$12 dry yeast for beer?

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
madscientist451

madscientist451

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 10, 2014
Messages
5,980
Reaction score
3,892
Location
Bedford
Just noticed in my email, N. Brewer now has White Labs dry Cal Ale yeast, but it’s $12. If you were in sales, what would you say to a brewer to persuade them to spend more for this yeast compared to all the other dry yeast choices out there. I used to use all WL liquid yeast, but the cost has turned me off and now I just go with dry yeast unless it’s a real special project. $12 seems pretty ridiculous to me.
 
It's likely that the phrase "$12 seems pretty ridiculous" would cause sales people to politely move along to a different topic.

I've used WLP001 dry recently. I see advantages vs US-05 and BRY-97. But with a starting point of price for the discussion, it seems like the best approach is to save my keystrokes for a future topic.
 
"Stand and deliver, your money or your life"?

adam ant 80s GIF
 
madscientist451 said:
If you were in sales, what would you say to a brewer to persuade them to spend more for this yeast compared to all the other dry yeast choices out there.
Click to expand...
One crazy hack big yeast companies don’t want you to know……the big yeast conspiracy tells you to buy new yeast every time….crazy….but with our revolutionary dry yeast you can re-pitch this yeast at least 5 times saving you thousands of dollars!!! 💥
 
madscientist451 said:
Just noticed in my email, N. Brewer now has White Labs dry Cal Ale yeast, but it’s $12. If you were in sales, what would you say to a brewer to persuade them to spend more for this yeast compared to all the other dry yeast choices out there.
Click to expand...
There's been a couple of threads on dry WLP001, including this one, where I posted White Labs' own comparison of dry vs wet :
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...yeast-coming-soon.725202/page-3#post-10252804

Part of it is that's just how the pricing comes out after both they and Lallemand have taken their margin, I think it's mostly them just getting some made by Lallemand whilst they see how it goes down and whether it's worth their while to invest the $$$$ in their own drying kit.

But I think there's two main target markets - the people for whom White Labs/WLP001 are such a strong brand that they will buy dry WLP001 over US-05 at pretty much any price. And there's another distinct group, who may not love White Labs so much as a brand, but are effectively locked into it by SOPs/recipes that they just can't change, and which would like the convenience of dry yeast.

And I guess the people who don't like the sometime peachiness of US-05, which WLP001 doesn't seem to suffer from.

But yeah, the pricing makes no sense to normal people....
 
Northern_Brewer said:
Part of it is that's just how the pricing comes out after both they and Lallemand have taken their margin
Click to expand...

Agreed - having Lallemand produce White Labs' dry yeast has to require significant compensation to Lallemand for the effort. And White Labs may have also decided to increase their profit margins at the same time for a "premium" dry yeast product for their fan base...

Cheers!
 
BrewnWKopperKat said:
It's likely that the phrase "$12 seems pretty ridiculous" would cause sales people to politely move along to a different topic.

I've used WLP001 dry recently. I see advantages vs US-05 and BRY-97. But with a starting point of price for the discussion, it seems like the best approach is to save my keystrokes for a future topic.
Click to expand...
Huh?
 
High cost is a valid complaint.

Sharing actual experiences with various Chico strains so that personas can make better decisions based on value might be more interesting than comparison shopping results. 🤷‍♀️

eta: as I mentioned above, based on what I'm seeing with actually using WLP001 dry, I see added value in WLP001 (vs US-05 or BRY-97). Is it $6 or $9 more? I haven't decided yet (and everyone gets to decide that on their own as well). Would I consider making some type of starter to reduce total cost? Maybe.
 
Airborneguy said:
Why isn’t the high price a valid complaint?
Click to expand...

It is. WL found a way to re-market a basic, everyday strain and slap a big price tag on it.

What's old is new again.

I'm sure some people with better taste buds than mine can tell them apart, but to me, Chico is Chico. I get all the mileage I need from a 3 buck packet of US-05.
 
MaxStout said:
It is. WL found a way to re-market a basic, everyday strain and slap a big price tag on it.

What's old is new again.

