Ever ask a local brewery for yeast?

I've had two breweries offer to give me some if I ever wanted any, but I have not taken either of them up on the offer. I'm pretty certain that yeast sharing by commercial breweries does occur, but I don't know how often. Go take a tour of your local brewery and ask them if they do it. I'm going to guess that then answer will be yes.

 

Commercial breweries (like homebrewers) produce more yeast than they can ever use. It's no problem for them to give you a pint or two of yeast. Not all breweries will give out their yeast because they have a unique house strain (even if it's only unique in their own minds) or because they don't want every homebrewer in the area bugging them nonstop. It's not unreasonable to ask.

 

Plenty do

Here some of the regionals also give yeast to local microbrewers, Thwaites are one example who happily did so but their management then decided to close their brewery and get Marstons to brew their beer for them - cue a load of breweries in the blackburn area having to find a different supplier. Others used to, Harveys did but are unhappy about the tax benefits that micros get so stopped giving out their yeast. Don't agree with them on that as there would be barely any micros here if it wasn't for that

I have got some from a local brewpub, just had to turn up at the right time. They just used a mix of windsor and notty though, but free yeast and a nosy around it's all good

 

For my fellow west shore denizens... A Nosy Around = A Look See

 

Every time I find myself dumping (sometimes gallons) of yeast down the drain at work I think to myself, how think of how much homebrew could be fermented with this!

 

I have gotten yeast from a brewpub where I know the brewers, so no problem.

Local Brewers will ask each other for trades of yeast that they normally don't use. One place has WLP-550, another uses WLP-940 Mexican Lager, another uses WLP-022, and so on, so you can see that they can do different styles by just getting a pitch from a friend.

 

Every time I re-read one of my posts that I write just after waking up, I think to myself that I should go back to bed.

 

Every time I re-read one of my posts...I think...I'm right...again...I need a nap

 

I've only ever asked once ... and the tour guide looked at me like I was from Mars.

Your results may vary.

 

Last fall I toured Ommegang, who is very protective about their proprietary house yeast. In good conscious I couldn't go home without asking; they gave me a "not-only-no-but-hell-no" answer. I stoically took their reply . . . then quietly bought a single of their lowest ABV beer from the gift shop (insert diabolical laughter here) on the way out. Just started carbonating a nice Belgian Pale . . . compliments of the boys from Cooperstown.

 

Tour guides do not strike me as the right persons to ask, unless the guide also works on brewhouse operations.

 

Ask a brewer, they handle the yeast.

Yeah some breweries have house strains, and you can culture from the bottle in that case, but beware that some filter the primary yeast out and use a stable bottling yeast.

 

I give away my yeast all the time if people ask for it. I've even counted the yeast for homebrewers before and let them check it out under the scope in an effort to educate them about under pitching. It isn't a big deal to do so, especially if I am just sitting in the taproom drinking a beer.

As for commercial breweries, we do share yeast on occasion, but I personally don't get yeast from other brewers. I am very strict about our yeast management and I don't know other brewers that go to the same lengths, or follow the same guidelines that I do. I will however give yeast to other commercial brewers if they ask.

 

How come my high school career counselor never brought opportunities like this to my attention

 

I would feel real weird asking for yeast. I have been at a couple home brew meetings at breweries and they have always offered up yeast. I have also used yeast donated for our big brew in May.

 

I've obtained yeast from a number of breweries...no one thought it was a big deal at all and were happy to provide some, except for one small brewery here in NJ; when I asked, the owner/brewer went into a very bizarre diatribe acting as though I were some kind of spy attempting to extract state secrets. I certainly didn't see that coming, since the conversation and 'shop talk' was quite cordial up to that point. But both he and his father/partner turned out to be rude and quite arrogant.
I just smiled and nodded.
They made decent beer however, which tasted like high quality, very well made homebrew.

In the end, no big deal...ultimately, it was easy enough to track down the source of his yeast culture (I found his suppliers and simply asked them...it actually turned out to be a pretty common strain which I already had anyway!).

 

Probably wanted you to make money.

 

That actually surprises me. I'd be surprised if Wyeast told anyone what yeast strains we use if asked. Although, if you wanted to know, I'd tell you anyways.