yeast choices for next few brews

I have my next four brews picked out from Jamil and Palmer's "Brewing Classic Styles", and they list three yeast choices for each recipe. Not being familiar with all of them, I look to the experts here for some help please. I am brewing AG, if that makes any difference in yeast choice? Not sure it does, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Cream Ale:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

Cowboy Alt:
White Labs WLP036
Wyeast 1007
Safale US-05

Smoked Porter:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

Chocolate Hazelnut porter:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

You can see three of the beers list the same choices, and all four have Safale 05 as a choice. I'm thinking of using Safale for the Cream Ale, and both Porters, but I'm not sure if a liquid would be a better choice for any of those?
Not sure if Safale 05 is a good choice for the Cowboy Alt too?

Any thought or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

WLP001, 1056, and US05 are all the same yeast. I would use that for the Cream ale and both porters to save some cash. I think US05 would dry the Alt out too much. I would use the liquid, or go with US04 (not US05) and mash on the high side.

Thanks for help blizzard! Was hoping to save some cash, that's why I figured I could use the 05 for the three.

I haven't brewed an Alt yet, so I wasn't sure about the yeast choice.

Yeah, in that book, generally they list 2 liquid yeasts that are the same strain, then one dry yeast that's as close as they can get.

You could also go with Wyeast 1335 for the cream ale and 1728 for the porters. I actually used 1335 in my cream ale and am about to use it in an English Brown Ale (brewing it this Thursday)...

You can also save some cash by washing liquid yeast. Collected several ball jars from the cream ale cake tonight. Also still have some 1728 saved and even some 1084 in reserve... If it's over a month old, I make a starter to make sure it's still going to work. Otherwise, as long as you didn't screw the pooch, you can just pitch the slurry in. Use Mr. Malty to figure out how much you'll need to pitch.

For me, sometimes the choice between the dry and liquid choices is if I have the time and inclination to make a yeast starter for the liquid. If you do not intend to make a starter, the dry yeast makes a better choice, from the point of view of yeast health and viability.

Thanks for the help guys. I have only used liquid yeast twice. I used wyeast smack packs, but did not make a starter either time. I have been pretty comfortable using dry yeast, and doing my best to control fermentation temps. This might be a good time to try a brew with liquid yeast and a starter.

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If your OG is going to be under ~1.060, you won't NEED to make a starter. If you're looking at over that, then I would really make a starter. Even the yeast is only in it for a day (12-24 hours)... You could get away with a small (~1L of wort for the starter) one, if the OG isn't too high. Otherwise, I'd make a more properly sized starter for the batch size and go from there.

I've been using Wyeast for my brews since batch 1... I've also been harvesting/washing yeast from batches to help keep the cost down, and yeast count high. I'm actually going to be brewing later this week and using some of what I harvested just yesterday. I'll be able to pitch more than enough yeast for the batch size. I'll probably be using one of the smaller jars of yeast for the coming batch, actually... Since I need less than 100ml of yeast. Knowing how to wash yeast really comes in handy when you're using liquid. It also helps to keep the batch costs down.

RedHouse said:

I have my next four brews picked out from Jamil and Palmer's "Brewing Classic Styles", and they list three yeast choices for each recipe. Not being familiar with all of them, I look to the experts here for some help please. I am brewing AG, if that makes any difference in yeast choice? Not sure it does, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Cream Ale:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

Cowboy Alt:
White Labs WLP036
Wyeast 1007
Safale US-05

Smoked Porter:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

Chocolate Hazelnut porter:
White Labs WLP001
Wyeast 1056
Safale US-05

You can see three of the beers list the same choices, and all four have Safale 05 as a choice. I'm thinking of using Safale for the Cream Ale, and both Porters, but I'm not sure if a liquid would be a better choice for any of those?
Not sure if Safale 05 is a good choice for the Cowboy Alt too?

Any thought or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

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Liquid yeast is superior to dry yeast in viability and health and will produce less off flavors in the same conditions. Of the two choices of liquid yeast, the Wyeast almost always healthier and more viable due to being in light resistant packaging vs a transparent vial.

You're still able to make good beers with all the the choices listed above but you'll be able to make the best beers with the Wyeast varieties. (Only caveat is if the Wyeast are much older than the White labs, then go with whichever is newer.)

