(someone play taps please)
I haven't used dry yeast since my very first batch back in '05. What I have been doing with some degrees of success with WL is saving yeast slurry/washing. Well lucky me I just had to dump three batches from two different strains of saved yeast! Dude, Bird and Bernie; sorry for the Rye... I owe you and Bernie don't drink it if you haven't opened it yet. Bird was not so lucky. It only got worse Bird .
I'm done with saving yeast other than the occasional on top of the slurry but am thinking I don't need to always put up $8 for some WL for every batch. I don't experiment too much with different styles of yeast and am usually using WLP002 - English Ale, WLP001 - CA Ale. I know some of you have been using dry with great success and I'm looking for some opinions for similar strains to what I've been using if they exist. I know Safale and Nottingham has been discussed but there really doesn't seem to be that much info that I could locate. My LHBS of course has a poor(?) selection of dry (Coopers, Munton, Nottingham & Windsor).
Every single one of my classic pale ale recipes use safale-56. Red Eye Rye this last time, LWPA, Pliny the Bastid. Bigger gravity beers I pitch 2 packets. I never make a starter or rehydrate it and I have fast starts within 4-6 hours. Sometimes I pitch on a cake but I never re-use it more than once.
I don't use the others much but I did recently buy an S-04.
__________________ On Tap: Lake Walk Pale Ale -- Eternity (Raspberry Stout) -- Nutrocker -- Donnybrook Dark Primary: Lake Walk Pale Ale Secondary: Summit IPA Up Next: Smoked Porter -- Pub Ale -- Watermelon Wheat Planning: Gone But Not Forgotten:
I love Safale US-56 (now S-05). I haven't used WLP001, but I gather they are very similar, but the Safale yeast may not floctuate as much (no experience here though).
I used to be a big fan of Wyeast 1056, which is also a similar strain, but the dry Safale version is far cheaper and much more convenient, as Dude has pointed out. Using the Safale dry version over a similar liquid yeast is a no-brainer to me.
Love the US-56/S-05. The S-04 is good, too, just used it on a brown ale that came out very nicely (or maybe that was Windsor?). I've used Nottingham quite a bit.
Always had a very short lag time (usually less than 12 hours, always less than 24). I've gotten 85% attenuation out of US-56.
They're cheap, no started needed (or, arguably, desired). Clean. They last for ages in the fridge. US-56 is nice and clean...
Thanks for the feedback; I've seen that the Safale 56 is Chico like. Now where is Orfy to discuss my english style needs . My two most often made beers (Porter and IPA) use the english strain.
Not much info on these dry yeasts on the 'net that I can find unlike Wyeast and WL.
EDIT- Safale 04 is english in nature; gotta snoop for nottingham (they got multiple types?)
Last edited by DesertBrew; 04-10-2007 at 07:11 PM.
To be honest, Munton did the job for me. Used it with a brown ale and I have absolutely no complaints. I had 2-3 bubbles/sec after a few hours. Very productive yeast might I say. Didn't even hydrate it. No complaints about Munton here.
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__________________ On Tap: Lake Walk Pale Ale -- Eternity (Raspberry Stout) -- Nutrocker -- Donnybrook Dark Primary: Lake Walk Pale Ale Secondary: Summit IPA Up Next: Smoked Porter -- Pub Ale -- Watermelon Wheat Planning: Gone But Not Forgotten:
I have had great success with various safale strains, I would say I use dry yeast on atleast half of my batches and have never had a problem. I have even used saflager dry yeast to make a munich dunkel and it work fantasically.
When I use dry yeast I use safale 04 for all my british style ales and they come out great. I've recently been contemplating going back to dry unless my brew calls for something specific, less of a hassle and results are just as good.
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Windsor is great if the style calls for lower attenuation. My current batch is on a Nottingham cake and it hit 81% after two days.
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Lets talk dry yeast
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. My two most often made beers (Porter and IPA) use the english strain.
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