Has anyone used this company? I just saw it on my on-line suppliers site. They seem to specialize in Brett blends and “rare” yeasts.
I ordered a tube of their Wallonia Farmhouse to compare with WY3711. They look very similar from what I’m reading on their website and maybe they are the same thing, can’t really say.
Mad Fermentationist just posted about a beer he made with their Vermont ale yeast.
I also just read the MF post about this and had a few questions…
- is The Yeast Bay a boutique yeast brand by White Labs?
- how much different can I make a beer taste by using a different or apparently higher quality yeast?
- what is this Conan yeast I read about?
From their website, they isolate the yeast and send to white labs for production in volume
Considering White Labs is producing their yeast, I wouldn’t think much. Maybe they are positioning themselves as the hard to find yeast guys.
Conan yeast is the yeast of The Alchemist and Heady Topper fame. Never tried it myself.
Conan was brought back from England by Greg Noonan, used in his Vermont Pub and Brewery. John Kimmich,worked at VPB, and got the yeast from Noonan.
[quote=“, post:4, topic:16200”]
Considering White Labs is producing their yeast, I wouldn’t think much. Maybe they are positioning themselves as the hard to find yeast guys.
That’s pretty much how their website reads.
I picked up two vials of the Wallonian Farmhouse yeast. I plan on brewing a saison similar to my base saison to see what it will be like. 3711 is my go to for this as it’s a “cleaner” saison for me. I’m thinking it may be close to 585 from White Labs. I’ll have to report back. It’s been a while since i’ve used 585 and that was for a Saison d’ Hiver. I do like the Brett blends they are putting out. Seems to have a lot of character from what I’ve read.
They are actually a stand alone company that does all of their own strain prospecting, isolation and evaluation. According to their website, White Labs is their contract manufacturer.
By using a different yeast, a lot! The quality is definitely there, as it’s manufactured by White Labs. The Yeast Bay seems to specialize in providing yeast that have unique profiles and are unlike other yeast on the market. I have used a number of the blends/strains, and they are certainly unique from the White Labs and Wyeast line up.
The Alchemist Heady Topper strain, famed for it’s dryness and ester profile.
Cheers.
A guy I know uses them a lot and is really happy with the yeast.
The Wallonian Farmhouse strain is definitely one of the most unique and has seemed to get the most attention in other forums, aside from the Vermont Ale.
They also just posted on their Facebook that they will soon be releasing a sour blend “the proportions for which we are still contemplating” and a single strain of Saccharomyces that “has a magnificent bouquet, ferments dry and has a reputation for being quite alcohol tolerant… suits the Belgian Golden Strong Ale style perfectly… is going to be a great yeast for any high alcohol Belgian-style beer”.
Woot!
I’m curious about their products. I haven’t seen any bad reviews yet but I haven’t seen a lot of reviews in general.
I’m looking for some new saison strains to use in addition to 3711 or instead of 3711 just to keep some variety in my beers. I suppose most of the saison strains floating around are either cultured from commercial beers or harvested from yeast banks and repackaged for homebrewing so neither is really “new”.
If you search HomeBrewTalk and Reddit (/r/homebrewing sub), I have seen quite a bit of review of almost every strain they offer. Check them out if you get a chance.
So far as not being “new”, I would probably disagree on that point. I think it’s a huge service to offer strains that were previously not available to homebrewers and almost all craft brewers in pure culture. You can culture dregs from a bottle, but the important thing to remember is that pure culture from a lab that has zero tolerance for contamination is far superior to something grown up from a bottle in which there is an acceptable level (albeit low) of bacterial/wild yeast contamination.
Speaking from personal experience, I would say their Saison Blend and Wallonian Farmhouse are definitely “new”, as there was nothing like them on the market before they showed up. They both produce profiles that are unique and, now thank to the folks at The Yeast Bay, easily accessible!
Thought I’d share with the forum that The Yeast Bay just came out with some new products the other week. They now have a big sour blend (Melange), a sour Saison (Farmhouse Sour Ale), a big Brett blend (Amalgamation) and a new Belgian strain (Dry Belgian Ale). They sold quick, but it seems they got more stock and everything is currently up.
Did a large split batch of saison wort and am using them all. They’re all chugging away and smell great. Very glad to see their lineup of offerings is growing.
I got me a vial of Sour Mélange to ferment my dark sour something. Will report on findings 
Took a while to lift off but the sour melange is happily chugging away now. Took about 60 hours to achieve krausen, although there was a bit of airlock activity about 24 hours in.
Solid fermentaion at room temperature at this point, with a big head of krausen. No noticeable off smells.
Dark sour something? Do tell…
Over here