yeast prices

[akka lakka]

hi i can not understand why a packet of safe lager yeast costs more than a 100 gram pack of hops,i use worcester hop shop for my goodies and even the safe ale 04 has gone up,am i just being tight fisted and having a winge i am going to have to place my order soon as stocks running low i will just have to pay up and look happy,wonder what other brewers think of yeast prices

[Beer O'Clock]

If it becomes a "money thing", then make a starter and split it into several starters. That way the expense will be less per brew.

[vacant]

I got into slants and starters over a year ago. Over the past twelve months I bought a couple of whitelabs tubes, a brewlabs slant, swapped a couple of slants so now have a choice of five yeasts. It now costs me 1.5 litres of wort saved from the previous brew to step up. i.e. yeast costs 50p. Could probably do it cheaper as Brewlabs suggest 300ml starters.

The only thing you need to buy are some small vials (£4 for ten 20ml on eBay). All the rest you can probably bodge from stuff you have.

[weiht]

Yeast is the most expensive component in terms of value for many. Even my local micro said that the price of liquid yeast is almost the cost of the hops n grains put together!!

[akka lakka]

thanks i will try splitting yeast from starters and vials sounds good,i will have to be careful with sterilizing though.cheers

[fisherman]

I split Whitelabs yeast, Never had a problem with splitting it. The Malt miller sells really fresh dated yeast brilliant. I get 10 starters from 1 vial of yeast.
Iagree dried yeast is far to expensive to use unless you repitch.

[Goulders]

I am happy with splitting a whitelabs vial and made a 2l starter intending to use 1l and keep the other for splitting later. However, Mr Malty said to pitch the whole 2l (wort decanted first of course). So intend to reharvest from the FV. I don't have a stir plate.

Next time I use a vial I will make a larger starter to split I think.

[simco999]

Hello - recovered WLP300 sitting in my fridge all ready and waiting!!!!

OK you can't see it but its there!!

[Spud395]

Yeast is the most expensive component in terms of value for many. Even my local micro said that the price of liquid yeast is almost the cost of the hops n grains put together!!

Or you can re-use slurry and brew a dozen or more batches with a sachet of Notty

[charliefarley]

Yeast is the cheapest part of brewing for me.
Even water costs more with the amount of CRS I need to add, being not far from the Chiltern (chalk) Hills.
I have been brewing all my beer for over a year with a few original vials of White Labs yeast - WLP001, WLP800, WLP036 and WLP300.
With these four vials @£20 I have brewed over 30 batches of beer and I intend to brew a lot more.

[simco999]

Yeast is the cheapest part of brewing for me.
Even water costs more with the amount of CRS I need to add, being not far from the Chiltern (chalk) Hills.
I have been brewing all my beer for over a year with a few original vials of White Labs yeast - WLP001, WLP800, WLP036 and WLP300.
With these four vials @£20 I have brewed over 30 batches of beer and I intend to brew a lot more.

Top man - save the yeast - the gift that keeps on giving!!!

[techtone]

Or you can re-use slurry and brew a dozen or more batches with a sachet of Notty

Works for me As long as it isn't more than about a month between batches, I reuse the yeast from the previous batch. I tend to do several batches quite close together and then have a break from brewing for a while before starting again with a new sachet.

Before moving to AG (3 years ago) I even built-up a few spares by reusing the yeast from the kits, so yeast was effectively "free" when I first switched to AG.

[barney]

I have a number of yeasts on slopes, effectively free after the first purchases. Lately I have been top cropping, using the logic if its good enough for the brewery's its good enough for me. The yeast is lovely and thick when top cropped and pretty much Shite free with few or no dead cells. I brew weekend normally and have found that cropping on Wednesday provides an adequate quantity of yeast in time for the weekends brew day. Its surprising how little you need when its thick and alive. There is no complicated washing or rinsing, all you need is a spoon(the bigger the better) and an airtight sandwich box. Free yeast. No wonder the breweries guard theirs passionately.

[Spud395]

Whats your process barney, spoon into lunch box, I guess

[guypettigrew]

following Wolfy's wonderful post on yeast rinsing, I now have two sorts of Whitelab's yeast (001 and 007) sitting in my 'fridge.

I've slightly altered Wolfy's process to suit my equipment, and I store the washed yeast in 100ml plastic bottles. By the time it's finished settling there's about 50 ml of yeast and 50 ml of clear liquid above it. Each bottle is enough to pitch directly into 23 litres of wort. In fact, I've made a brew today and used a bottle of the 001.

When the last bottle's been pitched I rinse the yeast from the brew, fill five or six bottles and start all over again. Makes the yeast very cheap!

Guy