Where's everyone getting their ingredients?

[Ollie]

Curious. Be nice to have some options with the way prices are running.

[Dan]

Dunedin Malthouse usually has a good range of malt, hops, yeast etc

[James P]

Second that. Dennis will sort you out.

[Ollie]

Let me rephrase that. Preferably mail order accessable in Wellington, with bulk grain available.

[Dan]

Let me rephrase that!!!, mail order freight costs is free after I think $50, both islands, Ive bought 25kg sacks of otter from there and 30 kg sacks of german malt, and many a range of specialties, and at a reasonable price, milled or unmilled as far as im concerned dun malthouse is second to none!

[Stu McKinlay]

I've organised a couple of bulk malt orders directly through David Cryer. Full sacks only (and 500kg minimum order!!).
You can get your sacks one at a time, for not much more, through Brewerscoop in Auckland. check the versus Dunedin. both good owners with a good commitment to brewers (as opposed to some of the other stores).

All my hops comes from NZ Hops (www.nzhops.co.nz).

All my yeast comes from MoreBeer (www.morebeer.com).

[denimglen]

I get pretty much all my ingredients from BrewersCoop in Auckland since it's only five minutes from my house, not much point in searching around for me. His prices are very reasonable IMO anyway. I believe Mike there will ship if you email him. I don't have the address handy but I'm sure someone else here will have it.

Stu, is that dry or liquid yeast you're getting from MoreBeer? I've ordered a bit of stuff from them and have been really happy with their service. If it's liquid yeast how many ice packs do you get, is it still cold when it gets here, any problems with viability?

[Stu McKinlay]

I'm getting dry yeast. All DCL/Fermentis ones - S04, S33, T58, US05 and a few packets of w34/70 for the depths of winter.

The one time I used S33 I was quite intrigued. Reminded me of the malt character of Orval, if you could imagine it without the brett. I've got another packet stashed away for an experiment soon.
T58 (again only used once) seems like a nice little yeast for strong Belgians. I'll definitely try that again later in the year and have recommended it to my bro, who likes his belgian and dutch "house" ales.
Happy with S04 outside of summer, for classic English styles, and with US05 all year 'round for anything hoppy or strong.

It's been a while since I used 34/70 but I was mostly happy - just found this nice little article on it: http://www.hefebank-weihenstephan.de/page/Downloads/yeast%20strains...

Tried K97 a few times now and I'm giving up. It doesn't suit anything I've been wanting to brew - always a bit sulphury for me.

I've bought a few liquids of Nicholford and had them in from Australia but have nothing off morebeer yet. I'm considering some liquid for low gravity bitters, as my best successes in these departments have been with wyeast 1968 and 1099.

[denimglen]

Cheers.

Yeah, I'm looking to start culturing and farming yeast to keep the cost down, I think I worked out that I could order something like 10 liquid yeasts and have it work out to about $10 each or something. Then cultured up I would get about 10 batches from one vial so in theory $1 per brew. That's the plan anyway. Murphy's law will prove me wrong haha ;-)

I used T-58 on one of my recent batches (ordered from craftbrewer.com.au) and didn't think it was that flash in a Belgian PA, it smelt really good while fermenting but was just average in the glass. Maybe it's better in a higher gravity brew, a little more stress on the yeast so a little more of those signature esters.

[Stu McKinlay]

Mine was a 1.050-odd Belgian Pale. A little phenolic, which wasn't in keeping with the BPA style but would be spot on in a stronger beer. Definitely had a wee hint of chimay about it... there are rumours but who knows.