Retail Liquid Yeast @ 16% Viability - What The ?

[Hogan]

My brew mate went to a well known Sydney retailer last Saturday and picked up a bag of grain. He also bought two phials of White Labs yeast (007 & 830) for me. When he handed them to me I see that the expiry date for the yeast is 28 November. That means they were manufactured on 28 July.

Two calculators showed that yeast with nine days till expiry had a viability of 16%. I understand that uncommon yeast styles don't get turned over as much as the well known ones, but 007 and 830 are about as common as you get.

If I wanted to use yeast with 16% viability I would be splitting a phial into quarters and saving a lot of money. I've done this in the past but decided I'd rather spend the dollars on one decent healthy hit of yeast from one phial and not have to build huge step starters to get viability up to scratch.

I always purchase my liquid yeast from this retailer and accept that sometimes it has aged a bit when I get it but viability has never been below 65%.

Am I expecting too much? Contact was made with a staff member but he was not interested.


Hoges.

 

[Screwtop]

My brew mate went to a well known Sydney retailer last Saturday and picked up a bag of grain. He also bought two phials of White Labs yeast (007 & 830) for me. When he handed them to me I see that the expiry date for the yeast is 28 November. That means they were manufactured on 28 July.

Two calculators showed that yeast with nine days till expiry had a viability of 16%. I understand that uncommon yeast styles don't get turned over as much as the well known ones, but 007 and 830 are about as common as you get.

If I wanted to use yeast with 16% viability I would be splitting a phial into quarters and saving a lot of money. I've done this in the past but decided I'd rather spend the dollars on one decent healthy hit of yeast from one phial and not have to build huge step starters to get viability up to scratch.

I always purchase my liquid yeast from this retailer and accept that sometimes it has aged a bit when I get it but viability has never been below 65%.

Am I expecting too much? Contact was made with a staff member but he was not interested.


Hoges.

Poor form on the part of the Retailer Hoges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Screwy

 

[sama]

Not ideal,tho really,its up to you to check such things. Out of interest,does said shop drop the price when they expire?

 

[Hogan]

Not ideal,tho really,its up to you to check such things. Out of interest,does said shop drop the price when they expire?

If I had done the purchase myself I would have checked the date and not accepted it.

They charged their full retail price for both phials. I have never been offered a discount for old yeast. I worked out that the real cost of a phial of 16% viable yeast should have been about $2.35


Cheers, Hoges

 

[MarkBastard]

Maybe shoot a PM to Silo Ted. He'll tell you the secret handshake to use that gets you into the VIP shoppers club. 25% discount and yeast that was made yesterday.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Its pretty poor form from many points of view, customer is not happy, they generally dont return, no repeat business in the long run business looses more money. Where as if they just offered ou a discount in the form of store credit customer pacified.

On the other hand they probably see it as its stock that is still in date and can be sold as normal and anything else is the fault of the manufacturer for putting such a long use by date on product - not their problem.

 

[Wimmig]

This isn't the same retailer that just finished a 25% - 50% sale on short coded yeast? Which retailer was this exactly?

 

[going down a hill]

I thought yeast is 50% viable when it gets to the expiry date.

 

[stux]

I would expect a discount...

But you need to check the dates

This is why I do split my yeasts into quarters, and then I preorder refills. When I pickup a new yeast it's only 2 days old!

 

[Hogan]

This isn't the same retailer that just finished a 25% - 50% sale on short coded yeast? Which retailer was this exactly?

The yeast purchased was sold at $12.00 per phial. At the time of purchase the staff member said this was now their new retail price. Nothing was said about it being old stock. The store had their yeast on this morning at $12 per phial. I just rechecked and it is back up to $15. You may be correct that it was sold at a reduced price as short code but as a shopper I would expect my mate to have been told of this up front. I would never pay $12 for old yeast when for $3 more I can be getting a freshie.


Cheers, Hoges.