Anyone else miss the old tubes of yeast. I find these new pouches difficult to work with. Cast your vote.
I use Wyeast exclusively so if they are similar I would love them.
I like the higher sanitary level, but I admit there are some issues that I haven’t worked out with the new packaging yet:
1). harder to de-gas than the vials - I’ve lost some yeast when I cut into the pack. was much easier to crack the top a few times to release.
2). harder to get all the yeast out - with a vial, I used to pour about half the vial, recap, shake up to get all the yeast clinging to the walls of the vial, or at worst pour back some wort to the vial to help. hard to do with the pouches.
I too use Wyeast pretty exclusively, although I do have a couple free coupons from some comps for the WL pitchable tubes. I will try those out this summer most likely.
Smack packs have way more liquid in them making it easy to get all the yeast out. The new pure pitch are neat, but I do find that I need to squeegee them between two fingers to get the last bits. I also don’t like that I need a pair of scissors. Smack packs tear easily at the notches and the tubes were easy enough to open.
So all new yeast from them are no longer distributed in a vial? When did that start?
I too have used Wyeast exclusively and like the packs. As a creature of habit, this might make me at least try WL in the future.
I actually like the variety of Wyeast and have been using it for a very long time. Easy to smack and open. My LHBS only stocks White Labs. Their packaging is everything described above. Squeezing, cutting, degassing. Had a bit of a mess today. Cut along the dotted line, against my better judgement, and sure enough, the liquid was above the line causing me to lose some. The tubes were lightyears ahead of these small pouches. I’m sure it had something to do with the bottom line.
I don’t think so really. the new packs are more sanitary since the yeast is propagated inside the packaging, rather than propagated and inserted into packaging - one less step to worry about.
I assume, though can’t say for certain, that the packaging is also a bit ‘greener’ which has its benefits.
D - All of the above
So I got a vial of yeast from white recently, it sort of caught me off guard because I thought they had switched to the pouch. it was the Nordic yeast blend that they produced with their “vault” program. not sure if that makes a difference.
They work on this for a long time, applied for patent(s), set up production lines for pro and Homebrew sizes. How that helps the bottom line in the short term is beyond me. I think they want the purest package of yeast to attract more sales, especially on the pro brewery side. That will grow the business and the bottom line.
I prefer over the bottle. I just shake real good then cut and immediately pour. No issues with left over yeast in the package.
scissors are essential as opening with a knife made my hands yeasty. I now use autoclaved surgical scissors.
steve
What was the date on the vial?
i mix wort into mine after squeezing…works great that way.
i would like a to see increase pouch size to allow easier mixing…other than that no issues.
I’ve only used the PurePitch pouches twice. Once was WLP570, which gave me no problems whatsoever. The other was WLP002, which was somewhere between toothpaste and modeling clay in consistency. I would rather see a thinner liquid like you get from Wyeast, especially for the more flocculant strains.
Just tried WLP565 Saison for the first time in Purepitch. The liquid was remarkably homogenious, not sludgy, and easy to squeeze out. Obviously every yeast strain is different, but this one was very easy to use.
I can see how 002 would be a bit chunky.