I read a little about the vierka yeast since I was unfamiliar with them, other than the name. Apparently, according to Jack Keller's website, the yeast aren't active dry yeasts like what we're accustomed to here but instead are "cultures dried on a media of dried grape skins, seeds and pulp". Interesting.
I see a couple of online retailers here in the states that claim to carry a little. Here are a couple of places in Washington that carries
Vierka mead yeast and
Vierka mead, port, and sherry yeast.
Damn, that's just unbelievable. It seemed, thus far, that vierka yeasts were no longer available, as virtually no-one seems to stock them anymore.
Yes, I know (also from Jack Kellers site, amongst others) that if they can be obtained, vierka yeasts need to be cultured in some way to be usable, but I'm quite happy to try them if I can obtain some. I've just emailed the first of the two links to ask about shipping, because last time I looked at "morewine", their website defaulted to UPS for shipping and it quoted me something like 66$ to ship 5 sachets of Lalvin D21 - at that price, it'd have to be in recyclable solid gold packets!
I actually emailed Buckfast Abbey this morning to see if they have any further info/detail on the "maury" yeast that the late Brother Adam quoted in his writings (it's part of why I know it's nothing to do with the "mauri" company in Australia, his writing pre-date most of anything Australian
). I also got the "do you mean mauri" query from google, but as soon as I saw what "mauri" was about I just went looking elsewhere.
Again, thankyou very much for those links. If I get any reply, then I'll post back.
regards
fatbloke
p.s. it's rather ironic that it seems that vierka yeasts are German products, damn I could drive to Germany in about 5 hours (including the "Chunnel" trip). Fortunately, I know someone who home brews and happens to have a German girlfriend - who also homebrews.............