Your Favorite Liquid Yeast Brand?

[Ogilthorpe2]

Omega, due to proximity to the source lab, is the most widely available near me, so it wins by default, but I have also been very happy with the products.

 

[Conehead]

Escarpment Labs is top notch.

Not even on the list.

 

[bwible]

My understanding is that the Wyeast nutrient pack is a tiny vitality starter in which case I would not activate it 3-4 days ahead of time.

The old rule of thumb for Wyeast packs was to allow one day for every 2 months old the package was. That was a good rule of thumb for how long it takes for the package to fully swell. This is a little harder to figure out now because they are printing use by dates on the packages now instead of packaged on dates.

That said, when I had my store I would occasionally find an old Wyeast pack that had fallen to the back of the fridge and got lost and for fun I would use it. I have used many that were over a year old and at least one pack that was 3 years old. As I recall it took over a week to swell but It swelled up and I made beer with it.

 

[Golddiggie]

The old rule of thumb for Wyeast packs was to allow one day for every 2 months old the package was. That was a good rule of thumb for how long it takes for the package to fully swell. This is a little harder to figure out now because they are printing use by dates on the packages now instead of packaged on dates.

That said, when I had my store I would occasionally find an old Wyeast pack that had fallen to the back of the fridge and got lost and for fun I would use it. I have used many that were over a year old and at least one pack that was 3 years old. As I recall it took over a week to swell but It swelled up and I made beer with it.

IIRC, the new 'use by' dates are ~6 months from the production dates. I don't know who the brain trust lead was that decided to use a different dating method than everything else does. It does add more work/effort to enter the dates into software for figuring out starter sizes now. I do hope they reverse that decision and simply go back to the date it was packaged.

The last two starters I made were with yeast that was in the 1-2 month old range. The starters went full bore within a few hours, finishing in about 24-36 hours (from pitching the yeast in). One of those is still in the fridge since my brew date got pushed due to things going a bit wonky on last week's brew day. Planning to use it on the coming Saturday though.

 

[Bilsch]

Depends. I use different strains for different beers, some only available from one supplier. For example 835, 2565 and 2105.

 

[Broothru]

Exactly what I thought! Plus they got the real Fuller's strain which no other lab seems to have.

Assume you're referring to A09 Pub? I had been using it for a while in place of Nottingham. I agree it's a great yeast though I haven't yet used it in a London Pride clone.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Propogate Labs, a little outfit located in Golden, Colorado. They have a wide variety of yeast strains and also advertise a large cell count in a homebrew pitch volume. I don't know why, but I get the impression they may have been around for a while on the commercial brew level but may be entering the HB market. Most of their yeasts are sold in brewery-level pitch volumes.

I ran across them about 6 months ago while trying to find an Andechs strain lager yeast, and got two of theirs when I couldn't find any from the usual suspects. So last week I finally got around to propagating it since it was passing its "best by" date. Threw 'em both in a 5 liter Erlenmeyer flask with 2 liters of 1.037 starter wort and let it spin. Took off like a rocket! It's cold crashing now, and I hope to get 200~300ml of highly viable yeast.

 

[bwible]

Exactly what I thought! Plus they got the real Fuller's strain which no other lab seems to have.

Wyeast 1968 was long considered by many to be the Fuller’s strain

 

[Miraculix]

Wyeast 1968 was long considered by many to be the Fuller’s strain

I know, same as wlp002, but the pub one is the only one that really delivers the fullers flavour. All the other ones seem to have shifted since they got it.

 

[Miraculix]

Assume you're referring to A09 Pub? I had been using it for a while in place of Nottingham. I agree it's a great yeast though I haven't yet used it in a London Pride clone.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Propogate Labs, a little outfit located in Golden, Colorado. They have a wide variety of yeast strains and also advertise a large cell count in a homebrew pitch volume. I don't know why, but I get the impression they may have been around for a while on the commercial brew level but may be entering the HB market. Most of their yeasts are sold in brewery-level pitch volumes.

I ran across them about 6 months ago while trying to find an Andechs strain lager yeast, and got two of theirs when I couldn't find any from the usual suspects. So last week I finally got around to propagating it since it was passing its "best by" date. Threw 'em both in a 5 liter Erlenmeyer flask with 2 liters of 1.037 starter wort and let it spin. Took off like a rocket! It's cold crashing now, and I hope to get 200~300ml of highly viable yeast.

It is a great yeast, but it is certainly not even close to Notti, but anyhow, if you like the result, keep going! I love this yeast!

 

[Broothru]

Mostly I was commenting on it's speed and flocculance being like Notty, and specifically the difference between Pub and WLP-039 East Midlands liquid. I had mixed to poor results with 039, but always had good luck with Danstar dry Nottingham. Since I've started using Pub, I prefer it to Notty for English styles.

 

[Snuffy]

Escarpment Labs is top notch.

Wow. Those guys got lots of yeast. I’d love to get my hands on some of the Saison strains. It says 5 pitch min online. Hmmm…

 

[TenaCJed]

Bootleg Biology here, I have been stocking up my supply for them the last two years. Still have the MTF Funk Island going for my Golden Sours from the last time Home Brew CON met in person. They are mostly for sour and wild yeast, however they have been releasing some clean strains lately as well!!!

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

Bootleg Biology here, I have been stocking up my supply for them the last two years. Still have the MTF Funk Island going for my Golden Sours from the last time Home Brew CON met in person. They are mostly for sour and wild yeast, however they have been releasing some clean strains lately as well!!!

I was wondering when someone was going to mention Bootleg Biology. I heard that they recently released a very clean fermenting strain with lager characteristics that they isolated from a wild source.

 

[TenaCJed]

I have OSLO from them, not as clean as I was expecting. It still had a slight fruity taste to it. My neighbor pretty much only likes pilsners and he was not a fan of the one I did. Probably pass more for a Kolsch maybe?

 

[Beenym88]

I don’t use liquid yeast all the time only for specific brews. I love the wide range of yeasts omega has but I picked imperial because I really like their larger yeast count 100 billion cells is like nothing you absolutely have to make a starter every time.

 

[bkboiler]

I live about 12 minutes from white labs...so that's the main reason l like them. Would really prefer a yeast with higher viability, like imperial or omega.

 

[Knightshade]

Lots of good thoughts in here. Interesting that there isn’t really a clear cut leader in the poll, although Giga doesn’t appear to be getting much love.

Found out recently that an ex coworker’s wife works at White Labs and they don’t brew. Annual perk of free yeast, which was extended to me. So I know who I’m sticking with, at least for the near term..kinda hard to beat F R E E..

 

[Kerry]

Escarpment Labs is close and most widely available from LHBS' in my neck of the woods. I also use Wyeast and Imperial.