LHBS complaint section...

Sounds like it's time to change your yeast supplier. Sometimes you have to work with what you have. My LHBS's prices are very good, but it is a small shop in a small town that is a bit of a drive for most homebrewers in the area. Thus the product turnover is rather slow. I don't buy the bulk repackaged malt extract anymore (had a mold issue one time on top of staleness). I also carefully check the date on any liquid yeast that I buy there. Now I generally only buy grain, pellet hops, and equipment/expendables from this shop.

 

So your beers aren't carbing even if they sit in the bottle for months? That's not a problem of yeast it's low priming sugar. If there are yeast in the bottle, even a small, unhealthy amount, they'll convert that sugar into CO2 eventually. What temperature are you bottling at? What temperature are your beers being stored at? How long have your beers been in the bottle?

Your store might also have poor yeast handling techniques, but there could be other problems too.

 

How was the attenuation of the beer itself? If it was about what you expected, then it's unlikley that the yeast wouldn't go on and do its job in carbonating. BTW, a week in the bottle is generally too soon to expect full carbonation.

 

Eh, I have no real complaints with mine, other than being a 30 minute drive.

I generally get 2 recipes at a time together, since I don't brew every weekend, it's enough for a couple of weeks.

Well stocked, very good turn over and fresh grains and yeast.. Tons to choose from, and generally my liquid yeast isn't more than 2-3 weeks old at best. Generally I'm within a week of production date to my use.

Prices are better than online. Only thing I don't like, is perhaps the advice sometimes. Most of the time it's good, and means well, but sometimes ends up a little short sided. That and his equipment prices are a bit higher than some online places, but he makes up for it, in the low prices for grains and such, and he has monster mills for the grain, which give me great efficiency since I don't have my own mill.

 

Mine is business smart, he has prices for sacks of grain that cannot be beat. Everything else is priced high though. He knows if we get our grain there every time we also will probably get the other stuff as well. And most of us do.

 

Thats how mine is I think.. Grain is priced well. He's cheaper than NB and Midwest on ALL of their grain, or has the same price.. Rarh 2 row is .99 cents at my LHBS, and you mill it how you like it.

Hops aren't over priced as well, I think the most expensive might be 2.29 an ounce for some NZ stuff, and he's rarely out of stock of anything. Never ran low on Citra or Amarillo or any of that stuff when most places did.

So he gets ya in there, and admits the AG brewer makes him little money. But it's the extras he has, the equipment, and extract brewers.

 

When I bottle, I sample mine after the first week, and they are well on their way, but full carbonation probably peaks at the third week. What temps are your beers stored at during bottle conditioning?

 

I have one close to my house and one close to where I work. The one by my house is small and ok in a pinch. The one closer to my job is a little expensive but the customer service is out of this world so I go there. Never had an issue with old product anywhere I go (that I know of).

 

If it is really that your yeast is shit, re-yeast with a less attenuative dry yeast at bottling. Another solution would be do do multiple starters or a bigger starter with an extra packet to ensure you actually have the cell counts you think. Get a cheap ass microscope and a hemocytometer and count some cells to check viability. It could always be your process and not the brew shop's fault.

My local homebrew store has two absolutely fucking idiotic people behind the counter, that are incredibly condescending and one really nice, friendly guy. Prices are through the roof on everything but yeast, which is coincidentally, stupidly fresh and hops are improperly stored. Moral of the story, I buy all my yeast there, and then if needed, some specialty grain. For big buys of grain (think hundreds of pounds) I just make the 45 minute drive to MoreBeer and load up. Hops all bought online.

 

Do most of you guys buy hops locally? My guy stores them with his yeast in the fridge, and the leaf in the freezer.

I buy most all mine when the harvest hits, and divide and freeze accordingly.. I rarely buy locally, unless I'm doing something like a german lager ( will buy bulk this year ), or a bit stout or english beer where I use NB and willamette and such.

 

I think yeast strain can influence time to carb. I've bottled with lager strains several times, and they seem to take a little longer. I've only bottled with Kolsch yeast once, several years ago, and can't speak to any specific observations about that instance. Maybe it's a strain thing?

 

How large a batch. 1 oz of corn sugar seems rather low to me for a 5 gallon batch...

 

I wouldn't be too sure this was faulty yeast. If it attenuated to the correct level, there should be plenty of healthy yeast still in suspension for carbonation.

Anyway, to me, this whole issue is just one more reason why you have to do a starter. Even if the yeast you bought is a little beat down from poor treatment at the store or in shipping, you can build it back up with a good starter. Plus, the starter gives you a chance to observe whether it's sluggish or otherwise seems not super healthy, and make adjustments.

 

You posted your ‘solution’ in your original post: “Needless to say I won't be going back.”

Permit me to discuss a separate but related topic: consider brewing with dry yeast for those beer styles that are compatible with dry yeast. This past weekend I placed an order with Northern Brewer for my next 5 batches of beer:

· Wet hopped APA: US-05

· A Simcoe/Amarillo hopped IPA: US-05

· A Smokey & Spicy Brown Ale: Nottingham

· Bourbon Barrel Porter: Windsor

· Oatmeal Stout: Coopers

Cheers!

 

You probably know this, and I might be nit-picking here, but even after adding quotes around the term "bright tank"... its not a very good term to use here because beer from a bright tank is not bottle conditioned.

 

Fundamentally, a bright tank is just a tank to which fermented beer is transferred prior to serving or packaging and allowed to clear (naturally or otherwise). Carbonation is optional.