast/

Here's some info from jims

https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71945
 
I've used the Wibbler yeast before and it is indeed a good yeast, however similar to one of the commenter of Jim's, I couldn't keep it going more than 3 or 4 generations, I also found it didn't attenuate as much as the Whitelabs strain and didn't pack down quite as well.

Don't get me wrong, if I ever lose this strain I'll be onto Wibbler like a shot but for now, this is my perfect strain so I want to keep it.

My guess is that with breweries that continually top crop, generation after generation, there are probably tiny amounts of contamination in there. In a brewery that is reusing their yeast every couple of days the main yeast keeps this all in check but if you use it, then leave it in the fridge for a month they start to take hold.
 
Simonh82 said:
I've used the Wibbler yeast before and it is indeed a good yeast, however similar to one of the commenter of Jim's, I couldn't keep it going more than 3 or 4 generations, I also found it didn't attenuate as much as the Whitelabs strain and didn't pack down quite as well.

Don't get me wrong, if I ever lose this strain I'll be onto Wibbler like a shot but for now, this is my perfect strain so I want to keep it.

My guess is that with breweries that continually top crop, generation after generation, there are probably tiny amounts of contamination in there. In a brewery that is reusing their yeast every couple of days the main yeast keeps this all in check but if you use it, then leave it in the fridge for a month they start to take hold.
Click to expand...

When you say you couldnt keep it going, what exactly happened? It got infected?
 
MyQul said:
When you say you couldnt keep it going, what exactly happened? It got infected?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think so. The beer tasted OK at first but started to taste quite tart after a month or two in the bottle and I had a lot of gushers. It could have been picked up at some other point but I'm pretty careful with sanitation.
 
Simonh82 said:
@Hoppyland if you're interested I'm going to re-slant it soon so I'd be happy to send you one. It's got a bit of English yeast character but works brilliantly in hoppy beers. It's a nice reliable top cropper, sediments well at the end (although not quite like Nottingham).
Click to expand...
Well, yes & thanks very much Simon - I would indeed appreciate that. I can't reciprocate with yeast slopes, but I can offer a couple of bottles in return. If I can figure out how to PM you, then I will!!

Meantime, it looks to me as though Brewlab have changed their sales policy. Their website has changed, and there now seems no reference to buying yeast slopes from them. They haven't responded to my online query. If correct then, wow, I will miss their East Midland 1!!
 

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