stpug
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- Nov 5, 2012
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Where the heck do you buy your yeast? That is way expensive. You can get US-05 for $3.29 a pack at Northern Brewer. Figure half a pound extract for a starter at about $1.80 and you are looking at either $6.58 for 2 packs of yeast or $5.09 for one with a starter. You don't even need more than one pack in most cases. For $1.50 I am not messing around with a starter.
From my LHBS. I don't live anywhere near Northern Brewer or Midwest or Austin or Rebel or Farmhouse or .... well you get the idea. I think you'll find that most of us lowly folk, living in the nether regions of the US, are not as fortunate as you are to get cheap yeast . If I factored in shipping on a sachet of yeast I'd be looking at a really ridiculous price.
Just called my LHBS, US05 is $3.50 and Nottingham is $4.50. I feel much better knowing they're at least somewhat competitive.
I use 3.4 oz of dme for a 1L starter. Even if the pound of DME cost me $5, I'd be looking at about $1.06, plus a liquid yeast ($7), for a grand total of $8.06. If I buy two sachets of dry yeast for a 1.075 batch then I'm looking at $7 for US05 or $9 for Notty. And, like I said, with liquid I get many more options to tailor my beer.
I guess we're different . I love making starters. I love ranching yeast. I've got 10 strains frozen (25 vials of ~90b cells each). I've got new 2 strains in my fridge ready for freezing. I've got two more new strains in my fridge that I'm building to freezing status (conan is spinning right now ). I've brewed two beers with my frozen yeast that both turned out great. And, I've got two fermenters full with yeast I will be harvesting. That'll make 16 strains of yeast to play with or pass along.
I guess this really is a hobby. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it