WLP 500 alternative
- Thread starter Ronster
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The Jamil show on triples says you could use a safale 56, but its the closest dry yeast. They also say just because it's close doesn't mean it's good.
Can you get a bottle of Chimay and harvest your own? That would be the best way to get it if nobody will ship.
B
Can you get a bottle of Chimay and harvest your own? That would be the best way to get it if nobody will ship.
B
SPLASTiK
Well-Known Member
No one wants to ship to Alaska? Can't say I've run into that problem before. Where abouts are you?
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Ronster
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Fairbanks, if you can find someone let me know please.
SPLASTiK
Well-Known Member
Surely Morebeer.com will ship you yeast...
If your local homebrew shop (Gold Hill?) sells Wyeast... 1214 is pretty much equal to it.
Yeast Strains
If your local homebrew shop (Gold Hill?) sells Wyeast... 1214 is pretty much equal to it.
Yeast Strains
Jamil says US-05(what it's called now) is close to wlp500? I do not believe you.
US-05 = wlp001 = wyeast 1056. Same strain, so how dose a cal ale yeast resemble a trappist yeast (chimay's I think)?
Most likely since there is so little dry yeast to choose from. If I asked for a dried apple and you didn't sell those, you could say the closest to it you carried was dried oranges and it wouldn't be false.
Evets
Well-Known Member
The closest dry yeast you'll find is Safale T-58. It may actually be pretty close to what you need. I'd try it in a pinch.
not nitpicking, but to help clarify the naming here. T-56 doesn't exist. Neither does US-56 anymore as it was close in name to wyeast 1056 so they renamed it US-05... although us-05, wlp001, wyeast 1056 are the same strain, the only difference would be when each when the company first got the strain and how much their reserves have mutated since.
Make the drive to Anchorage and spend a few days at either Sleeping Lady Brewery or the Glacier Brewhouse and get buddy buddy with their brewmasters. The guys at Sleeping Lady are really friendly and they have the largest selection of Belgians (micro and macro) I've ever seen. You might be able to talk them into helping you out with a local strain. I've made the drive from Anchorage to Delta Junction before. It's beautiful enough that you don't have to worry about the time it takes. Or you could just take the train or fly.
Man I miss that state.
Oh yeah, stay away from the Sleeping Lady "Fish On" IPA. Tastes like how a field of weeds smells.
carl spakler
Well-Known Member
Who won't ship to Alaska? Are their shipping restrictions I am unaware of to you? It might cost more, but I can't see why any vendor wouldn't ship to a US address.
Shipping is really expensive that far north and since it can take weeks to get there, the yeast may not be viable after that much time. It may not be worth it to vendors to pay that much shipping for such an inexpensive item. Or I could be just talking out of my a**. I just remember how much it was to ship our equipment up there and it was 3 days late getting there. We shipped it a week before we left.
carl spakler
Well-Known Member
The OP didn't say it was slow or expensive, he said they flat out don't ship there. Moreover, many vendors charge for shipping based on zip code, thus if the customer wants to pay it doesn't cost the vendor any more to print out a shipping label to an AK zip code.
[edit] weeks?? Midwest says 5 days to Alaska. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ship_time.asp [/edit]
Again, I was basing my reply on my previous shipping experience to Fairbanks (not beer related). I took a solid 2 weeks (calendar days) to reach the final destination. We got there before it did and we left somewhere around a week after we shipped. This was done through registered priority mail too and not standard shipping. One could use reasonable deduction to ASSUME that based on previous experience it simply may not make it before the yeast is no longer viable. If the distributors know this they MAY decide that a $6 vial of yeast isn't worth the shipping cost or the possibility of an upset customer because the product might be a no-show or DOA. Again, this is purely speculation based on a personal experience.
SPLASTiK
Well-Known Member
Did you go to Cafe Amsterdam? Pretty awesome place and selection.
Hmmmm.... I was drinking some this weekend in Haines at a Craft Beer/Homebrew festival. Myself and a few others tried it on recommendation by some other judges. We all thought it was pretty good. I think they said they got a new brewer recently.
I've yet to have a problem finding anyone to ship anything up here beer related, nor have I heard of anyone yet.
I'm kind of surprised at the 2 weeks priority mail too... I've never really had anything take more than maybe 5 calendar dates to get here priority, generally the 3-4 business days they advertise and Fairbanks gets as many airplanes into town with mail daily as we do, if not more. Regular parcel post or maybe even first class, but not priority. UPS, while always cost prohibitive but sometimes you have no choice, always in 3 business.
Pabst Blue Robot
Well-Known Member
I second the notion of culturing from a bottle of Chimay. It's a well established rumor as to the origins of the WLP500 strain...with merit.
Nope. We only had a day or two at a time in Anchorage. We had to fly out to Shemya and then to Fairbanks, so Anchorage was just the way-point between the two. So we stuck to The Glacier and Sleeping Lady since we already knew where and how good they were.
They must have really cleaned the beer up then. Last time I had Fish On was about 2 years ago and it was pretty much undrinkable. It was really green and seriously over-hopped. I know people like hoppy beers (kinda seems like a fad to me) but this tasted like they dry hopped the hell out of the beer and then bottled it with more hops.
It was a pretty bad experience since this was VERY sensitive equipment that required continuous accountability. Perhaps it was just a one-time occurrence, but after that incident we started to pay the extra baggage fees to bring it with us on the plane and to visually record when it was loaded and unloaded. If they can f*** up something that high priority, then reason tells me it can certainly happen with something low priority like yeast cultures.
carl spakler
Well-Known Member
*Anything* high priority should be hand carried if possible. Shipping companies are 99+% reliable, but when you are that ~1% it sucks!
*Anything* high priority should be hand carried if possible. Shipping companies are 99+% reliable, but when you are that ~1% it sucks!
It was company policy to ship it ahead so it wouldn't get lost by the airlines.
