Wyeast Best By Dates - from annoying to inscrutable

We over at TMB forum cracked the code, its to use another yeast distributer.

 

Wyeast is and has been in it for a long time. I am confident that their homebrewing recommendations are reasonable, but they do have to account for variables that are outside of their control. It would be nice to know the packaging date but the majority of their homebrewing customers really don't have all that much use for the information.

These are the guys that actually do the research on their own process. They aren't relying on an unknown online calculator from perhaps an unknown internet user who might think they know more about the Wyeast product or really anything about Wyeast. As their methods improve, or production increases, or both, it is reasonable to assume that they would change product recommendations.

Basically, if your not doing your own cell counts you are relying on assumptions, so why not use the information supplied by Wyeast? If I know your brewing habits, you're going to be making a starter 100% of the time.

Cheers

 

Covid, has dome some funky things to Wyeast. My site has a very large sample size of folks with scopes and skills in the scientific method.

Pre-covid things were all well, yeast performance, and counts fell within range.

Covid brought forth some very interesting anomalies, in nearly all strains we tested.

We saw:
SUPER poor yeast performance, increases in fermentation times, of 2x or more.
High FG's (lower AA%)
Low cell counts
High mutants
A sudden change to best by dates

The constants were mashes with high beta extract (80+% FWE in beta range), good wort handling procedures, and proper yeast nutrient (we use Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate), and finally proper oxygenation (verification via DO meter). Active monitoring of ppd (points per day of gravity reduction), and finally sensory analysis.

All this has seemed to only effect wyeast, and when directly presented with the documention and questioned we were told, this is the first they have heard of it(though not super surprised).

I have no afflation with any other yeast distributors, but when we explored others such as white labs and imperial, they do not suffer from the above. So we have stopped purchasing yeast from them and suddenly our problems went away.

 

This is another thing we have extensively tested over here. Calculators are not very accurate, we usually see they are around 50% off high (meaning actual count would be 50% low).

Rough visual estimates are that if your are a lager brewer, the proper amount of yeast you should start with is half of a amount you would recover after your ferment relative to your fermentation size.
This equates out to about 1" of pure yeast in a 1qt mason jar for a 5g batch.
For ales:
This equates to about 3/4" of pure yeast in a 1qt mason jar for a 5g batch.

 

Agreed its very annoying and might move me away from Wyeast. Sure were making some assumptions but with some historical data ,such as yeast deterioration with time, you can make some fairly solid assumptions on yeast count if you have a packaging date.

 

Maybe if you develop a relationship with one of their customer reps or even a lab tech they can give you the born on date. I have not examined the package but some Lot or Batch code must be available for them to reference.

I don't know. They're yeast nerds. We are yeast nerds. As long as we understand that we are the exception in the homebrewing world. Well, not me. I just make a starter. But same idea.

Cheers

 

My LHBS used to lean heavily in Wyeast and are getting more and more elsewhere. I still have been using wyeast but definitely not as heavily as I used to. With this change I am not as dedicated to the manufacturer, but I know some of the flavor profiles really well so I certainly won't be abandoning them. Though annoying, generally I have been just using a lower viability estimate to start and making about 500 mL extra starter than I otherwise may have, I figure peace of mind is worth 50 g of DME. I know that this part of the process isn't perfect anyway.

 

Lagers that makes sense but that could be an insanely high pitch rate for an ale yeast depending on the strain, the beer style, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Kviek yeast non withstanding.