What a year it has been at Bluestone Yeast. From lab benches to brewery taps and across the country, 2025 saw us launch game changing products, dive deep into fermentation science, connect with brewers old and new, and face the typical chaos of doing good work while raising a family, juggling flights, public holidays and public holidays overlapped with school holidays. ## The Wins: Innovation, Growth, Connection - New Products: Zinc Booster, Vitamin & High Gravity Boosters This year we publicly rolled out our cold-side Zinc Booster and the feedback has been brilliant. Brewers reported faster fermentations, tighter flocculation windows, cleaner flavour profiles across lagers and hop-forward ales. And alongside Zinc, we prepped the launch of two more nutrient boosters (Vitamin Booster for standard gravity brews, High Gravity Booster for high OG beers), a major step toward giving brewers more control over fermentation health and consistency. - R&D & Collaboration: Science-Led Brewing is Alive Behind the scenes, we weren’t just shipping yeast, we were building knowledge. From collaborations at the lab bench to building out technical data sets, a big under-the-hood push happened this year. Highlight: the collaboration with University of Melbourne on fermentation & sourdough science, proof that Bluestone stands for more than just supplying yeast, but advancing fermentation science end to end. - Community Engagement, Events & Brewery Visits We got out of the lab and into the world. From attending conferences like CIBID 2025 Conference in Hobart to sampling beers in the Victoria Alps at High Country Hop Symposia, the energy, innovation, and camaraderie in Australia’s brewing scene was palpable. One standout moment: rolling up to a brewery in St Andrews Beach and enjoying an easy afternoon pint, a simple but powerful reminder of why we do this: local breweries, local yeast, local flavour. Plus: shining a spotlight on breweries such as Carbon 6 Brewing and Bells Beach Brewing through our Brewery-of-the-Month program, celebrating those pushing boundaries, not just in beer but in community. - Supporting Homebrewers & Grassroots Brewing We continued backing the grassroots: homebrew competitions, club events, and helping keen homebrewers access premium live yeast. The joy of seeing a homebrew recipe taken on by a commercial brewery, then poured fresh off the tap, magic (a big shout out to Matt Zurrer from the Merri Mashers getting to brew his winning Black IPA at Molly Rose with Nick). And on the quieter days, working on expanding our home-brewer 120 ml pack offering, making sure the “fresh, local, live yeast” promise stays accessible. ## The Struggles, Chaos, Capacity, and Growing Pains - Logistics, Travel & Life Outside the Brew Lab With a growing customer base nationwide, flights, conferences, and holiday periods quickly turned into a whirlwind. Between school holidays, public holidays and full convention and travel schedules, it sometimes felt like we were barely keeping up. There were days when I’d hop off a flight, open the laptop, and try to merge lab work, sales emails and family calls. It’s messy, exhausting, but also in its own way energising.- Demand Outpacing Capacity (in the Good Way) As interest in darker beers, stouts, porters picked up, so did demand for specific yeast strains (like our Dublin strain, and rising interest for Edinburgh). That demand, while exciting, meant pressure on production, QC, logistics. We’ve been expanding infrastructure, but there were moments where fulfilling orders quickly without compromising quality became a real balancing act.- The Challenge of Staying Human While Growing Running a small but ambitious team means that when things get busy, you feel every strain, every order, every delivery. There were nights I lay awake thinking about oxygenation strategies, pitch rates and unanswered emails, while at the same time planning the next day’s dinner for the kids while juggling their pickups, drop offs, netball, water polo, etc etc etc. It’s not glamorous, but it’s real and enjoyable. ## Biggest Highlights: What I’m Proudest Of - Launching and getting strong market adoption of the Zinc Booster. That felt like a “mission moment”: taking what we know from fermentation science and giving brewers a tool that actually moves the needle on beer quality and consistency. Making it as easy as possible for brewers to use without needing endless calculations, simply open and pour, that was particularly satisfying.- Our R&D and collaboration with University of Melbourne, because I am a geek at heart. Being able to bridge the gap between Industry and Academia and connecting the science to real world products was awesome. It really helps to have an excellent collaborator in Prof Kate Howell.- Seeing small homebrewer beers get picked up, scaled, and launched commercially. Watching someone sip their recipe in a proper taproom and the pride on the face of the homebrewer, that never gets old.- Connecting with so many brewers, homebrewers, maltsters, hop growers and fermentation nerds across the country. Events like conferences, hop symposiums, competitions, they reinforce the sense that this isn’t just a business. It’s a community. ## Personal Reflections: What It Felt Like I still remember the first time I rolled out the Zinc Booster to a brewery: we’d spent months tinkering in the lab, testing flocculation windows, diacetyl reduction, yeast viability. Although, I knew the science and the research and had real faith in the product, I still spent many days and night wondering is it really going to make a difference to the brewers that use it! So when I started having conversation with the early adopters about the great results they were getting and the difference the product made to their fermentation and yeast performance over successive generations was both a relief and gratifying. My seemingly obvious observation was resulting in “Cleaner fermentation, faster turnaround, better beer.” That’s why I started Bluestone Yeast in the first place. There were times this year when I wondered if I was trying to do too much, lab work, travel, community outreach, family commitments. But then share a pint with a brewer that they are incredibly proud of using our yeast, or read a thank-you email from a homebrewer whose first successful stout used our yeast. And I’d think: yes, this is worth it and better than spending a life doing work in a job that drains your soul.. Looking out over the next 12 months, I’m hopeful. There are new strains coming. More nutrients. More collaborations. More opportunity to help brewers of all sizes brew better, cleaner, richer, more creative beer. ## Looking Ahead: What’s on the Radar for 2026 - Finalise rollout of Vitamin & High-Gravity Boosters, plus further lab-backed nutrient products. - Expand capacity to meet growing demand, for dark beers, high-gravity ales, lagers while maintaining QC and local freshness. - Deeper collaborations: more science + craft brewing crossovers, maybe more input from academic fermentation research. - Building community: more brewery visits, more support for homebrewers, more spotlighting of under-the-radar Aussie breweries doing great work. - Keeping balance: making sure as we grow, we don’t lose sight of why we started, support for the local brewing community. Here at Bluestone Yeast we want to thank you for all your support over the 2025 year and look forward to your continued support in 2026. Hope you all have a great Christmas and New years! Cheers Derek --- Want to improve your fermentation performance? Learn more about our Nutrient Booster range or book a discussion to talk about your brewery’s needs.