The down fall of Wyeast?

So i've checked out 3 brew shops online. I order from one and the other two I checked their websites out (shopping for better suppliers). One of them carrys Wyeast and White Labs, when i click on the liquid yeast tab they automatically send me White Labs and nothing esle. The other online brew store dosn't even carry Wyeast and the third and last says refuses to carry it. When I click on their Wyeast section they have a post "Sorry Due to shipping issues and low viability compared to White Labs we no longer carry Wyeast". I've tried Wyeast and and did have an issue with one smack pack but it didn't turn me off from them. I'm just concerned that due to home brew stores not carrying or not making wyeast an option (when clicking on the liquid yeast tab on their kits) might cause a ripple effect where they start turning their customers into only using White Labs. Am I just being a conspiracy theorist or..is this a new trend that Wyeast (if anyone that works there and is reading this) should really look into?

I just went to my local shop on Wednesday, and they only had Wyeast - no White Labs. Maybe there are other factors at work.

My LHBS only sells Wyeast also. I never heard anything like this at all.

Nonsense

My lhbs, High Gravity, sells cold packs with theirs and only ships on certain days to prevent the yeast from sitting in the back of a Fedex truck or UPS warehouse over the weekend. They've got tons of yeast, check them out. I think the cold pack only adds a buck or so to the cost.

I've used Wyeast a bunch of times and I've never had a problem with them. I'd question the storage/shipping practices of that last shop that refuses to carry wyeast before I would actually question wyeast itself.

My LHBS is also a Wyeast only shop.

I sure hope not because I have only ever used Wyeast for my brews and love it!

I work with a guy that used to work at a HBS, he said he doesn't use Wyeast because of certain business practices. Stuff like their customer service reps weren't very good, their minimum shipment was bigger than WL, they wouldn't buy back old yeast like WL does, etc etc. Not a yeast quality issue but a business decisions issue.

wyeast ftw. my lhbs sells both. of course, my lhbs is northern brewer.....

i go to Northern Brewer in Milwaukee or order through their site when i can not justify driving the hour and a half for some ingredients. At the store White Labs is an option. When ordering form the site the only options are dry or Wyeast. I just got two kits from them both were upgraded to Wyeast. It took 2 days to get here. the two ice packs were warm, and the packets were too. However i just brewed an nut brown extract yesterday and activity in the airlock started 20 hours after pitching. I will continue using Wyeast that is for sure.

I felt like I was cornered by a brew shop that I will not mentioin. Since I live in Alaska $9 shipping for a 9lb kit isn't bad, its either dry yeast or liquid yeast. If i chose liquid yeast they would send me white labs and put it inside the beer kit box and shipping would be $9.00 But if i added Wyeast they would not added into the box and the shipping would go up from $9.00 to $14.00..found it odd.

FWIW, I just checked 3 of my go-to online places (Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, Brewmasterswarehouse) and they all have Wyeast availalbe.

You can get most strains via the 'other' brand (White Labs or Wyeast). I use both and haven't had bad luck with either, although I must admit I've used Wyeast at least 10x more often than White (my LHBS only carries Wyeast). If what was posted earlier is true about Wyeast not treating the merchants as well as White then that seems to be a reasonable explanation. If true and if I were a merchant I'd prob try to steer everyone to White as well. It will prob catch up to one or the other at some point in time (whether it's White for going 'too far' or Wyeast for not going 'far enough' with the merchants).

I use dry yeast and wyeast. The majority of the people I know that brew use wyeast. They may have a bad sales rep.

My LHBS sells the out dated wyeast at 50%. Its a good deal if you make starters or like to culture yeast.

FYI - According to wyeast or Northern Brewer, when you look at the mfg date on package incubate the yeast 1 day for each month of age. They are saying that you can maximize the yeast pitching rate, if you smack it and let it sit for so many days. (This assumes you are just using the smack-pack, no-starter)

I only do this for the old ones I get. 90% of the time they are swelled up in 4 hours or less. If you can plan ahead do so.

I've heard the Wyeast stories at one of the LHBS, mostly relating to poor viability and the lack of support in those cases. Don't know if it's true or not but I don't buy from them anymore (the website still shows them having both). My preferred LHBS (brewbrothers) carries both. Just used Denny's Fav 50 and had zero issues.

I actually prefer the White labs tubes only because I like to see the yeast I am buying, not that it makes much difference.

I think the instructions on the smack pack say to let it sit for a few days anyway.

This is the home brewer that refuses to carry Wyeast this page is their Wyeast page on their liquid yeast page..or what used to be. It contains explanation.

http://www.mainbrew.com/pages/beerpages/ingredientpgs/wyeast.html

Homebrewers.com is the website that wants to charge me extra shipping for adding wyeast isntead of going with whatever stock liquid strain they want to send me with the kit (which will always be white labs)
and Brew your own beer right out dosn't carry Wyeast.

