I have watched and shook my head, watched and shook my head. I have seen certain vendors here 'take the devils advocate' side by trying to silence home brewer's publicly question the quality and state their experience with this yeast, even when there have been previous ACKNOWLEDGED issues with the yeast, so when they look dubious they have taught squelching controversy to preserve their bottom line.
I have advocated using S-05 or at least S-04 without trying to weigh in amidst the guys who slash and burn and flame those that reported problems, by insinuating it was all them, their practices or their luck, just because they themselves had not experienced it.
Had a larger majority of home brewers taken due caution and boycotted when controversy arose, I suspect that these issues woulda, coulda, shoulda been taken care of far quicker and with far less damage to the other home brewer's pocket books. There was ample cause for concern and leeriness from way back.
Shame on those that kicked rather than listened. Shame on those that counseled for quiet and chastised to not allow public experience statements.
Okay, I'll bite!
There were quite a number of people who said anyone having an issue needed to be clear they were having a problem. People were making statements like, my yeast was sticking to the package so Notty is therefore bad. Well, I'm sorry, that's hardly proof of anything. What MOST of the people that were questioning this issue were saying, and I was absolutely one of them, is that there was an awful lot of stuff being posted on here, and no where else about this problem, and not everyone seemed to be reporting the issues they were having to the manufacturer. Anyone who said anything like, you sure this isn't a problem with your process were shouted down real quickly in that other thread. In fact, Dwarven was the only one to stick it out.
In the end the manufacturer issues a recall in which they state and I quote,
"Internal tests conducted on a cross-section of sachets of this batch over several weeks have indicated normal performance, but given the widespread geographical nature of the comments being received, we feel it is best to ask retailers and distributors to return any inventory of this specific batch rather than risk brewers having a negative experience with our products."
So, in essence they can find NOTHING wrong with this product, but they are recalling the product because they are getting enough complaints that they don't want anyone to feel like they aren't confident in using. I believe this shows they are trying to go above and beyond what should be necessary, to make their customers happy. Good for them!
EDIT: Just a housekeeping issue to keep the site running smoothly, I'm wondering if there is a way to combine this thread with the larger Notty thread?