White Labs Yeast
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An Ankoù
Landlord.
Seems to be generally out of stock. It's not a "Vaults" strain is it? I've been hanging on for a couple of years to get two "vaults" strains.
Galena
Landlord.
I have used Malt Miller and Geterbrewed for White Labs, I prefer MM for yeast as they do a particularly good job of packaging with plenty of ice and offer an extra ice pack if you wish to pay a little extra. Not that Geterbrewed is bad either I just prefer the ice pack that MM send out.
Not that any of that helps you with 1469
Not that any of that helps you with 1469
WLP037 is a vault strain which means it's not regularly available. It has to reach enough pre-orders (from US customers I think) for them to make up a batch and release it.
As the others have mentioned Wyeast 1469 is a well regarded Yorkshire strain. I only buy from suppliers that quote the best before date on a liquid yeast. Too easy to get one that's old if you don't.
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That's the old way, which they still operate, and is just limited to people with US credit cards - and you can pretty much forget it for British Vault strains, there just isn't enough interest. And they seem to have given up doing planned seasonal releases.
However of late they've been making random Vault strains available, I suspect that when they get one out of the freezer because they've got an order for a brewery pitch, they grow up some in homebrew packs at the same time. If you go to https://yeastman.com/ then Yeast Strains, then go to the "Stores" tab and then click on the blue "Vault Strains" link (not the Vault Preorder tab), you'll see what they have available for retailers to order. If it's available on Yeastman, then most retailers that deal with White Labs should have no problem with adding some to their next order - BrewUK have done it a couple of times for me, I'm sure Malt Miller would - although historically they've been pretty good at getting seasonals in anyway.
There's no WLP037 there at the moment, although I see they do have WLP050 Tennessee Whiskey, which is a fun yeast for beer, estery and non-phenolic (whereas distilling yeasts are normally POF+)
WLP037 is very different to 1469 though, it's a member of the saison family (as are a lot of square yeasts) and gets very clovey unless you keep it really well aerated.
WLP038 Manchester seems to be the one to watch out for, it sounds a lovely yeast from what little I've read but it almost [Edit:never] escapes the Vault. Another member of the saison family but far less phenolic.
Meh, I normally use a starter anyway for any liquid yeast, I've revived them from 2+ years old.
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An Ankoù
Landlord.
Me too. I tend to order them and by the time they arrive I've moved on to another idea and so they lurk in the fridge. I'm just broken the cherry of a Wyeast 1028 to make a Fivepoints Bitter and it does seem to be swelling a bit. Probably the temperature change as ambient's around 25-28 today. I'll make the starter up in the morning.
I'm looking for WLP025 Southwold as my Adnam's strain has lost its mojo, and 072- French Ale, which is one of my favourites. I've got 8 bottles of the beer left which used the original culture and I use those to make more, but they're getting a bit long in the tooth and I'd dearly love to drink them.
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I'm pretty sure 072 was available in homebrew packs from Yeastman fairly recently, so you may find a pack kicking around a retailer somewhere. Ah, here we go, there seems to be two packs in Sweden.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
Thanks for that NB. At a fair price, too, although domestic delivery for a cooled phial is a bit eye-watering. I'll give them a call later on to see if I can encourage them to deliver to France. In spite of my extended dalliance with Finntroll (who sing in Swedish because they think it's more scary) my Swedish isn't up to the job, but I've never met a Swede who didn't speak English.
Wiener Blut
Active Member
If you're really desperate, or have some to share it with, Brouwland currently has 500ml pitches of WLP037 and other vault strains for €120. I assume you'd have to pay import duty on it as well, at least that's how it's been for things I've ordered from the UK since Brexit.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
Thanks. That's very kind of you to flag that up. I had already seen it in Brouwland and € 120 plus postage is way over the top for me. I've sent an email to my usual supplies asking if they'll order some small phials next Spring as it's a "seasonal" yeast, apparently. In the meantime, I'll try taking my existing yeast through more generations or try another yeast like Belgian Ale.
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As I say, WL seem to have given up on official "seasonals", so it's more a question of when they make a batch.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I'll keep an eye open. In the meantime Wyeast 3725 Bière de Garde yeast is supposed (beer maverick) to be the natural substitute, but a quick googling shows it to be as elusive as the WL. Moreover it's the diastaticus variant and I wonder whether WLP072 is the same.
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I'm sceptical of those kind of equivalences at the best of times, but with WLP072 having an official attenuation of 68-75%, it's pretty clear it can't be the same as 3725. And White Labs say it's STA1-, so not diastaticus. You're probably better off harvesting from Thiriez or wherever it's meant to come from.
Thanks for the information. I’m really just exploring available top cropping liquid yeast varieties, and 037 caught my eye as one used in open FVs. The local mini-brewery who usually supplies my yeast for free, has been trying various dried yeasts which, although supposedly top fermenting varieties, have mostly settled to the bottom, causing him some grief as the outlet gets clogged.
Although I have a cylindriconical FV, designed for bottom fermenting yeasts, I find I loose far more beer removing it out from the bottom, than I do simply scooping it off the top.
BlackRegent
Regular.
@Coffin Dodger If your aim is to get a reliable, quality British ale yeast for top cropping then I would definitely go for the Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire as it's easy to acquire, less temperamental that WLP072, it produces a thick head and also comes up trumps on taste.
Another unsung hero of mine is WLP006 Bedford (reputedly the Charles Wells strain). It's a vault strain but seems to appear with more regularity. It produces a delicious beer.
Another unsung hero of mine is WLP006 Bedford (reputedly the Charles Wells strain). It's a vault strain but seems to appear with more regularity. It produces a delicious beer.
Yes, exactly what @BlackRegent says. I've used both of those strains and they produce excellent beers. I use starters with any liquid yeasts mind.
So how many slap packs would I need to ferment a 35 gallon batch of wort, and would I need to make up a starter? If so, remind me how to do it - it must be over 50 years ago when I last did that!
BlackRegent
Regular.
Im assuming you actually meant 35 gallons (c. 160 litres) rather than 35L
If so, and assuming a 1.040 SG, brewfather is suggesting 14 packs, or an 8L starter on a stir plate. You're suggesting nano brewery volumes and it's outside of my experience at homebrew level. I'm not sure what the breweries do to culture larger volumes of starter
If so, and assuming a 1.040 SG, brewfather is suggesting 14 packs, or an 8L starter on a stir plate. You're suggesting nano brewery volumes and it's outside of my experience at homebrew level. I'm not sure what the breweries do to culture larger volumes of starter
