Yeast Lab Service

[evanos]

Hey HBTers!

It's been a long time since I've been on here. School has been pretty crazay.

Anywho, I was wondering if someone was to offer basic yeast lab services, what kind of goods and services would you expect? I've finally gotten some basic equipment and wouldn't mind culture yeast, prepping slants, plating out strains, or whatever else you might want done to preserve and multiply your personal yeast supplies.

I'd love to hear some ideas!

Cheers!

Evan

 

[Nateo]

If someone is the kind of person interested in slanting and storing yeast, they probably have the drive and ability to do it themselves. So if they have the ability and equipment to do it themselves, you would need better abilities and equipment to be competitive.

I could see it working if you can propagate and ship a yeast in a very short time-frame on demand. You're competing with all the home yeast labbers, and all the brew stores selling yeast. You would need to be able to get a better product into people's hands quickly.

The biggest problem doing it on a homebrew scale is volume. How much will it cost you in your time and effort? How much will shipping cost? Will people pay $20 or $30 for a pitch of yeast?

Yeast labs are geared toward pro brewers because they have economies of scale working in their favor. A single pitch for a brewery might make hundreds of dollars for the yeast lab, but I can't see many, if any, homebrewers paying $50 for a single pitch.

 

[smokinghole]

One of the things you'd need for serious work is a decent sized -80C freezer. Once you start maintaining yeast stocks you need to have the proper storage. They're a solid $15k. I'm sure you know that as it sounds like you're doing a microbiology degree or something along those lines. I'm a biotech major graduating in spring and had thoughts of trying to go that route. I priced equipment I deemed minimally necessary and it got expensive real fast.

As for services you'd have to find a niche. Al Buck of East Coast Yeast really dove into brett and non standard yeasts with bacteria. There are already three large brewing yeast companies in the US. It'd be tough to start up and compete. Doing it solely to homebrew scale I think would be even more tough. You have to deal with distribution and packaging which is a feat on its own.

 

[kappclark]

So, I guess you just need to supply yourself and your home brew club