Hey, no problem. I just figured that since you were in Europe that perhaps ordering from somewhere closer was easier. I also prefer Whitelabs over Wyeast. In fact, my last order I got from Brouwland (yes, 22 KG for 12 euros) came quickly, only 5-days after ordering. However, two of my 5-kg backs of malt were broken and I had to pour the rest out of the bottom of the box. Additionally, one of my bags of hops had been punctured, so the vacuum has been lost. And finally, one of my Wyeast smack packs had been smacked and had already swelled. So, I wasn't terribly happy with the conditions of the shipment. But, the price was right. I refrigerated the yeast and I do a starter with it to be sure it is okay.
It sucks that they shaft you so bad on the shipping. For me, our fortunes are reversed. The hop and grape guys have high shipping for me (like 25 Pounds) for relatively small orders and I don't order from them unless I have too. But, the stuff I have ordered from them was packaged very well and arrived with no problems. I guess you have to take your pick. I will probably order some Whitelabs from Hopandgrape. I think I'll stick with Brouwland for the malts and hops.
I have only started brewing beer since moving to Europe. The guys in the US don't know how easy they've got it with great mailorder places and a homebrew shop in every major city. I'm looking forward to being back in the USA in 2011 and getting 55-lb sacks of malt for $28! And picking them up with my car!
I don't really *prefer* White Labs myself, but they sometimes have something that Wyeast doesn't have. I tend to mix and match.
Yeah, our fortunes differ a lot! Everything I've ordered from Brouwland has arrived in great shape. Just expensive shipping, that's all.
My first order with Hop and Grape, I had a few kilos of grain in it and the shipping was going to be 55 pounds or something ridiculous, so I had her (Patsy) pull all the grain and stripped the order down to hops, yeast and some hop bags and the shipping went down to 6 pounds. So, much better. Luckily, I don't have to mail order grain. I go to Slovenija and buy it. And there's also grain here, but minimum bags are 50 kilos (what, 110 pounds?), so for specialty grains people go in on them together. I buy ALL of mine in Slovenija though.
And yeah, living in the States meant I took a LOT for granted. I lived in Portland for nine years, which meant Steinbart's homebrew shop. And they ROCK. And there are other ones all over the area. And it also meant going to a beer store with 700 some odd beers. I miss that. Here, it's not like that at all! I'm not moving back or at least have no plans to, though, so trying to just adjust and do what I can to make my beer.
Are you rinsing your yeast? If not, you should be doing that. Save you a lot on shipping. I've been doing it since last year and it's great. If you don't know how, look for the sticky thread in the yeast section. You can get a lot of uses out of one yeast pack.
I haven't started washing or saving yeast yet. I want to, so I'll have to read up on the article and give it a shot after my next batch. The one thing I'm not clear on is if I save yeast and reuse it for a future batch, how much do I pitch into the next batch? I've listed to Jamil and others on this topic, but they always quote "XX billion cells per milliliter wort per degree plato" or something like that. I don't know how many cells I have in my reused slurry.
I'll have to do some reading on the topic. How much do you pitch when you reuse? Any problems with over/under attenuation?
I wash my yeast as in the sticky thread and end up with 3 jars that have somewhere around 100 ml or more of slurry. Something like that. I use each jar for a batch of beer. But then, I don't usually use it immediately. I'm using different strains, so sometimes it sits for a few weeks. I then make a 2 liter starter with one of those jars and pop that in the fridge 2 days before brewing. On brew day, I dump the liquid and pitch only the yeast. Works great every time. For me most yeast go a bit more attenuative than the listed specs but the beers are fantastic. I haven't had any go under the specs.
You know, after I posted this, I started looking around some (doh!) and Jamil's yeast pitching calculator (http://www.mrmalty.com includes a tab for repitching from a slurry. In fact, there is a "help page" as well that describes how to best set some of the sliders (thin yeast vs. thick yeast) to give the best results. It appears from Jamil's calculator that the biggest variable is when you harvest the yeast. The viability of the repitched slurry is highly dependent on when you harvest it. I'm going to give it a try with my next batch and see how it goes. I'm sure it will be fine. I've got a pressure cooker, so I can sterilize some jars, lids and water to make sure I don't capture any pathogens. I'll post how the results turn out.
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