# Australian Yeast Bank, why dont we have one?



## Dan Pratt (16/1/15)

I was wondering today about the availability of yeast to brewers down under and seem to think that we should have a manufacturer/retailer of liquid yeast for Aussie Brewers!

We import from the well known and trusted Whitelabs & Wyeast for all our liquid needs and can get any dry yeast from Fermentis, Danstar and Mangroves.

Why is there no Aussie liquid yeast manufacturers, couldnt some microbiologist or what ever just get the strains available, culture them and package/rebrand them for our own market?

Am I missing something.


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## DJ_L3ThAL (16/1/15)

Sounds like a business waiting to happen, there's certainly a growing market for it.

Business partners!?


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## quadbox (16/1/15)

Didnt there used to be a local mob back in the 90's, who went bust?


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## Spiesy (16/1/15)

Pratty1 said:


> I was wondering today about the availability of yeast to brewers down under and seem to think that we should have a manufacturer/retailer of liquid yeast for Aussie Brewers!
> 
> We import from the well known and trusted Whitelabs & Wyeast for all our liquid needs and can get any dry yeast from Fermentis, Danstar and Mangroves.
> 
> ...


Market size, I'd imagine.


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## Dan Pratt (16/1/15)

Spiesy said:


> Market size, I'd imagine.


small compared to the US or Europe however still a market right. 

(these are guess's, please correct if you can find it online)

~ 35,000 homebrewers
~ 250 craft brewerys
~ 50 Megaswill brewerys


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## MartinOC (16/1/15)

Homicidal Teddybear said:


> Didnt there used to be a local mob back in the 90's, who went bust?


You're thinking of PeetYeast (a microbiologist who was a member of the ABAV before it became the Melbourne Brewers). He didn't go bust, just started having a family, changed jobs & location etc..etc...& couldn't keep up with demand & logistics.

Bloody good job, he did too. His Irish Ale yeast was an absolute BEAST & everything was super-fresh. If you sent him an email & with enough notice, he'd rock-up to a meeting with a 1.25L PET bottle full of ready-to go yeast sufficient for a double/triple batch for $5!!!

Them's were the days......


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## Dan Pratt (16/1/15)

MartinOC said:


> .........couldn't keep up with demand & logistics.


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## DU99 (16/1/15)

:icon_offtopic: there's something Yob could get into... :icon_cheers:


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## Spiesy (16/1/15)

Pratty1 said:


> small compared to the US or Europe however still a market right.
> 
> (these are guess's, please correct if you can find it online)
> 
> ...


I don't think "still a market" makes for a sound business plan. 

Let's think about the US, for example. 

316 million people.
2 main liquid yeast companies - that also export to the rest of the world.
A more mature home and craft beer market than what is found in Australia.

Vs Australia.
23 million people. 7% the population of the USA. 
Isolated from many other markets, with the exception of NZL (most of which live in North Fitzroy anyway).

I would LOVE for a local act to get up and running - that would be awesome, but I wonder why there's no more than two prominent yeast manufacturers in the US, with that massive and mature market.


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## Spiesy (16/1/15)

Pratty1 said:


> small compared to the US or Europe however still a market right.
> 
> (these are guess's, please correct if you can find it online)
> 
> ...


RE: Megaswill breweries...

CUB/Fosters
Tooheys/Lion
XXXX
Swan
West End

Who else?


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## jyo (16/1/15)

http://www.proculture.com.au/ 

Proculture. They used to stock an extensive range of liquid yeasts. Was situated in Perth. 
They had some issues with their packaging (leaky lids) and customers were told that this was being sorted out, and that production would resume. Never happened, unfortunately, this was probably about 4 years ago. Great yeasts, great viability, but I think the bloke was just operating it in his spare time.

It's a shame, as I like buying local.


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## Yob (16/1/15)

DU99 said:


> :icon_offtopic: there's something Yob could get into... :icon_cheers:


looked/looking at it still, discussed it with a mate not long back h34r:

One of the biggest problems is where to set it up, here at casa de Yob is not appropriate so youd be looking at quite a substantial outlay for the premisis and equipment.

Not completely unfeasible but a bloody nightmare none-the-less


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## indica86 (16/1/15)

jyo said:


> http://www.proculture.com.au/


Wow, I'd use that.

Yob, we'd all buy from you. Would be a cluster **** to set up though.


