He’s gonna carry both, but probably WYeast for ales (it’s hands down the more popular brand for ales for some reason) and White labs for lager. Lager seems to be 50/50 to leaning in white labs direction.
White labs also has a new packaging system that is supposed to stay viable up to 50% for 10 - 12 months. I’m basing this on what my buddy told me, and what the white labs rep told him. I haven’t looked it up. It has to do with growing the yeast in the packaging so that it never loses it’s stores and it 99.9% viable when it ships. Again, don’t quote me on that I haven’t researched it.
My buddys (the shop owner) problem is that he has a stigma to overcome. He bought the shop from the previous owners and they didn’t really cater to brewers, more for wine making. He’s revamped it to offer everything. It’s now my go to shop since the inventory has been changed and I can get all the malts and yeast (coming) I need now and it’s a lot closer to home.
My list is short:
1) The Survivor (origin unknown, handed to me as a slurry in a mayo jar back in the early 80s and saved on slants after going through around 30 generations)
2) 1272/BRY97 (original Ballantine ale strain) (probably should be #1…it’s my most used choice this year)
3) 1099
4) 1968
I’ve played around with lots of others over the years, but these four are the core to which I always return (I like repeatability and so see little point in switching up yeasts very often).
BRY-97 I really need to give this yeast another try. I have to say 007 is my favorite for so many styles. This list makes me think about a lot of yeasts that I’ve never looked at.
I generally use these most:
007
1450
530
1056
2124
833
2000
GY018
001 California Ale
002 English Ale
380 Hefeweizen IV
510 Bastogne Belgian Ale
530 Abbey Ale
565 Belgian Saison
655 Belgian Sour Mix
830 German Lager
833 German Bock
838 South German Lager