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Yeast

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:56 pm
by midsomerjambo
Hi All,

I'm a confirmed brew from scratch fan and in the past I've managed to obtain live yeast for my brews from commercial breweries, having had less than satisfactory results with dried yeasts. As a west Wiltshire resident I had until recently got my yeast from Wadworth's in Devizes but lately they haven't been responding to my email requests so I guess their policy has changed. So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for an alternative brewery from where they've sourced some yeast. Failing that, I was going to use Wyeast, as advertised by one or two online homebrew shops. Can I expect as good a result with this as I have had with Waddy's yeast (and Greene King and Tolly Cobbold when I used to live a bit further east)?

Regards, Gerry

Re: Yeast

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:55 pm
by steve crawshaw
Sorry, can't help with breweries but can confirm that wyeast strains work well. They come with a small nutrient pack which you smack to release. This gets the yeast working and ready to pitch when your wort is at the right temperature. If it's a wort below about 1050 you should be able to pitch direct. For stronger worts a starter is advised. If you are in wiltshire you can probably collect from BrewUK.
cheers
steve

Re: Yeast

Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 8:29 am
by vacant
About five years ago Bristol Brewers had yeast bank but I think it no longer exists. Keeping your own slants would be a whole new skill set and whole new set of equipment.

Instead, recovering yeast from bottle conditioned beers is less hassle and very cheap especially as you get to drink the bottle. Here is an old list I got from a forum. I've had very lively results from the two I've tried: Fullers and St Austell.
  • Adnams (mini-kegs contain the primary dual-strain, but bottles do not)
    Brakspear Oxford Gold, perhaps Triple as well
    Chimay
    Coopers
    Courage (some)
    D'Achouffe
    DeDolle (excellent Belgian multi-strain)
    DuPont (classic saison culture, but reportedly a triple-strain, results vary)
    Duvel (probably contains primary strain, some dispute)
    Fullers Bengal Lancer and 1845 (extremely popular)
    Hopback Summer Lightning
    Marble?
    Marstons Oyster Stout or Tesco's IPA?
    Morland Hen's Tooth
    Ommegang
    Ridleys (some)
    Rochefort
    Sharps (some, perhaps the only way to obtain historic Morrells strain)
    Shepherd Neame Spitfire
    Sierra Nevada
    St. Austell Proper Job and Black Job
    Thomas Hardy (some)
    Thwaites (some)
    Westmalle
    Youngs Special London Ale, London Gold