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## Spiesy (16/1/15)

jyo said:


> http://www.proculture.com.au/
> 
> Proculture. They used to stock an extensive range of liquid yeasts. Was situated in Perth.
> They had some issues with their packaging (leaky lids) and customers were told that this was being sorted out, and that production would resume. Never happened, unfortunately, this was probably about 4 years ago. Great yeasts, great viability, but I think the bloke was just operating it in his spare time.
> ...


How was pricing?


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## jyo (16/1/15)

It was really reasonable. Nev used to sell them for $10 a pop. I only got to try three varieties before it folded.


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## Bribie G (16/1/15)

Spiesy said:


> How was pricing?


I bought a few Proculture from Nev, which arrived cold after crossing the Continent.
On pitching into a starter in a Schott bottle they would usually be crawling out like the Blob in a few hours. Far more viable than Wyeast or Whitelabs.

IIRC they were a couple of uni students doing it as a hobby , and went on to other things.


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## Roosterboy (16/1/15)

I've worked as a Pathology microbiologist and a food microbiologist and I know other microbiologists. I have a plan to start a yeast bank. It wouldn't cost that much to set up a small lab and most councils don't care about this sort of business as far as I have found. The problem is the margin is small per vial / tube of yeast to compete with dried yeast in foil for say $4.50 per unit. You would have to sell alot , the economies of scale to make enough money would be huge. It
would be possible on a part-time basis just for the love of it but the price would be higher than foil pouches. Especially factoring in freight charges. The problem in
my experience is that home brewers don't like parting with money even though an item may be of a much higher quality.This and the smaller population, is why I
suspect we don't have alot more quality manufacturers here in Australia and we don't have companies like they have in the USA. I know it's part of the reason
people home brew, to save money, but we either pay more for things or we convert more people to try home brewing or we accept that we aren't going to have
the best home brewing/ brewing industry here in Australia. 

Roosterboy


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## Spiesy (16/1/15)

Bribie G said:


> I bought a few Proculture from Nev, which arrived cold after crossing the Continent.
> On pitching into a starter in a Schott bottle they would usually be crawling out like the Blob in a few hours. Far more viable than Wyeast or Whitelabs.
> 
> IIRC they were a couple of uni students doing it as a hobby , and went on to other things.


Interesting.


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## Yob (16/1/15)

Spiesy said:


> How was pricing?


once you have factored in packaging etc, its a tough model to then undercut the price WL and WY can be obtained.


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## Bomber Watson (16/1/15)

Would you have to undercut them?

Obviously you couldnt sell a product for twice the price, but on par or a tiny bit more would be more than acceptable IMO. 

Cheers.


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## manticle (16/1/15)

Wyeast isn't crazy at $10-11 a pop, especially if you consider the ability to reuse (split, freeze, top crop, wash, slurry, etc). Compare the available variety to dry yeast and it's a no-brainer for me. I'd happily pay similar prices for local, fresher produce if it was available in similar/better quality and range.


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## Yob (16/1/15)

manticle said:


> ...especially if you consider the ability to reuse (split, freeze, top crop, wash, slurry, etc)..


 :lol: I know right? Yeast is crazy cheap :lol:


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## dent (16/1/15)

Yeah, the main issue for me is freshness, particularly for lager yeast. Wyeast is pretty awesome if your local retailer does a regular import so you can get it straight off the plane.


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## cooperplace (5/2/15)

Roosterboy said:


> I've worked as a Pathology microbiologist and a food microbiologist and I know other microbiologists. I have a plan to start a yeast bank. It wouldn't cost that much to set up a small lab and most councils don't care about this sort of business as far as I have found. The problem is the margin is small per vial / tube of yeast to compete with dried yeast in foil for say $4.50 per unit. You would have to sell alot , the economies of scale to make enough money would be huge. It
> would be possible on a part-time basis just for the love of it but the price would be higher than foil pouches. Especially factoring in freight charges. The problem in
> my experience is that home brewers don't like parting with money even though an item may be of a much higher quality.This and the smaller population, is why I
> suspect we don't have alot more quality manufacturers here in Australia and we don't have companies like they have in the USA. I know it's part of the reason
> ...


he's right, setup costs are a lot. i visited Paul Monk's Intek facility for making yeast, in Adelaide, in 1987. He might have spent $1m or more on that, back then. He was making yeast for the wine industry. I don't know what happened to his company, but I think Paul died.

Someone could set up a yeast bank as a hobby, but it's a lot of work.


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