Where To Get Good, Bulk Dry Yeast

[Temple of Seth]

Hi Guys,

I find that it's useful to have a stash of good solid (high attenuation, high flocculation) dry ale yeast on hand for those rainy sundays when the local HB shop isn't open but I get the bug to lay a brew down. I'd like to buy a good 'bulk' (< 100 sachets) order from somewhere and I'm looking for the forums opinions on two fronts: 1) where is a good place to order this for a good price and 2) what are your favorite dry ale yeasts?

Cheers,

ToS

 

[pint of lager]

Before you start laying out your dollars, how about your local brewshop? What do they stock? Do you like that yeast?

Try all the dry yeasts before doing a buy up. One may suit your tastebuds and your techniques better than others.

If you cannot get it through your local shop at a decent price, be wary of buying postal order stuff in summertime, that may sit in your stinking hot letterbox till you get home, and then all the yeasties will be cooked.

Don't buy too many, maybe a few months worth. What I found when I seriously started brewing, my methods and techniques changed rapidly, and what yeasts and methods I used would often change rapidly.

I still keep a safale and saflager in the fridge, "just in case" but haven't needed them for years.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

High attenuation/high flocculation dry ale yeast sounds like Nottingham to me!

You can buy 500g packs, but will you use all the yeast before it loses vitality? A half dozen sachets should last you a few months.

Jovial Monk

 

[dicko]

Hi T O Seth,

It is difficult to buy yeast in bulk unless you get it from a HBS.
You will find that there is a complex network of agents and stockists and they want to protect their own interests.
Some brands of dried yeasts can be purchased in a packet of 500 gramms.
I have got them from the HBS.
Your method of storage and handling would have to be spot on and it would be advisable to vacuum seal the packet after use.
As POL said, only get enough for the immediate future.
You would have to be lucky to get it from a manufacturer or it may be a case of "not what you know but who you know".
My preferences are for Lallemand " Nottingham ale yeast" and Saf 34/70 lager yeast as well as I have had good results from Safale 04.

Cheers

 

[Darren]

TOS,
Give Bintani a call. They sell all the saf range in 11.5g packs. Also Lallemand in Adelaide will sell bulk Nottingham
cheers
Darren

 

[Jovial_Monk]

I tried emailing this to ToS but the message didn't get through.

I can supply 500g of Nottingham for $75, or a number of 23g sachets for $6.50

JM

 

[wee stu]

Lallemand's Windsor ale yeast is my favourite standby.
Had to use the last of my stock today :angry: , however, when I decided my second generation liquid starter was a lttle bit too funky for comfort. :huh:
Nottingham is also good.

 

[Temple of Seth]

Thanks Guys,

Windsor and Nottingham sound like a good try. I'll be price comparing vendors here and via relatively fast post from the US. It will depend on shipping costs, I imagine, but it must not be too hard to fit several sachets in an international priority mail envelope. It's not too hot yet there if shipped from Minnesota.

ToS

 

[Armstrong]

I'll be price comparing vendors here and via relatively fast post from the US. It will depend on shipping costs, I imagine, but it must not be too hard to fit several sachets in an international priority mail envelope. It's not too hot yet there if shipped from Minnesota.

Hey TOS,

Why don't you support your local home brew industry ... JM has offered what you are after and at what sounds like a reasonable price.

All too often the local HBS's are bypassed for what ever reason

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

TOS, be wary on prices.

I paid $36 Aus dollars for a 500gram brick of Nottingham in the UK in 2001. Would it double in price in less than 4 years :blink: !

I also was given a 500gram brick a month or so ago from a microbrewery. To split this up i have to purge the bags it is going into with nitrogen.
Ask around and if you want to try some I would be happy to send you enough for a couple of brews.

C&B
TDA

 

[Temple of Seth]

You raise a good point Armstrong, and I'll keep considering it.

However, I will note that with the Aussie/Greenback exchange running at 0.77+ right now, I'm perpetually dismayed by the persistence of prices on manufactured goods which seem to have been set when it was still 0.50. I'm sure some of this is importation cost, but it seems to me that I found Cooper's products quite plentiful overseas (including yeast) and quite inexpensive. My parents are coming to visit me here in about 2 weeks, so I might have them bring some over (Nottingham retails at approx. US$1.25 / 11g sachet now, give or take from my parents local HB store in MD). Presumably customs won't quarantine yeast kept in an airtight nitrogen-filled sachet. I am quite pleased that the increased economic incentive for homebrewing I've seen here in Oz. Unfortunately, this appears to be driven by the (unconscionable ,ridiculous) price of store-bought beer rather than the inexpense of homebrewing equipment and ingredient purchases. [Of course, there's plenty to love about living here (which I do) apart from this, so please no one overinterpret this passage] Somebody's got to me making a pretty penny on all this.

Unfortunately, I don't have vacuum seal equipment, and I'm not sure how to go about nitrogen purging. Presently, I'm saving up for a satisfactory answer to my co2 needs.