"New" Nottingham with a price increase?

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enderwig

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I don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but I just read this over at ProBrewer, and thought that I would pass it on.
Apparently, Nottingham has been reformulated, and the price has been tripled. The pro brewers have figured out that it is now much cheaper for them to go clean out a homebrew shop of sachets than to purchase the 1/2 kilo bricks.
Anyway, here is the link, read the whole thread
Nottingham price increase
 
Have you seen the price of Safale-05 as well? Austin Homebrew is selling it for $3.39 while Nottingham is $1.59.

I have not seen Notty go up in price yet, but Safale basically doubled in price..
 
Have you seen the price of Safale-05 as well? Austin Homebrew is selling it for $3.39 while Nottingham is $1.59.

I have not seen Notty go up in price yet, but Safale basically doubled in price..

Yeah, I noticed that the Safale 05 is up, but I also haven't seen a price increase in nottingham. Im sure its coming though because the posts I refered to over on probrewer are from a lallemand rep.
 
Well, dry yeast users have had a decent excuse for a long time but it's getting harder to justify. Also, anyone who still thinks yeast propagation is a waste of time is going to think a bit harder now.
 
I just built up a WLP029 for 15 gallons of my Kolsch with enough left over for saving two vials. The three Kolsch yeast cakes will be used for 15 gallons of my Oktoberfest Ale, so I should get a minimum of a dozen 5 gallon batches from one vial, thus making it about 58 cents per batch for yeast.

Time to start canning all grain wort for starters.
 
Yeah, I've started saving yeast too.

I didn't until now because I thought it was going to be a pain, but it really isn't.

And it's kind of fun "stickin' it to the man." :D
 
I could start saving yeast at that too. Liquid yeast is a significant fraction of malt cost for all but a big beer. Dry was lower, enough to make washing yeast not worth the trouble, but if it's shooting up I'll change my approach.
 
What R&D...yeast makes itself...what R&D...WTF?? :mad:

I think we all should write to them and tell them what we think and that from now on we can't afford their prices and will propagate our own...I know I do.

I have about 1/2 gal of Notty in the fridge right now...by bartering we can supply the entire forum without much problem which equals no profit for them...:D
 
What R&D...yeast makes itself...what R&D...WTF?? :mad:

I won't deny there is R&D involved in yeast. There's a lot of work that goes into making new strains with better characteristics, into making new strains available in dry forms, into making old strains more reliable for heavy use and reuse, etc. I'm new in the brewing hobby, but it sounds like the variety of yeast available to the brewer is an ever evolving thing, and something has to pay for the

All the same, a sudden tripling of pricing for an existing strain (even an improved one) that they apparently were selling at a profit to start: that's a bit fishier. Increased energy costs could explain some, but not all. The cost of improvements could as well, but how much price increase does that need, and how great is the improvement? The thread seemed to imply that the new formulation can be repitched more times without losing its characteristics than the old, so it might be banking on breweries buying it less often. Which makes sense, but (I think) most home brewers don't reuse their dry yeasts that many times. Yet, at least. :)

On the up side, such widely used and neutral yeasts as Nottingham and S-05 becoming more expensive isn't necessarily bad from my perspective: a yeast that I'm liable to use in a lot of different brews is attractive to wash and keep anyway, as opposed to something more specialized that I might not use again in the near future. As a result, if it costs more, I'll buy less - like most ingredient cost issues it doesn't impact me as much as it would a professional brewer. It's still inconvenient, though. And you raise a good point that they should be made aware their products are popular in large part for being so economical, and changing the price will change the popularity.
 
Washing Liquid Yeast FTW. I don't churn out as many batches as you guys do, but it's cool for the next entire year at the minimum I don't have to buy ANY kind of American Ale yeast at all.

If it comes down to it, I can wash re-used yeast and buy myself another couple months or so.

You can save yourself a fortune.

You also get to call it your "house yeast" which is pretty sweet.

And I'm sure the super brewers on here can combine yeasts with dominate characteristics and begin to really personalize their brews. I don't know yeast dynamics well enough for that.

Notty really kicks ass though solely because it's $1.49. If that price triples I'll pick up Cooper's Ale, or Cooper's Lager yeast. That stuff is friggin 75% attenuation ALL the time. It's not going to get crazy showing off malt flavor, but it makes solid beer.
 
Hmmm...my LHBS still has them both for $1.95 a pack. Wondering if I should stock up.

As an aside, I've been top cropping ale yeasts from the Better Bottle during active fermentations. This has worked well so far with 2565, 3068, 3333 & 1762. Definitely less work than yeast washing.
 
Have you seen the price of Safale-05 as well? Austin Homebrew is selling it for $3.39 while Nottingham is $1.59.

I have not seen Notty go up in price yet, but Safale basically doubled in price..

I noticed a similar increase at Brewmaster's Warehouse. Maybe Danstar and Fermentis are realizing that liquid yeast is not so much better than dry yeast, thereby increasing the prices. Just a theory...
 
Yep, Brewmaster and Williams Brewing just jumped Safale-05 to $2.45.

