Is it my imagination or has the cost of yeast gone up a lot recently?
Cost of yeast increased lately?
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A lot of it has, yes. I counter that with using other types. CellarScience has a lot of good dry yeast at a lower price.
Liquid yeast has almost doubled in the 7 years I've been brewing. I use more dry yeast than I ever did.
Also, learn to make starters and harvest some for future batches. I routinely get about 7 batches per 1 liquid smack pack. I get fresh yeast just to be sure, even though I've never really felt any changes among subsequent batches.
Also, learn to make starters and harvest some for future batches. I routinely get about 7 batches per 1 liquid smack pack. I get fresh yeast just to be sure, even though I've never really felt any changes among subsequent batches.
Carolina_Matt
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What yeast do use use? I just ordered some dry yeast from Ritebrew on Tuesday. Safale US05 was $2.79. It was the same price when I ordered in May 2022. It was $2.89 in January 2019 so it's actually gone down. I buy at least 10 packets at a time and get a 40 cent discount, which offsets shipping.
They used to sell Cellar Science but haven't in a while. And unfortunately Verdant is out of stock so I got some New England IPA yeast instead.
They used to sell Cellar Science but haven't in a while. And unfortunately Verdant is out of stock so I got some New England IPA yeast instead.
it went up a lot a couple few years ago. Not sure if the covid crap drove an increase in brewing or just the insane inflation.
Have not bought any in a while. Did it make another huge jump?
Really liking yeast harvesting to cut the costs. And bought a brick of US-05 a while back and barely touched it since I've been harvesting.
Have not bought any in a while. Did it make another huge jump?
Really liking yeast harvesting to cut the costs. And bought a brick of US-05 a while back and barely touched it since I've been harvesting.
How do you define "recently"? I don't know about Canada, but I have seen a steady rise in homebrewing prices and yeast prices, that probably tracks close to general inflation here in the US.
For dry yeast, you can find lower prices online, but some Fermentis yeast (W-34/70 comes to mind) seem to have jumped up several dollars. Lallemand is introducing quite a few dry strains that sell in the $8 range (or more for some unusual strains). The dry strains from White Labs and Omega's Lutra are often $10+.
For liquid yeast, I have seen packs from Omega, Imperial, and Wyeast jump a few dollars. White Labs just switched over to a larger pack size, and nearly doubled the price per pack ($15 at my local shop, but I have seen it at prices close to $20 per pack).
Even if I can find yeast a few dollars cheaper online, I do try to spend a good percentage of my budget on grain and yeast at my local shop. I am mostly using dry yeast these days and have a few strains that I harvest and repitch. When I do want a pack of liquid yeast in the middle of the summer, my local shop is a much better option for me than mail order.
*The cost of EVERYTHING has gone up, a lot.
From some places, dry yeast is priced about where liquid yeast was 11 years ago when I started brewing. US-05 is $6.49 at MW/NB.
Yet, Ritebrew sells it for $2.79, which shows how the markups are at many sellers.
Everything brew-related has spiraled up. Craft breweries near me charge $7-$8 for a 12 oz. shaker "pint" of standard beers like pale ales, etc. I was in one recently that was charging $9. Another brewery sells 750ml bottles of their barrel-aged stout for $34. That's close to the price I'd pay for 12 year single malt.
Yet, Ritebrew sells it for $2.79, which shows how the markups are at many sellers.
Everything brew-related has spiraled up. Craft breweries near me charge $7-$8 for a 12 oz. shaker "pint" of standard beers like pale ales, etc. I was in one recently that was charging $9. Another brewery sells 750ml bottles of their barrel-aged stout for $34. That's close to the price I'd pay for 12 year single malt.
A couple months ago I found an old cache of BYOs while I was doing some deep cleaning. Here's an ad from shortly after they transitioned from being Beer, Beer, and More Beer, to B3, to MoreBeer. I texted this picture to a buddy of mine on the day that I found the cache, I don't remember the exact date but it was published around 2010--back when Northern Brewer and MoreBeer had each broken from the pack and were fighting fiercely with each other for primacy...."New lower prices!!!!"
Those were good times to be a brewer.
