With the introduction or Purepitch, WL double the cost to my LHBS thereby making the retail price $18. They decided to stop carrying WL products and only do special orders. Not a fan of WL for sticking it to the little guy.
this honestly really takes the wind out of my sails since I had been dailing in which white labs strains i enjoyed, they were ranging from $9.49 to $10.49 a pack just one year ago. my online HBS had to/has decided to switch to the next generation ones. prices now range from $15.49 up to $19.99!!! i make a starter anyway so this purepitch does nothing special for me. also whitelab’s dry yeast is priced at $13.99/pack - lol - what? if i want a WLP001 dry substitute i will use bry97 for $4.99 a pack (so far)
the other liquid yeast option is escarpment but they dont have a bunch of styles i want/learned about and i wasn’t impressed so far with the one type i have tried.
im not happy with both whitelabs and my online HBS, since the latter stopped selling omega which i did love and had decent pricing.
I think they doubled their cell count to compete with Imperial. Evidently, their production costs are higher which translates to the retail cost.
My LHBS now mainly carries Wyeast and Fermentis, which is fine with me. I can find anything I want between the two.
As I remember, White Labs was adamant for many years that their standard vials were good for a 5 gallon batch. I wonder if they have changed their minds, or if they’re just keeping up with home brewers who think the vials are insufficient.
I’d be willing to bet that would work just fine. I’d probably spray the cap and the threads with some sanitizer first.
not to keep beating a dead horse but my online HBS just jacked up the new white labs another notch. got WLP008 going for $21.49.
its just a bummer because there really was a peak time when i had great selection but still old school pricing and now there seems to be virtually no upward limit on yeast and a slow creep on everything else. about 2 years ago i thought i was completely set in terms of homebrew supply options and now suddenly i am making purchases in advance of intended brewing because im paranoid (and just this week proven correct - i ordered before the hike on most products) the prices will rise.
i saved some WLP833 from last winter/spring and have fed it into a starter and then a partigyle wort of about 7 litres to build up a nice amount and swo i can confirm that it tastes good/right.
ill be saving yeast from now on i think and using more dry yeast than i had expected i would. sad.
edit: what the hell are they thinking? i dont understand the pricing at all.
I’m done with White Labs. I recently bought a pack of WLP833 for like $18. The beer turned out great, but I can get great beer for half the price anywhere else. When I bought it, it made me sick and I really didn’t want to do it but I hadn’t used this yeast in a long time and wanted it bad. Not bad enough anymore. Everybody else is doing it better.
its crazy,and yes in truth i have a regional yeast option - escarpment labs - but their strains tend towards current trendy stuff ie. hazy english, clean lagers, kveiks etc. with limited variety.
it just feels like a huge step backwards to say 2010 homebrewing (in canada not america) for me finally after things started getting good.
im p much at the point of spiting white labs.