I see that The Yeast Bay is now up and running. Smartly, they partnered with White Labs for production, so I’m hoping we won’t see production/availability issues like we always do with the hobbyist who runs East Coast Yeast. Glad to see there’s a new source for funk. Can’t wait to try the Saison/Brett combo. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
http://www.theyeastbay.com/
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hmmmm…does “Vermont Ale” = Heady Topper? Methinks yes. Me also thinks my “Catching Conan” yeast harvesting from my Heady supply is now obsolete.
But its way more fun to catch it yourself isn’t it? Even if there are some wild yeasties in there…
They’ve been up for a few weeks and based on all the commentary on YeastBay’s facebook page and both Reddit and The HomeBrewTalk forum where there’s frequent updates on offerings, recipes, and strain notes, it looks like they’ve got some solid stuff. Folks are finishing up early offering beers so reviews of the strains are starting to come out.
Vermont Ale is supposedly Conan. Also, The Mad Fermentationist just did a posting using Vermont Ale in his homebrew version of Modern Time’s Fortunate Islands.
I’m really curious about the Wallonian strain – any ideas what it might be? What style?
YeastBay isn’t disclosing sources for yeast, but the leading theory is Fantome due to the “smokiness” characteristic.
Among the Yeast Bay offerings, what would you recommend for a Biere de Mars? (Northern Brewer’s new kit)
Were you thinking of Sacc only, one of the funky strains, or one of each for a double/split batch?
Definitely not a straight sacc batch – I want some funk!
I think your best bet would be the saison brett blend. The saison sacc should chew through the sugars leaving a crisp, dry finish with the brett giving some fruit esters and funk. The description on their site seems to best complement the kit’s flavor profile.
The saison portion should take off fairly early in the fermentation process but the brett will need some time to slowly chew through the remaining sugars, etc. I would probably give this a good three to six months before sampling. Depending on the level of funk you’re going for and gravity, give it more time for the brett profile to develop and drop the gravity further, add sour bottle dregs, or bottle/keg.
depends what you are going for in your biere de mars. What is in NB’s kit?
I have made them with saison/farmhouse yeasts, lager yeasts, and actually a belgian dubbel yeast.
Biere de Mars in my mind should have a relatively clean malty lager character, with some signs of wild fermentation. Some say it should have a ‘corked’ sherry character, from traditional fermenations and agings in dank sweaty basements. The problem you may run into with a saison yeast is it being TOO dry. You may want a touch of residual sweetness. I basically see this beer style as a vienna with real subtle phenols/funk though.
To get this, I might try the Funktown Pale Ale, or even the Abbey followed by one of the funkier brett blends. You planning on waiting awhile before you drink it? It looks like some of those Brett blends take awhile to round out and/or finish their pellicular activity.
I’m intrigued that they went with the White Labs “one vial per 5 gallons” nonsense. Can the cell count be any higher in the same amount of slurry?
[quote=“BadSaxx”]I see that The Yeast Bay is now up and running. Smartly, they partnered with White Labs for production, so I’m hoping we won’t see production/availability issues like we always do with the hobbyist who runs East Coast Yeast. Glad to see there’s a new source for funk. Can’t wait to try the Saison/Brett combo. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
http://www.theyeastbay.com/[/quote]Al at ECY is far from a “hobbyist”. He supply pro brewers, home brewers and a few homebrew shops
I have never had an issue getting his stuff over the years.
[quote=“grainbelt”][quote=“BadSaxx”]I see that The Yeast Bay is now up and running. Smartly, they partnered with White Labs for production, so I’m hoping we won’t see production/availability issues like we always do with the hobbyist who runs East Coast Yeast. Glad to see there’s a new source for funk. Can’t wait to try the Saison/Brett combo. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
http://www.theyeastbay.com/[/quote]Al at ECY is far from a “hobbyist”. He supply pro brewers, home brewers and a few homebrew shops
I have never had an issue getting his stuff over the years.[/quote]
Al is more than legit when it comes to sours and bug wrangling. If you want ECY, Princeton Homebrew has a google group with offerings and Love2Brew also carries his stuff. To ensure quality, Al tends to not ship during the dead of the summer with heat so you have to look for ECY in fall/winter/spring. Either that or trade yeast samples to get slurry.
I was able to get five vials of ECY 20 Bug County a few months back from a Princeton offering so like Grainbelt mentioned, it’s not impossible to get ECY.
[quote=“Lawbadger”][quote=“grainbelt”][quote=“BadSaxx”]I see that The Yeast Bay is now up and running. Smartly, they partnered with White Labs for production, so I’m hoping we won’t see production/availability issues like we always do with the hobbyist who runs East Coast Yeast. Glad to see there’s a new source for funk. Can’t wait to try the Saison/Brett combo. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
http://www.theyeastbay.com/[/quote]Al at ECY is far from a “hobbyist”. He supply pro brewers, home brewers and a few homebrew shops
I have never had an issue getting his stuff over the years.[/quote]
Al is more than legit when it comes to sours and bug wrangling. If you want ECY, Princeton Homebrew has a google group with offerings and Love2Brew also carries his stuff. To ensure quality, Al tends to not ship during the dead of the summer with heat so you have to look for ECY in fall/winter/spring. Either that or trade yeast samples to get slurry.
I was able to get five vials of ECY 20 Bug County a few months back from a Princeton offering so like Grainbelt mentioned, it’s not impossible to get ECY.[/quote]
I have never had an issue getting his stuff for probably 3 or 4 years.
like you said if it is the dead of summer and 100 degrees out he doesnt want to ship but will if you want to chance it and pay for cold shipping but I never bothered with that
Then you must be local to Princeton, as L2B rarely has anything available in stock. I wish it were different, but it’s just not.
My point is, it’s important to have a manufacturing partner who can reliably service orders. Since ECY isn’t available to me, and I would really like to have access to funky yeast strains, I won’t bother trying to order ECY until the production problem gets fixed. The guys at Yeast Bay have this figured out, so my business will be going to them. If ECY ever sorts this out, I would be happy to purchase from them as well.
Then you must be local to Princeton, as L2B rarely has anything available in stock. I wish it were different, but it’s just not.
My point is, it’s important to have a manufacturing partner who can reliably service orders. Since ECY isn’t available to me, and I would really like to have access to funky yeast strains, I won’t bother trying to order ECY until the production problem gets fixed. The guys at Yeast Bay have this figured out, so my business will be going to them. If ECY ever sorts this out, I would be happy to purchase from them as well.[/quote]
Nope in Midwest. There were probably 6 offerings in just the past couple months for ecy. Not hard to get at all.
Then you must be local to Princeton, as L2B rarely has anything available in stock. I wish it were different, but it’s just not.
My point is, it’s important to have a manufacturing partner who can reliably service orders. Since ECY isn’t available to me, and I would really like to have access to funky yeast strains, I won’t bother trying to order ECY until the production problem gets fixed. The guys at Yeast Bay have this figured out, so my business will be going to them. If ECY ever sorts this out, I would be happy to purchase from them as well.[/quote]
Nope in Midwest. There were probably 6 offerings in just the past couple months for ecy. Not hard to get at all.[/quote]
30 out of 30, out of stock today. That’s poor business.
Yeast Bay, 14 out of 14 in stock today.
East Coast Yeast, 3 out of 23 in stock today.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Did you ever brew your biere de garde / biere de mars? curious as to which bug cocktail you went with.
[quote=“BadSaxx”]Yeast Bay, 14 out of 14 in stock today.
East Coast Yeast, 3 out of 23 in stock today.
The numbers speak for themselves.[/quote]
wha wha…no problem getting them…Al just had a bunch of releases lately
