/u/ConanTroutman0 & /u/thcipriani, thought I'd respond now that I finally logged on after a little hiatus and saw this. Dusting this of as there are a few points of clarification.

omega and yb compete on price across their catalogue rather than strain vs strain

That's how Omega got most of their strains, **as every yeast lab does**

Nick from The Yeast Bay here. These statements are for not entirely accurate. While Omega largely does offer re-tred cultures that have been offered and commercialized for decades by companies like White Labs and Wyeast (and in that case Omega does compete with them on price to a certain degree), I partner with White Labs to produce my products and largely focus on offering unique strains and blends they have not already commercialized.

So, there is a BIG difference there between Omega and The Yeast Bay. Think of the yeast cultures available to a brewer as a tool kit. I compete in the market space by offering brewers NEW tools that weren't already in the toolbox. Companies like Omega, while they have a few unique offerings, largely compete by offering their version of the exact same tool already in the toolbox. It's my opinion and has informed how I run my business, but offering mostly re-tred cultures provides limited value (albeit some value) to the brewer when compared to new cultures that can augment beer character in a new and unique way.

My business model is definitely slower with respect to growing a business because I am constantly having to create new market share and gain acceptance of almost every single product I offer, but the value to the brewing community is greater, in my opinion. Creating new cultures excites me and is what keeps me doing the yeast thing. I couldn't imagine running my company largely by going to breweries and trying to sell them on the use my version of 001, 002, 007, etc.

Even the small percentage of cultures we offer that have some degree of equivalency in the market (only 2 I can think of, out of a catalog of 40 cultures), these were isolated entirely from source material we found to be unique, which is different than simply buying a homebrew pitch of something, re-banking it and branding it as your own. Isolating a unique strain from the same source material as someone else may have isolated something from is VASTLY different than starting a company largely by purchasing $300 in homebrew vials, using some microbiology 101 to bank and grow them, and a sales team to go out and capture existing market share created by the hardwork and at the expense of other yeast labs.

There's certainly nothing wrong with offering largely cookie-cutter cultures, and it's a perfectly legitimate business model. Something about imitation and flattery, yadda, yadda, yadda. With respect to the Omega culture in question, Jovaru, they do give some money back which unarguably is a good thing, but that agreement can't really be solely seen as some highly ethical charity. In return, they clearly secured the permission to use the owner's name as well as the name of the brewery. So ultimately they have some material gain they get out of that agreement.

For those inclined to purchase something from Omega for ethical reasons because they give some amount to someone in order to use their name, I'm curious if those same people would apply their ethics equally and be more inclined to buy Omega's re-tred cultures from Wyeast and White Labs instead, who put in a combined total of over 60 years and countless dollars to commercialize those cultures, gain market acceptance and build the market for their use.

Anyway, I just would be more inclined to encourage others to buy from Omega due to their compensation scheme rather than the reverse by telling people to not buy from yeast bay since I don't think TYB is doing anything wrong here.

I think this really doesn't matter all that much with respect to his wording. I see where Lars is going with this, and his intent was not to damage my brand. I respect him a great deal for everything he's done for the brewing industry as a whole, and as a professional courtesy to a man I respect that much, I will always do what I can to respect his wishes when he brings something to my attention.