Wyeast shortages

[An Ankoù]

Recently went to order Wyeast London Ale strain 1028 from my prefered supplier only to find it out of stock with at least 10 days to wait. While waiting, the RIngwood Ale in my basket went out of stock, too. Then the lactose. My next-preferred supplier doesn't do Wyeast any more and either one or the other or both were out of stock at TMM and BrewUK. Too pricey at Rolling Beers (France) and Saveur Bière have stopped doing all liquid yeasts. On the other hand, I found this company in Belgium (edit: I think it's the Netherlands) which offers Wyeast at a better price even then GeterBrewed: Braumarkt | Everything you need to make wine, beer, liqueur and dairy
The delivery charges to the UK are the same as those to France and they work on a declining scale starting at 10.95 euros for orders up to 30 euros and then decreasing by 2 euros each step. Payment in euros is no problem with PayPal although the exchange rate is a bit naff.
With shortages due to a second round of pub closures in the UK, this might be of use to some of you as it has been to me.

 

[umfana]

Payment in euros is no problem with PayPal although the exchange rate is a bit naff.

Sign up to Revolut and you will never get a shitty exchange rate again. It is a prepay credit card. You don't even need to get a physical card if only used online as they do virtual cards too.
#toptip if you want a REALLY good rate then make the currency change in business weekday hours.

 

[An Ankoù]

Good advice. I don't use either as I have a euro account since I live in France. The main thing is to get the delivery charge down by ordering a lot of stuff. €10.99 euros is to much carriage to pay on a single pack costing €7.45 although spread over 4 or 5 packs it's not so bad. I wouldn't use their base malt for English styles and I don't think they crush it. But for bits and pieces like crown caps, speciality malts and so on they're OK. If two or three get together, you can soon spend enough to reduce the postage.
Be careful to check out the harvest date on the hops. I believe they're stored correctly, but they''re not always the freshest.

 

[phillc]

I mostly order from these guys, because they're local to me and the prices are fair: Flüssighefe | mashcamp.shop
(I can also buy 25kg bags of Crisp Maris Otter from here, which while not the cheapest, is something I like to use)

They have Wyeast at a general price of €9.99, so a little more expensive than Braumarkt, but the local postage is only €6.90. I can't immediately see a quote for France (Versand | mashcamp.shop), but given that Belgium and Netherlands are €14.90, it might be a bit much.

Alternatives I've used before, had decent service, but can't immediately remember the postage costs:

wyeast - Hopfen kaufen für Haus und Hobbybrauer - AmiHopfen.com Braub Same price at €9.99
wyeast Various prices depending on the strain, but as low as €9.61

And while I do have both GBP and EUR accounts, I can also recommend Transferwise if you need a good exchange rate.

 

[Pennine]

I have ordered from braumarkt for years when I lived on that side of the sea. They are great and I always thought their hop quality is really good. I think they may also be distributing to online homebrew shops over here. I am a big fan and thanks for the reminder about them.

 

[An Ankoù]

You're welcome.
Did you ever use Swaen pale malt for English styles? I've been a bit put off by the description which (like bestmalz pale) claims it is used to darken a brew with a max usage of around 70% (bestmalz is100%). I get the impression that these are pilsner malts kilned off a bit higher, but I could be wrong.

 

[Pennine]

You're welcome.
Did you ever use Swaen pale malt for English styles? I've been a bit put off by the description which (like bestmalz pale) claims it is used to darken a brew with a max usage of around 70% (bestmalz is100%). I get the impression that these are pilsner malts kilned off a bit higher, but I could be wrong.

I did use Swaen quite a bit and was pretty happy with it, especially the price. I have tried the pilsner, ale and munich. The ale malt if I remember correctly was very similar to the hook head ale malt so it would work well in English styles. It is a bit darker than marris otter or golden promise but just a hair different. I also preferred their munich malt over bestmalz. The pilsner was unremarkable but also a bit darker than others like hook head as well.