I'm sure some people with better taste buds than mine can tell them apart, but to me, Chico is Chico. I get all the mileage I need from a 3 buck packet of US-05.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Wouldn’t even consider it.
 
Context matters. It's WLP001. If you're a White Labs fanboy, $12 for the dry is a steal compared to $20 for the pure pitch liquid. And NB charges $6.49 for a pack of US-05.
 
Wonder if Brulosphy would do an exbeeriment with dry WL vs us-05 and see if anyone can notice the difference in a triangle test?
 
madscientist451 said:
Wonder if Brulosphy would do an exbeeriment with dry WL vs us-05 and see if anyone can notice the difference in a triangle test?
Click to expand...
"We brewed a stout with WL dry yeast and an IPA with US-05. We did not achieve statistical significance. The null was affirmed." :)
 
If I had to pay $12 for a standard stingy 11g pack of dry brewer’s yeast, here’s what I’d do. Make a starter using 1g yeast, store the rest dry, then harvest and repitch a few to several times. In theory, more than 70 ferments out of a little 11g pack of dry yeast. Do the biology. Let’s be honest, any home brewer, not just those of us who spend several hours making a batch of FV wort on brew day, is more than capable of spending about 10 minutes hands-on time to make an occasional starter. That’ll learn marketing people and potentially save some home brewers as much as $840.
 
Last edited:
but but but ... even with a starter, the yeast cost would still be more than five times more expensive than US-05 ($12.95 vs $2.49) ;)

The good news is that there are UT videos and/or information sheets from both Fermentis and Lallemand on how to do starters with dry yeast.

Maybe the marketing people have a good understanding of how their product is used. 🤷‍♂️

As for taste experiments, a number of the differences I think I'm seeing (vs US-05, Apex San Diego, BRY-97) are fermentation characteristics. One of characteristics may be due to process changes (I haven't brewed with US-05 for a while).
 
Lallemand's "make a starter" with Diamond Lager document is over in their "best practices" library. There should be a link to it on the strain's product information page.

The UT videos presentations / chats were from 2021/2022. I don't have specific links, but people would ask about making starters and/or re-using yeast. The answer was "yes, you can" (and in some cases "here's where you can read more about it".
 
Last edited:
Because White Labs.

The pricing on their new packs is crazy IMHO, especially here in Canada where I'm sure the LHBS pays a premium for shipping.

Lots of other options these days.
 
Lutra Kveik was in this ballpark last time I looked for it. You have to wonder why one yeast costs more than another. It's not like they can't grow more. I assume there is a reason.
 
Maybe they're trying to go out of business. I often wonder if the multi-billion dollar company I work for is trying to squeeze as much money as they can out of us for a couple more years before they just shut us down even though under proper management we could remain profitable for another century.
 
Last edited:
It makes perfect sense, from a perspective of greed and shareholder value at any cost to the customer. Shop around. Adapt. It’s only yeast at the end of the day. They all do more or less the same thing. Ferment sugar to alcohol. Pick one and keep it alive in a jam jar or something. If you brew Saisons, pick a Saison yeast. Lagers, pick a Lager yeast. English ales, pick an English ale yeast. And so on.
 
McMullan said:
They all do more or less the same thing.
Click to expand...
... and perhaps there enough 'something' in the 'more' or the 'less' that makes a specific yeast product more valuable.

But forum wisdom has spoken: it's too expensive.

McMullan said:
Shop around. Adapt.
Click to expand...
Maybe the discussion on features occur later 🤷‍♂️, maybe here or maybe else where. 🤷‍♀️
 

Similar threads

F
Liquid yeast - am I missing something?
2 3
Replies
98
Views
3K
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
mongoose33
Oxygenating Dry Yeast issue
Replies
9
Views
992
Red over White
Red over White
rtstrider
Cellarscience Baja Experiences
2
Replies
50
Views
6K
rtstrider
rtstrider
camonick
Question about new White Labs “Next Generation” yeast packets.
2
Replies
48
Views
4K
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
day_trippr
"Designer Yeast" strains coming to beers near you
Replies
24
Views
2K
DuncB
D

Latest posts

Back
Top