DannPM said:

Liquid yeast is superior to dry yeast in viability and health and will produce less off flavors in the same conditions. Of the two choices of liquid yeast, the Wyeast almost always healthier and more viable due to being in light resistant packaging vs a transparent vial.

You're still able to make good beers with all the the choices listed above but you'll be able to make the best beers with the Wyeast varieties. (Only caveat is if the Wyeast are much older than the White labs, then go with whichever is newer.)

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I couldn't disagree with this more. The Dry versions are every bit as good as the liquids. You just don't have near as much variety to choose from.

Bashiba said:

I couldn't disagree with this more. The Dry versions are every bit as good as the liquids. You just don't have near as much variety to choose from.

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I'm not sure how you can back that up?

The reason there are so few dry yeasts is that most yeasts out there aren't able to take the stress that the drying process imparts on them. Stressing yeast isn't a good thing....

Take two strains, Safbrew T-58(Dry) and any Belgian liquid culture (Wyeast or WL). Brew a 5 gallon batch, split the wort into two 2.5 gallon batches, same wort, same fermentation conditions, same fermentor geometry...you can taste the difference, it's a very, very large difference.

Variety, selection of characteristics that match what I want in the brew, are just two of the reasons why I use liquid yeasts. I also like the wealth of info available on the Wyeast site for their strains.

I prefer Wyeast over White Labs for a few reasons. One of them is the smack pack. With Wyeast, if you smack it, and it doesn't inflate, you can take it back to the store and get a replacement pack. With White Labs, there's no such provision. If you use the yeast (even with a starter) and nothing happens, you're SOL.. I've not had a bad packet of yeast, yet, so it's not much of an issue. Plus the LHBS where I purchase yeast gets fresh packets every week. Then there's my washing/harvesting of the yeast, to keep a solid supply on hand... With dry yeast, I'd be less inclined to harvest, since it is cheaper per packet. I'd probably make a starter for it though, just to be 100% sure it's viable.

RedHouse said:

You can see three of the beers list the same choices, and all four have Safale 05 as a choice. I'm thinking of using Safale for the Cream Ale, and both Porters, but I'm not sure if a liquid would be a better choice for any of those?

Thanks.

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I would suggest you find some threads here about reusing yeast/slurry. Since all of these recipes call for the same (very similar) yeast, you could just reuse yeast and do all four batches on 1 packet of US-05 or one smack-pack of 1056.
As far as US-05, 1056 and WLP001 it's all the same yeast, only US-05 is more reliable (longer shelf life), less expensive and it's easier in use.

Not sure if Safale 05 is a good choice for the Cowboy Alt too?

Click to expand...

I guess that's the "Cowboy" part of the recipe, or California Yeast in a German Alt.

Again, I thank you all for all the help! Guess it's time I look at re-using my yeast then. I had been primarily going with dry yeast just to keep the costs down, but getting 4 beers from one pack of liquid really appeals to the cheapskate in me!

Thanks! Looks like I have some searching to do.

Its all about what you are looking to get out of your yeast. Yes, different ingredients in your recipe will obviously impart drastically different flavors to your beer, to the point of being different styles. However, one of the most overlooked aspects of brewing is yeast. Yeast imparts characteristics that ingredients cannot. The fact is that liquid cultures are far more pure than dried cultures (due to the drying process) and if you want reliable stylistic characteristics then you should use specific cultures to produce those. That is not to say I don't use dry yeast, because I do especially when strapped for cash. However, to get unique characteristics out of each brew I would use style specific yeast. I love SF-05 but it is a "catch-all", not great, but good at everything.


my .02

Thanks step...looks like I have much to learn about yeast. I guess it's just one of things I haven't paid much attention to. One of my best beers to date is a Dry Stout (from Jamil and Palmer's book) that I used Wyeast 1084...no starter. I did pay close attention to ferm temps though.

Two of my worst beers are my first AG beers that i used dry yeast, but was not careful about ferm temps. In fact, these two beers are why I went out and got a couple of fermometers! High levels of fruity esters in a cream ale and an irish red. I was too focused on getting mash temps dialed in I guess.