Yooper

Recipes 

Yeah, that's the first thing I noticed! Fat Tire isn't a Belgian. I'd use a clean well attenuating American yeast strain in that beer. Fruitiness from Belgian yeast would be out of place in an American Amber, in my opinion.

I suggest always making a starter with liquid yeast. If you don't, you'll still get good results. Maybe even great results. Making a starter ensures consistency, though, so you don't have to "wait and see" if the results will be great.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Shooter

Recipes 

You say this is your first recipe, I'm assuming you mean your first batch of beer ever. I'm still a relatively new brewer. I've used the Wyeast Activator pack, smacked, swelled, and direct pitched into a 1.045 OG beer. It seemed to work fine, but I probably wouldn't push it on a higher OG beer, despite what their packaging claims. I've also tried White Labs and made a starter. It also worked well. It was a little more work, but nothing difficult.

However, after using all three, I really would recommend dry yeast for your first beer. It's absolutely your call, but dry yeast is EASY. I rehydrate the yeast, but many people sprinkle it dry onto the wort with great success. Most dry yeast is of good quality and I'll probably continue to use it for 80% of my beers unless I need some specific yeast strain that's not offered in a dry form.

sundowner

Recipes 

If you don't have any of the Fat Tire VSS strain, Wyeast #1272 is an excellent substitute. I've used them both in my recipe and think the 1272 actually made a better beer.

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