order arrived from the UK

[MattHollingsworth]

Nice!

I ordered from these guys last Thursday, and it arrived already!

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/

I ordered 6 varieties of yeast from both White Labs and Wyeast (Wyeast 3068, 1318 and 1214, White Labs WLP022 Essex Ale, WLP051 California V and WLP850 Copenhagen yeast for a friend) and some Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. Order arrived in great shape, quickly, and without any customs charge. So that's the yeast order to last me until the fall (along with the yeast I already have).

For any folks in Europe looking for a great selection of both White Labs and Wyeast and also for a lot of those more obscure British hops like Progress and Northdown they have all of that stuff. And their customer service is great in my experience, though this is only my second order.

Oh, and while it's not as cheap as the States, it's not so bad. The Wyeast packs are only propagators though. Each yeast was around 5.90 pounds. The shipping was under 6 pounds, the whole order 47 pounds for 6 varieties of yeast and 100 grams of hops. If you order heavier stuff the shipping gets crazy, but for hops and yeast they're fantastic.

 

[Primetime]

That's great you found a good place to order from. Most of us in the States have no idea what you paid for everything, or how much you recieved. What does 1 pound = in US dollars? Also grams vs oz? I could look it up, but I'm sure some on this board knows the anwser in there head.

 

[motobrewer]

http://tinyurl.com/ylheckm

 

[MattHollingsworth]

That's great you found a good place to order from. Most of us in the States have no idea what you paid for everything, or how much you recieved. What does 1 pound = in US dollars? Also grams vs oz? I could look it up, but I'm sure some on this board knows the anwser in there head.

http://tinyurl.com/ylheckm

Hahaha! Yeah, that's funny. I see people posting things constantly which basically require someone else to do the Googling for them. No offense intended to the above poster, BTW.

That order translated to $70.75, counting shipping, for all that yeast and hops. 100 grams is about 3.5 ounces of hops. So, 3 Wyeast *Propagator* packs, 3 White Labs vials and about 3.5 ounces of hops for nearly $71. I don't know what yeast goes for in the States these days though. But the main point was that the shipping wasn't so bad, it arrived safe and quickly, no customs were charged, and they have a fabulous selection of yeast and hops, none of which are available inside Croatia with the exception of Styrian Goldings hops.

 

[Primetime]

Cool, thanks for the update......hope you make some magic happen...good luck brewing

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Cool, thanks for the update......hope you make some magic happen...good luck brewing

I hope to! Thanks!

 

[motobrewer]

yeah i love breaking out the lmgtfy

it takes sufficiently MORE effort to post a "what is the conversion from this to this" than to just go to google and get your answer.

 

[2-0turbo]

Hey, if you're in Croatia, you should try these guys at Brouwland. They are in Belgium and have pretty decent prices. I ordered 22 KG of malt and had it shipped to Paris relatively cheaply. The malt was about $1/pound and shipping was only 12 euros to my door. It is the best deal I have found so far. I order some Better Bottles from the Hop and Grape folks and I was pleased with their service. But, their prices are not the best. Good luck!

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Hey, if you're in Croatia, you should try these guys at Brouwland. They are in Belgium and have pretty decent prices. I ordered 22 KG of malt and had it shipped to Paris relatively cheaply. The malt was about $1/pound and shipping was only 12 euros to my door. It is the best deal I have found so far. I order some Better Bottles from the Hop and Grape folks and I was pleased with their service. But, their prices are not the best. Good luck!

I order from Brouwland regularly. But for me in Croatia, their shipping is a ripoff. If I order one pack of dry yeast(which I wouldn't do, obviously), the shipping is 25 euros minimum. They seem to always add 10 euros to my shipping bill for "handling". When I've ordered before, for instance, I can SEE the actual shipping on the package and they add 10 euros to it (Just under $14 American). I asked them about this and they said it's a handling charge, which I think is bull****. It's because there's no competition here. Not enough of these shops. So they can get away with it. Shops in the States are more competitive and you can get much better deals. And I've certainly never had any other shop anywhere charge me a handling charge.

So, I tend to order from them when I have a larger amount of stuff I need. The shipping from them is a ripoff every single time though. They have lots of stuff and some great hops that I order. They DO really have a great selection. But I let it build up into a bigger order first. And they don't carry White Labs yeast at all, and they don't have some of the more specialized hops that Hop and Grape have. By comparison, Hop and Grape's shipping is reasonable for a smaller package like I ordered here. Shipping was just under 6 pounds for that, and with Brouwland it would have been at least 25 euros.

