Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Joey, at Fifth Season, has asked for our help in choosing what Wyeast samples to order. Instead of randomly choosing other yeasts from their list he wanted to ask to see if there were any particular Wyeast strains CAMRA folks would be interested in having them carry.  He hopes to place the order early this coming week.

Please post your reply here and Joey will be checking this thread.

Cheers-
Christopher

The one I have used the most is 1056, which is their Cal Ale yeast (similar to White Labs 001).  A glance through past brew logs shows that I have also used 1968 (London ESB) and 3944 (Belgian Witbier) multiple times.  That being said, I am definitely using dry yeast a lot more these days, as the Safale products are convenient, less expensive, and work great.  The only liquid yeasts I usually go to now are for Belgians, hefeweizens, and other specialty beers with lots of derived yeast character, for which there is no good dry yeast equivalent. 

I would advise Joey to not carry both Wyeast 1056 and WLP001 (and other duplicates that both companies make quality products of) in order to keep the freshest yeast available for customers and avoid stock losses for his business.  Likewise, I think Wyeast 1968 is really similar to WLP002, both originating from Fullers.  I'm not trying to counter Tom. I'm just saying that if a brewer needs an American Ale yeast, then for most brewers either 1056 or 001 will suffice. Personally, I'd rather have a fresher vial of 001 than have the choice of using 001 or 1056. See what I'm sayin'?
Here's a great chart that compares the source strains for the Wyeast and White Labs products:  http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm
It's pretty accurate in so far as I can tell. Something that I would consider is that there are strains that one company makes and the other does not, or general preference for one company's version over the other's.  For example, Wyeast 3068 is considered by many as THE hefeweizen yeast, and Wyeast Saison 3724 is usually considered superior over WLP565.  Especially regarding the limited edition strains, White Labs and Wyeast produce unique products.  Example: White Labs has the Bastogne yeast for which there is no Wyeast equivalent.
My personal yeast preferences are all over the place because I don't brew one style all the time.  I thought Joey had a pretty good selection of White Labs stuff.  I went into Fifth Season wanting a Scottish Ale yeast, which I found they didn't have in stock.  But after going over the White Labs chart on the side of their fridge, I decided that the White Labs Irish Ale yeast would work fine for the Northern English Brown and Baltic Porter I wanted to make.
I might have yeast request as the various limited edition strains are released, but for now I don't have any particular requests.  Thanks for asking for our input though, much appreciated.

I agree with Greg, that the company should not carry multiple strains of the same yeast, even from different companies.  The most important thing with yeast is freshness and stock turn-over.  Thus, they would be shooting themselves in the foot to carry both product lines.  I have not been to the store yet, so I was unaware of what yeast company's line they currently stock.  I assumed, from Christopher's initial post, they were going to carry Wyeast products and I was just recommending a couple they should consider stocking.

I hope to stop by and see their store sometime in the near future.