Thiolized yeasts are going away

[wsmith1625]

I stumbled upon this article today. Stock up if this yeast is in your lineup.

I'm not interested in the Boycott, just that the yeast is being discontinued to homebrewers.

https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/omega-yeast-discontinues-400-series-for-homebrewers/38507

 

[mschoeffler]

Really disappointed in this news. I’ve had good luck with Star Party and have one more pack on schedule for Father’s Day.

 

[IslandLizard]

Really sad to read this.
The best method is to make a big starter, then freeze many 3 ml vials for years (or decades) to come.

 

[DuncB]

Very irritating as we can't even get the thiolised yeast here and I was hoping to " import " some via friend visiting USA.

 

[Kickass]

I must be missing something. A competitor is selling Omega yeast to pro breweries so Omega discontinues its supply to homebrewers?

I get that homebrewers probably account for a fraction of their sales so it’s not a huge loss. But it’s still a step in the opposite direction of solving their problem.

 

[505-Brewer]

Im probably done buying any more yeast strains. I can get yeast for free from local breweries. Take that Omega

 

[DavidWood2115]

I must be missing something. A competitor is selling Omega yeast to pro breweries so Omega discontinues its supply to homebrewers?

I get that homebrewers probably account for a fraction of their sales so it’s not a huge loss. But it’s still a step in the opposite direction of solving their problem.

Presumably Omega’s pro brewer contracts prohibit giving their proprietary yeast strains to a competitor.

 

[Agent]

And just as I was growing fond of Lunar Crush for my hazy IPLs (Cold IPAs? Hazy Lagery thing).

 

[Bobby_M]

The GMO stuff costs them a ton of money in licensing and the original R&D and their competitors only had to buy a homebrew pack from anywhere to prop it. They went after some labs that we advertising the "grey market" yeast but that only stopped them from advertising. They found out a couple labs were still propping it on the down low. The thing about business is that just because something is legal or illegal doesn't mean you won't go bankrupt defending your IP.

Of course, the cat is already out of the bag for the labs that were doing the wrong thing but maybe in a panic they had to cut off the leak.

Omega was already a good yeast lab before they started genetically modifying anything so they are still a good value proposition for me. $10 for 200B cells is a deal. Of course that's easier for me to say because after the initial enthusiasm for new aromas, the Thiol stuff has worn out its welcome for me already.

 

[SaisonMan]

And just as I was growing fond of Lunar Crush for my hazy IPLs (Cold IPAs? Hazy Lagery thing).

Me, too. I just ordered a pack to say a proper goodbye.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I must be missing something. A competitor is selling Omega yeast to pro breweries so Omega discontinues its supply to homebrewers?

It's about controlling who ends up with it. They sell big pitches directly to breweries, whereas the homebrew packs are sold by intermediaries who could sell to anybody.

And as we've seen in this thread, the kind of people who buy homebrew packs don't always observe the niceties of IP licences and laws on crossing international borders with these things, but it's paying the licence fees that allows research to happen. I get that there's a culture clash between sharing brewers and IP lawyers, but that's why we can't have nice things.

It does raise all sorts of wider questions though about IP protection around gene-edited organisms. The big pitch for GE is that you can't tell edits from DNA arising from natural breeding - but that also means you can't tell the difference between independently edited organisms from different companies. I guess the only way to go is just to do as AB Mauri-Omega are doing, and only sell direct and not through third parties.

Incidentally, I assume the original link was from an Omega mailshot, but I've not been able to find anything public to confirm it - anybody?

 

[Agent]

Well, their online catalog does show the thiolized strains all available as pro-brew only.

 

[couchsending]

This is not a bad thing. While intriguing, IMHO these yeasts don’t make good beer. Yes they can create all sorts of cool aromas from malt and certain hops but they also create all sorts of undesirable aromas as well. The concept is cool, it ends there.

 

[Bassman2003]

I was looking to try there west coast IPA+ yeast. Looks like that is going away too. But they may be back once things get sorted.

