Has anyone been using Cellar Science products? Just curious what the experiences are.
More Beer has a line of products sold under the Cellar Science brand. It appears that they’re tapping into sources previously unavailable to US homebrewers to bring those products to this market.
Products such as
AEB yeast for the Nectar, Baja, English, Cali, German, Berlin, Saison, Monk, etc yeast strains. I tried the German strain which seems to be W34/70. I’ll be pitching English in my next beer and Baja in the beer after.
I’ve used their Brutzyme to produce a dry beer such as Brut APA. It definitely works. A little goes a long way.
Now, I see they’ve brought the AEB SBT ‘trifecta’ blend to the homebrew market in small scale packages. Previously, I believe it was only available in 500g bricks which caused homebrewers to concoct their own blends. Again, it looks like very little OxBlox goes a long way. At the low dose rate, my routine strike vol would require ~ 1.5 grams which is probably ~ 1/4 tsp. [emoji15]. I currently use 1/2 tsp of Brewtan B and, until recently, 1 tsp Ascorbic Acid. I haven’t used AA in my last two batches which resulted in a better mash pH.
It is worth considering - it definitely says that it contains K-metabisulfite (Campton tablet, essentially), gall tannins (Brewtan B) and Ascorbic Acid. I have all of those on hand already. One thought is how fresh the mixed ingredients must be to remain effective? Just thinking out loud… as a shelf stabilizer, one would think the ingredients should store pretty well.
I have had good results with the Berlin,German and Baja yeast. Can’t beat the price. Would use exclusively but I think I like Diamond Lager a bit more.
I’ve been using Cellar Science for the past 6 batches or so with great results. I rehydrate with their FirmStart product. I just read another post about cold pitching yeast and it went off into talking about rehydrating being an unnecessary step, so I might try dry pitching. Hazy and German are the only strains I’ve used so far.
I rehydrated per Cellar Science (or maybe it was More Beers) recommendation. Of course they probably just want to sell more stuff. Anyway, I rehydrated and it worked fine. But I’ll try a dry pitch.
I’ve been reading on HBT that Baja is a slow starter. But these seem to be brewers that are voyeurs judging by visual krauzen. It is unclear if they are pitching at the low 2.5 gram or high 4 gram per gal pitch rate. Some rehydrated, others didn’t.
Of course, lag phase, total fermentation time, attenuation and flavor are dependent on pitch rate, yeast handling, fermentation temperature and nutritional quality of the wort.
I have a stainless fermenter so I can’t see the krauzen. I go by Tilt data. As long as SG is dropping with a corresponding temp rise I count that as a start. I plan to find out soon.
I’m so confused. I follow your link and I see it but if I go to dry yeast I can’t find it. This is where I buy my yeast so that’s good. Hoping they carry more than the Cali…
I got a response from RiteBrew. He said he will add Bry-97 to see if it sells. He said it didn’t sell well before. He said it will be in stock in 2-3 weeks.
A while back I tried the Cellar Science English yeast strain and I recall a slow start.
Well, I pitched yesterday about 9:30-10:00 and here it is nearly 24 hrs later and I got nothing. The temp did increase by a degree or two but that’s it. I usually see a coorespnding gravity drop soon after a slight temp increase when using other yeasts.
I have a pet peeve with slow starting yeast. I am about done with Cellar Science and plan to stick with Lalleman or Fermentis.
Edit: I gave up on the Cellar Science English strain after 27+ hrs. I pitched a PurePitch Pack of WLP001 which is remarkable in that the old axiom is to keep dry yeast on hand in case of emergency. This time, I used liquid yeast due to dry yeast failure which is a first ever for me.
I used their Cali in two single hop batches I made. I have one in the fermenter now. It has been in there about 12 hours and very little activity, but I seem to remember that it was closer to 24 hours before it started really going. I use it, S05 and Bry97 as they seem to work the best. Next up I am going to try something in the Pils or Lager style and see what happens.
