Second Brew Questions

Howdy,

About to start my second brew (a smoked porter extract kit), and have a couple of questions:

1) Recipe called for 8lbs of Ultralight Liquid Extract. The supplier substituted 6.5 lbs of light powdered DME extract. Is that an equivalent substitution? I do have 5lbs of Ultralight liquid extract from another recipe kit that I don't need at the moment, so I could use that and add some powdered DME to make up the difference, but don't know how to make the conversion from liquid to dry.

2) I ordered White Labs liquid yeast, and it came while I was out of town. It sat in a box in a cool (~60-65 degrees) part of my house for 4 days before I refrigerated it. Should it be OK? I can do a starter if need be, or can just pitch the liquid and if I don't get fermentation I've got some dry yeast I can repitch with in a couple of days.

My first brew is almost ready to bottle... an IPA kit that came out GREAT! Can't wait to taste it with carbonation in a few weeks Has anyone mentioned that this hobby can be addicting?

Cheers!
Jim

1) Generally 0.75 lbs of liquid extract is the equivalent of 0.6 lbs of dry extract (and both are equal to about 1 lb of grain consequently). If my math is correct, I get 6.4 lbs of dry malt being equal to 8 lbs of liquid, so yea that should work fine.

2)Your yeast will probably be fine, but its always best to do a starter with liquid yeasts IMO even if just to see that you have viable yeast, aside from proper pitching rates.

Of course if I'm wrong, someone will correct me.

+ one on the starter.. your Porter will thank you!