You ordered 22 kilos with 12 euros for shipping? Must be nice! I wish it was the same here. I just plugged about that amount into an order I have saved with them and it would cost me 94 euros for shipping that. That, and they take 3 to 5 weeks before they even *send* my package. So I have to order ahead with them. They say it's because I'm in Croatia. They let the order sit, then ship out more than one at a time or some such BS. Means I have to plan pretty far ahead. By comparison, this Hop and Grape order arrived 6 days from ordering.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

And, sorry for the rant. I do still order from Brouwland. They have some great stuff. I just don't really like the way they treat me. I'm putting together an order with them now and it's not THAT big and it'll be 40 euros for shipping and I'll probably receive it about a month after I order it. But such is life. I'm glad they exist because if they didn't I wouldn't be able to get some of the stuff they have very easily.

 

[2-0turbo]

Hey, no problem. I just figured that since you were in Europe that perhaps ordering from somewhere closer was easier. I also prefer Whitelabs over Wyeast. In fact, my last order I got from Brouwland (yes, 22 KG for 12 euros) came quickly, only 5-days after ordering. However, two of my 5-kg backs of malt were broken and I had to pour the rest out of the bottom of the box. Additionally, one of my bags of hops had been punctured, so the vacuum has been lost. And finally, one of my Wyeast smack packs had been smacked and had already swelled. So, I wasn't terribly happy with the conditions of the shipment. But, the price was right. I refrigerated the yeast and I do a starter with it to be sure it is okay.

It sucks that they shaft you so bad on the shipping. For me, our fortunes are reversed. The hop and grape guys have high shipping for me (like 25 Pounds) for relatively small orders and I don't order from them unless I have too. But, the stuff I have ordered from them was packaged very well and arrived with no problems. I guess you have to take your pick. I will probably order some Whitelabs from Hopandgrape. I think I'll stick with Brouwland for the malts and hops.

I have only started brewing beer since moving to Europe. The guys in the US don't know how easy they've got it with great mailorder places and a homebrew shop in every major city. I'm looking forward to being back in the USA in 2011 and getting 55-lb sacks of malt for $28! And picking them up with my car!

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I don't really *prefer* White Labs myself, but they sometimes have something that Wyeast doesn't have. I tend to mix and match.

Yeah, our fortunes differ a lot! Everything I've ordered from Brouwland has arrived in great shape. Just expensive shipping, that's all.

My first order with Hop and Grape, I had a few kilos of grain in it and the shipping was going to be 55 pounds or something ridiculous, so I had her (Patsy) pull all the grain and stripped the order down to hops, yeast and some hop bags and the shipping went down to 6 pounds. So, much better. Luckily, I don't have to mail order grain. I go to Slovenija and buy it. And there's also grain here, but minimum bags are 50 kilos (what, 110 pounds?), so for specialty grains people go in on them together. I buy ALL of mine in Slovenija though.

And yeah, living in the States meant I took a LOT for granted. I lived in Portland for nine years, which meant Steinbart's homebrew shop. And they ROCK. And there are other ones all over the area. And it also meant going to a beer store with 700 some odd beers. I miss that. Here, it's not like that at all! I'm not moving back or at least have no plans to, though, so trying to just adjust and do what I can to make my beer.

Are you rinsing your yeast? If not, you should be doing that. Save you a lot on shipping. I've been doing it since last year and it's great. If you don't know how, look for the sticky thread in the yeast section. You can get a lot of uses out of one yeast pack.

 

[2-0turbo]

I haven't started washing or saving yeast yet. I want to, so I'll have to read up on the article and give it a shot after my next batch. The one thing I'm not clear on is if I save yeast and reuse it for a future batch, how much do I pitch into the next batch? I've listed to Jamil and others on this topic, but they always quote "XX billion cells per milliliter wort per degree plato" or something like that. I don't know how many cells I have in my reused slurry.

I'll have to do some reading on the topic. How much do you pitch when you reuse? Any problems with over/under attenuation?

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I wash my yeast as in the sticky thread and end up with 3 jars that have somewhere around 100 ml or more of slurry. Something like that. I use each jar for a batch of beer. But then, I don't usually use it immediately. I'm using different strains, so sometimes it sits for a few weeks. I then make a 2 liter starter with one of those jars and pop that in the fridge 2 days before brewing. On brew day, I dump the liquid and pitch only the yeast. Works great every time. For me most yeast go a bit more attenuative than the listed specs but the beers are fantastic. I haven't had any go under the specs.

 

[2-0turbo]

You know, after I posted this, I started looking around some (doh!) and Jamil's yeast pitching calculator (http://www.mrmalty.com includes a tab for repitching from a slurry. In fact, there is a "help page" as well that describes how to best set some of the sliders (thin yeast vs. thick yeast) to give the best results. It appears from Jamil's calculator that the biggest variable is when you harvest the yeast. The viability of the repitched slurry is highly dependent on when you harvest it. I'm going to give it a try with my next batch and see how it goes. I'm sure it will be fine. I've got a pressure cooker, so I can sterilize some jars, lids and water to make sure I don't capture any pathogens. I'll post how the results turn out.