 

[pers]

Incidentally, I assume the original link was from an Omega mailshot, but I've not been able to find anything public to confirm it - anybody?

I believe the original mention about this comes from r/Homebrewing. There was a post 22 days ago by a homebrew store in Indianapolis named Great Fermentations. In the post it makes mention of an email received directly from Omega.

 

[Indian_villager]

I'm honestly surprised they are not pursuing legal action. There are already so many precedent cases in favor of the IP owner in terms of GMO goods, see crop protection. Even if it starts looking like they are going to lose the case I wouldn't be surprised if larger companies don't throw in some legal support to make sure no new precedent gets set up which could prevent their ability to defend their IP.

 

[Bassman2003]

I am sure it is complicated. All of the yeast companies started with some level of pilfering. How did they get all of the their library of strains? It just happens to be a lot like the library of White Labs and Wyeast etc... Yeast the living organism can not be copyrighted or trademarked, only the genetic addition. So that adds a layer of complexity I am sure. Basically all they can do is control their supply chain and hope for the best.

What is worse, the loss of homebrew sales or the loss of large customer orders? I do not know their business details, but it appears they chose to protect the large customer sales. Breweries can only run the yeast so many generations and if the breweries do not have an in-house lab they will need to buy a fresh pitch. If they can stop the pirating they can probably get those sales back. But that is a big if.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm honestly surprised they are not pursuing legal action. There are already so many precedent cases in favor of the IP owner in terms of GMO goods, see crop protection. Even if it starts looking like they are going to lose the case I wouldn't be surprised if larger companies don't throw in some legal support to make sure no new precedent gets set up which could prevent their ability to defend their IP.

Usually, the IP owner or licensee will have their counsel send a nice letter to the infringer, with the threat of legal action if the infringer continues. More often than not, the issue ends there, as the infringer won't have the resources or stomach to fight it.

Could be the case here. Once a few brew stores get cease-and-decist letters, word gets around and they all decide it's not worth the trouble to sell those goods or enter into licensing agreements to do so. Easier and safer to just drop the line of products.

 

[Indian_villager]

I am sure it is complicated. All of the yeast companies started with some level of pilfering. How did they get all of the their library of strains? It just happens to be a lot like the library of White Labs and Wyeast etc... Yeast the living organism can not be copyrighted or trademarked, only the genetic addition. So that adds a layer of complexity I am sure. Basically all they can do is control their supply chain and hope for the best.

What is worse, the loss of homebrew sales or the loss of large customer orders? I do not know their business details, but it appears they chose to protect the large customer sales. Breweries can only run the yeast so many generations and if the breweries do not have an in-house lab they will need to buy a fresh pitch. If they can stop the pirating they can probably get those sales back. But that is a big if.

I think it is different than yeast vendor a and b selling the same strain of kolsch yeast. Specific to this discussion the yeast strains in question were specifically genetically modified and those insertions were patent pending.

 

[Bassman2003]

Exactly. The genetic modification is the only thing Omega can try to protect/defend. Hopefully the offenders as Max pointed out will just stop their behavior and buy the Omega yeast going forward. Then the strains have a shot at coming back to the homebrew market.

But an overall point is that Omega is in the business of selling yeast and special or not, taking product off of the shelves hurts sales of yeast. In the long run, it is probably in their interest to bring things back as playing in this sandbox (ripe with pilfering) is messy to begin with.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm honestly surprised they are not pursuing legal action. There are already so many precedent cases in favor of the IP owner in terms of GMO goods, see crop protection. Even if it starts looking like they are going to lose the case I wouldn't be surprised if larger companies don't throw in some legal support to make sure no new precedent gets set up which could prevent their ability to defend their IP.

Omega competitor (OC) buys GMO strains from local homebrew shop and banks/propagates. Then OC advertises that they have those strains available and several brewery customers buy them. Omega finds the advertising and their lawyer sends a C&D. Then OC stops advertising, but privately tells all the customers that they will still sell them on the DL. Now Omega has to decide whether to spend more money on a lawsuit so that they can get sales records to determine if they continued to sell their IP. It gets expensive.