A couple suggestions: 1) Like Max says, use Ritebrew for dry yeast. Their yeast is always significantly cheaper than other outfits and is never close to the sell-by date--not that the sell-by matters much for dried yeast. 2) Learn to reuse your yeast, it really is as simple as buying some ball jars and having a small bucket of Star-San available (that bucket can last for months--never throw out Star-San unless it's disgusting!). Reusing your yeast is so cheap and so easy! Just do it!
All-in I spend about 20-30 bucks on yeast each year, but that's because I don't like running a strain past 6 generations. I've dumped many cakes that were in their prime because of this rule. That said, I've run them out far longer than that, but I just don't see the point in doing it any more. I prefer running a strain for a year then starting again with a new pitch. Yeast is cheap enough to do that. Frankly, I'm more concerned with the skyrocketing cost of imported malt.
Those were good times to be a brewer.
A couple suggestions: 1) Like Max says, use Ritebrew for dry yeast. Their yeast is always significantly cheaper than other outfits and is never close to the sell-by date--not that the sell-by matters much for dried yeast. 2) Learn to reuse your yeast, it really is as simple as buying some ball jars and having a small bucket of Star-San available (that bucket can last for months--never throw out Star-San unless it's disgusting!). Reusing your yeast is so cheap and so easy! Just do it!
All-in I spend about 20-30 bucks on yeast each year, but that's because I don't like running a strain past 6 generations. I've dumped many cakes that were in their prime because of this rule. That said, I've run them out far longer than that, but I just don't see the point in doing it any more. I prefer running a strain for a year then starting again with a new pitch. Yeast is cheap enough to do that. Frankly, I'm more concerned with the skyrocketing cost of imported malt.
I've always ignored the idea of reusing yeast, but I might have to give it some thought. Probably not for the lower-cost strains, like US-05, S-04, etc. At <$3, I'm not too concerned about those.
But lager yeast is more expensive, and pitching multiple packs costs as much as the grain. I'm a big fan of S-189, but it's $8 at NB. Even on Ritebrew it's close to 5 bucks. Last time I used it I pitched 3 packs.
Winter lager season is coming...
But lager yeast is more expensive, and pitching multiple packs costs as much as the grain. I'm a big fan of S-189, but it's $8 at NB. Even on Ritebrew it's close to 5 bucks. Last time I used it I pitched 3 packs.
Winter lager season is coming...
BrewnWKopperKat
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"Lallemand Brewing's Best Practices Propagation with Diamond Lager Yeast" (link to Diamond lager page & link to the process (pdf))
VikeMan
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"Sanitation is primordial"
That said, I was very pleasantly surprised to see (in the .pdf) Lallemand recommending a specific pitch rate in terms of cells / mL / °P instead of a dumbed down (and nearly useless) "one pack good for up to X gallons of wort" which ignores actual volume and gravity. Good job, Lallemand.
I was recently in a brewery in West Virginia. Two pints and a 4-pack of IPA to go...$21 before tip. I had to do a double take to make sure they got everything. Here in Northern Virginia, $9 pints and $20 4-packs are way too common.
As far as yeast, Label Peelers is another good source especially if you only want a couple pack. The price is not as low as RiteBrew, but the price does include free first class shipping on yeast. When I needed 3 packs of W-34/70 last year, they were the best price I could find shipped to my door. (I wonder if RiteBrew was out at the time, because looking now, RiteBrew is cheaper even with the $3.50 shipping cost.)
The nice thing is that most of my recipes get tweaked for stuff that is either much cheaper or already on hand. Coupled with discount yeast and slurry harvesting, it becomes a very negligible cost across my brewing.
Without getting crazy, I'll build up a starter for a 10 gallon batch, and harvest 1-2 quarts (each sufficient for another 10 gallon batch) from each 6 gallon fermenter. That's 30-50 gallons of beer per yeast pack! I'm currently ripping through two packs of Omega yeast DIPA Ale and German Lager that I got from Brewhardware for $2 each nearly a year ago.
Without getting crazy, I'll build up a starter for a 10 gallon batch, and harvest 1-2 quarts (each sufficient for another 10 gallon batch) from each 6 gallon fermenter. That's 30-50 gallons of beer per yeast pack! I'm currently ripping through two packs of Omega yeast DIPA Ale and German Lager that I got from Brewhardware for $2 each nearly a year ago.
