Not a happy camper…they drop 2001 because of lack of interest, what’s next, 3724? I realize this is a business…but they have some lousy yeast that are still on the list to be dropping classics like 2001…
Those lousy yeasts probably sell. You said it best: it’s a business.
If you can get WLP 800, that is said to be equivalent.
3726 is available year round from imperial yeast, it’s called rustic and from the yeast bay.
I had known about rustic, but not yeast bay’s version (thanks!). Do you have any idea how they compare to 3726 (from the perspective that “they are identical twins that were raised in separate households”)? For the most part I would expect a similar experience from all, but there’s bound to be some differences in the end results.
Yep…
I’ve never used Yeast Bays strain, just know through conversations with them that they stock the Blaugies strain. My experience with the rustic strain from Imperial was similar to 3726, I don’t have the most refined palette, but for the life of me I couldn’t tell a difference between the two. Maybe got a tiny bit more banana from the imperial strain in one brew, but I’m 99.9% sure that was a function of my fermentation schedule and not the yeast source. As far as attenuation and the numbers go, 3726 and rustic performed the same.
With greater competition from newer labs and evolving popularity in styles I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. It makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.
I wonder how many of the strains remaining available throughout the year that aren’t popular among homebrewers are those WY propagates enough for commercial sales that maintaining homebrewing inventory comes with marginal costs.
Very good info. Thanks for sharing BAB! My lhbs has many of the imperial yeast so I’ll likely be trying this strain out next time I brew a saison. Cheers!
no worries, let me know how it works out, the imperial tartan strain is awesome too IME. Its a really nice Scottish strain.
Yep, just to add on, I find Rustic and 3726 to be pretty close, as far as ‘identical’ strains go. I thought at first that 3726 might be a tad more peppery, but I think it was more a fermentation schedule thing. Both are good. And awesome.
the yeast bay has a new strain at called Wallonian farmhouse III that looks interesting and it seems to be something other than blaugies strain despite having a similar description
from their website “This is a single strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from a well-known brewery hailing from the Walloon region of Belgium. This strain is as attenuative as our original Wallonian Farmhouse and exhibits a more balanced profile of ester and phenols. This yeast is similar to a classic saison strain offered by many other yeast manufacturers, without the slow/low attenuation and stalling issues often observed in those cultures.”
Yeah, sounds interesting. I’d like to compare it to the others.
me too, I’ve got a starter of it going now, hopefully gonna do an early morning split batch this week.
Cool! I look forward to your thoughts on it. More good saison options is a good thing.
Drew did a video review of several Yeast Bay saison yeasts on Facebook. I’ll see if I can find a link, or move it to our website.
Here’s Drew’s video review of several Yeast Bay saison yeasts…
cool, watching now.
Thanks, Denny !