That is very odd. I use both. I have one HB shop that carries only Wyeast, and two others that carry both. I have never had a problem with Wyeast, although I prefer White Labs for the simplicity and smaller footprint of the tube. I hate trying to figure out if I got the inner bag popped or not on the smack pack. With White labs you just sanitize the tube, shake it up, and pour it in. I make starters anyway so the swelling of the Wyeast to tell me if the yeast is good is not a big selling point for me. Still no problems with Wyeast quality when I do use it which is maybe 30% of the time.

tenchu_11 said:

This is the home brewer that refuses to carry Wyeast this page is their Wyeast page on their liquid yeast page..or what used to be. It contains explanation.

http://www.mainbrew.com/pages/beerpages/ingredientpgs/wyeast.html

Homebrewers.com is the website that wants to charge me extra shipping for adding wyeast isntead of going with whatever stock liquid strain they want to send me with the kit (which will always be white labs)
and Brew your own beer right out dosn't carry Wyeast.

Click to expand...

That's the LHBS I was referring to - they suck so I would not rely too much on what they say. They sold me some equipment and then one of the owners denied selling it to me saying they had not stocked that model in years. At that time they were the only LHBS I had ever been in, so where did it come from ?

Just sounds like a *****ey HBS to me. I wouldn't concern yourself with their opinions. Their reasons for whining on their site may actually have more layers that they are not explaining.

I was just concerned for Wyeast since its seemed most of the brew stores my google search came with would preffer customers to White Labs in their kits. Granted both shops that I was considering using where from Arizona that being homebrewers.com and BYOB..thanks for the heads up don't think i'll ever use mainbrew.com.

My conclusion Arizona hates Wyeast..simple explanation

tenchu_11 said:

My conclusion Arizona hates Wyeast..simple explanation

Click to expand...

Maybe they learned the yeasts in Wyeast are in the country illegally without a green card.

Probably though customers where asking for "Wayes"....not sure how its spelled but mexicans males call each other ways maning like idiot or something around that but they say it in every other word... way to get off subject

I'm afraid that the OP is an example of a faulty generalization from a single instance.

kanepole said:

i go to Northern Brewer in Milwaukee or order through their site when i can not justify driving the hour and a half for some ingredients. At the store White Labs is an option. When ordering form the site the only options are dry or Wyeast. I just got two kits from them both were upgraded to Wyeast. It took 2 days to get here. the two ice packs were warm, and the packets were too. However i just brewed an nut brown extract yesterday and activity in the airlock started 20 hours after pitching. I will continue using Wyeast that is for sure.

Click to expand...

You can get White Labs on their site:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...484703e937cd873efb14ddab&yst_manufacturer=170

I think that the default for the kit upgrades just happens to be Wyeast. I am sure you can sub if requested/desired.

Only big online store that I know of that does not carry both is MoreBeer, they only carry White Labs. To bad for them too, they have lost a number of orders from me because I was looking to order something that only Wyeast had.

i hear what ur saying about the wyeast ive only had one pack that didn't activate on me however i love them for the fact that their cultured from the brewery and if they dont inflate u now u got bad viability i take.
however "Is it a conspiracy probably not",
Sign of bad management and staff IMO however their website is good and have a very well put together faq not to mention u can return them to the company themselves i believe.

Forgot where I read the Yeast Brackets But White Labs yeast where used in American Brewerys (or where they came from i forgot) Wyeast was all over the place. From all over europe. Seems alot more diverse either way both are great companies it just seemed that the brew shops i was looking at didn't favor Wyeast them well.

I will defend mainstreet brewer store that was discussed earlier in the post. Some people did say that Wyeast wasn't a very customer friendly company. Has anyone heard such rumors reffering to white labs?

lurker18 said:

My LHBS is also a Wyeast only shop.

Click to expand...

I've got Wyeast or Dry yeast (hey, that rhymes!) at my LHBS

So I went over to my LHBS over lunch, The Brew Hut a/k/a Heaven, and asked them about this. The guy looked at me like I was crazy and chuckled a little bit. He said he's never heard anything about it and uses Wyeast himself in almost all of his brews.

Niether of the two HBS in Eugene had the strain I wanted for my Belgian Lambic. Had to order online!!

I don't believe what that site says about the nutrient pack not being ruptured properly and the product leaking. I smack those suckers so hard it would knock someone out and I've never had one rupture. I use White Labs or Wyeast, depending on what the recipe calls for.

My LHBS caries both White Labs and Wyeast. I usually go for Wyeast because of the option to smack the pack which at least gives you some indication of the state of the pack (a swelled pack doesn't indicate good yeast, but one that doesn't swell is guarantied to be bad). I've hit a bad pack of 1968 yeast once but that could have been due to many factors like the LHBS not storing it properly, a delivery problem or just improper usage by my part. Overall, I'm very satisfied with Wyeast and by the way the LHBS is stocked, I'd say the owner agrees with me.

My LHBS only carries dry and Wyeast, so that is what I use. I never have had a problem with either yeasts. I love Wyeast but I do not discriminate against yeasts. I would use White Labs, if the shop had them.

We need some affirmative action here. For every five beers brewed one whitelabs yeast must be used.

If you read the LHBS website you'll see that the guy sounds a little like a ******. Everyone else in the our area carries Wyeast and seems to do fine with them, why is only this LHBS having troubles?

Think from now on I will go out of my way just to get Wyeast, nothing againts whitelabs but friday nights are my brew nights (usually make a starter Wednesday). I love beating the crap out of the smack pack while yelling my bosse's name.

I'd be wary of anyone who said Wyeast has viability issues... I think the issue would be a lot more widespread than one shop, especially one so close to their headquarters.

Viva la WLP!

as stated many times in this thread, my lhbs carries both.