Morebeer and Northern Brewer have it for $2.25

Midwest has it for $2.75

You can google it and still find places selling it as low as $1.75 a packet, that is till their existing stock sells out, then I bet their prices go up.
 
I bought 6 US-05 and 3 Nottys for $1.95 from the LHBS.
As I was being rung up, I asked the very knowledgeable guy about price increases, and he hadn't heard a thing.
 
I've been playing around with making starters lately. Maybe it's time to get serious about storing some away for future batches. I've been building up some Bell's yeast for my Pale ales.
 
Well, that settles it!! My yeast farming is now fully justified and my current stock of US-05 and Notty will be kept in the frig for emergencies only. There use for convenience only is over.

I fully expect that liquid yeast prices will rise as well. No reason that Wyeast and White Labs will not jump on this bandwagon.

Next year my hops will be second year and I can hope to save there as well.:rockin:
 
Prices on our end have increased, slightly with Nottingham, and ~double for US-05. I kept the prices as low as I could, and only increased my prices after all of the majors had increased their prices. Then in a week we sold through about a month's worth of both Notty and US-05, and I had no choice but to respond to the price increases.

As EdWort has pointed out if you see US-05 for under 2 bucks a packet stock up on them, as that price will go away once the store restocks and notices the price has gone up.
 
As these products have been around in their current form for many years, the increases are purely gouging and taking up the gap between liquid and the old dry prices.

Yeah, tell them how much we don't like and then just change the addressee and send it to the Middle East-same result in each case.

At least you can save yeast and propagate.
 
Would it be ok to use yeast cakes that have hop sediment in it?
 
I just stumbled across these widgets called "Bottle Preforms" - I think this is the type of container that White labs uses for their Liquid Yeasts:

Soda Bottle Preforms and Caps at Educational Innovations

BTW, you can find them cheaper on flea-bay and some other sites so shop around...

These appeal to me - just seemed like a cheap and non-breakable way to bank yeastie beasties. Now I'm wondering a little about O2 permeability, would that affect long-term yeast viability I wonder?


- Mike
 
I just stumbled across these widgets called "Bottle Preforms" - I think this is the type of container that White labs uses for their Liquid Yeasts:

Soda Bottle Preforms and Caps at Educational Innovations

BTW, you can find them cheaper on flea-bay and some other sites so shop around...

These appeal to me - just seemed like a cheap and non-breakable way to bank yeastie beasties. Now I'm wondering a little about O2 permeability, would that affect long-term yeast viability I wonder?


- Mike

Pretty sweet idea. 30 with caps for $15 though.

sm100a.jpg
 
I just stumbled across these widgets called "Bottle Preforms" - I think this is the type of container that White labs uses for their Liquid Yeasts:

Soda Bottle Preforms and Caps at Educational Innovations

BTW, you can find them cheaper on flea-bay and some other sites so shop around...

These appeal to me - just seemed like a cheap and non-breakable way to bank yeastie beasties. Now I'm wondering a little about O2 permeability, would that affect long-term yeast viability I wonder?


- Mike

Those are made for " blowing up" into a regular soda bottle. I am pretty sure they are not autoclaveable. I don't think I would even steam sterilize them, they will probably melt, since they are just soda bottle plastic.
 
I read that Pacman is a mutant of Nottingham, so drink a Rogue and get some yeast. I'm liking bottle harvesting more and more anyway. Just picked up the Kellerweis from Sierra Nevada for the yeast. Maybe we need to get that yeast harvesting spreadsheet in house and start updating it.

-OCD
 
i dont get why whitelabs and wyeast dont make all there yeasts into dry yeasts?even if for $5 a pack

it appears to be cheaper, by the selling price of us05 and notty..

it had a much longer shelf life....

it doesnt require a starter in most cases....

less temperature controll needed during storage...

why not more dry versions?
 
i dont get why whitelabs and wyeast dont make all there yeasts into dry yeasts?even if for $5 a pack

it appears to be cheaper, by the selling price of us05 and notty..

it had a much longer shelf life....

it doesnt require a starter in most cases....

less temperature controll needed during storage...

why not more dry versions?

Most yeasts don't take well to dehydration, that's why there is such a variety in liquid yeasts as compared to dry yeasts.
 
EdWort wrote:
Time to start canning all grain wort for starters.

I just canned 47 pint starters at 1.080 (add 50% water to get 1 quart of 1.040 or a bit more to get 1 liter at 1.035) Used for step 2 on my yeast farm starter or step 1 on White Labs/Wyeast starter.

I also canned 36 starters in 8 oz jelly jars for my yeast farm step one starter.

Also I just noticed that Nottingham was still at $1.59 at AHS and I ordered another 12 packs. Gotta stock up at that price. No harm if it doesn't.

Stocking up! I am beginning to feel like a survivalist!:rockin:
 
Yeah. I noticed the steep increase in 05 and figured it was just a matter of time before Notty followed. Looks like the better dry yeasts have finally gotten good enough to fetch
a premium.:( This is good incentive to look into yeast washing.
 
Last trip to the LHS I bought S-04 for $3.50 and Notty for $1.89.

I use liquid yeast, but have tried the dry.

David
 
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