Dry yeast Vs Liquid

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brewjunky

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O.k I know that the liquid yeast is a purer product and I do try to use it whe I can afford to.

I brew a lot of beer so until I got my conical it was a lot harder to reuse my yeast .

My last 3 batches I used dry yeast.

I have a batch of Ed Worts House pale ale brewing and I also have a Honey Blond And a October fest but not a true October fest because I used ale yeast. (I'm not sure what the style would be now)

Anyways Every time I use Dry Yeast I get the most intense fermentations. When I use liquid even after making a 2 lire starter I never get fermentations like this.

On Both M<y honey Blond and My Octoberfest it blew the top off of my fermenter.

I knew this would happen and used a piece of an ait lock with a hose on the end into a bucket of water.

This was not even enough. When I came home today I noticed that it had been overflowing from the lid like a volcano and I had a nice pool of beer on the ground. Good thing I have laminate flooring. I lots about 1 pound of crystal 15 that was laying beside my fermenter on the floor. I guess there was holes in the bag and the beer found it's way in and got some of it wet.

Anyways I used Cooper 15 gram packet. Its at about 68 temp of the room.

Same as I always do for ales but I never get this type of fermentation using Wyeast of whitelabs for that matter. I really need to get some bigger fermenters so I have more head space.
 
Yeah, I get more vigorous fermentations with dry yeast too. I think you need to rig some sort of blow off tube and have the end going into a bucket. I use 1" OD tubing for my blow off tube and haven't had any problems with it plugging, but getting the gunk out from the inside does prove to be a challenge sometimes.
 
It's personal preference and generally the type of brew you are making. I use both types but sort of prefer fresh liquid yeast.
 
Iirc, says the yeast manufacturers :D. The dry strains can have some mutant cells in there at least that is how I remember reading it.

That's awesome! So, it's possible I might get a beer that gives me super powers?:D

I've noticed the same thing with the dry yeast. I almost exclusively use the dry (I make all ales.)
 
I just realized, you used 15 grams. :D

Coopers is a good yeast for American Pale Ale, it does produce diacetyl though which you may or may not want.
 
15 grams is what was in the pack I had.

I could have used some safale 05 but I figured I get rid of this stuff first.

The honey blond will have some sweetness anyways so the Yeast wont really be that bad for it.

The Octoberest well i could have used a dryer ale yeast like Nottingham but figured I would use this stuff up and see how it turns out.
 
The dry strains can have some mutant cells in there at least that is how I remember reading it.

Absolutely NOT true. Dry yeast is cultured from single cells, just like liquid yeasts. The only difference is the ability to recover from drying. Most yeasts can't, so there are fewer dried types.
 
I pitched 14g of US-05 of my Big Bourbon Barrel Brown the other night, and it's blowing off like crazy for the second day running (though I've got the temp pegged at 70 via a swamp cooler and some ice bottles). I, too, use dry yeasts almost exclusively. It's much easier to pitch the optimum number of cells with dry yeast, besides costing 1/4 as much as liquid and not requiring a starter. Of course, I brew American and English styles ales exclusively, so the yeast selection works out well for me.
 
Yeah, I have always heard that variety is the only significant advantage that liquid yeast offers. And the ability to proof the yeast conveniently in the Wyeast "smack pack" before you open it is neat. But the notion that dry yeast is categorically inferior in terms of quality or purity is a complete farce IMO.

I think a lot of the negative perception associated with dry yeast comes from the old-school low quality homebrew kits from long ago, where the quality was spotty at best. You got a pack of something called "brewer's yeast" (one size fits all!) that probably had been sitting in a hot warehouse somewhere for years along with some crappy malt extract and hops. Naturally, the beer wasn't that good.

Most of the dry yeasts available these days are superb in comparison to the junk in those old DIY kits. Dry yeasts have some advantages--high cell count in a small package, and arguably better tolerance to heat during shipping and better shelf life. I like being able to keep 6-8 packages of dry yeast in the fridge and they don't take up much room.

I still end up using liquid yeasts quite a bit because they are available in so many different styles, but I don't mind using dry yeast when it suits my needs.
 
I've heard this argument many times and Finally I got an answer from a pro, I have been working at Crescent City Brewery for about 5 months and was surprised to find that, with our Wiess beer, our only ale, we use SafBrew, 500 grams to 250 gal. and it makes a damn fine beer. When I asked about it my Brewmaster, a 3rd gen. German brewer, why we use dry yeast he said that through the past few years dried yeast has gotten alot better, to the point it is all he wants to use for our ales. For lagers we still use liquid yeast but when comes to ale, its all dried.
 
I'm fermenting a SNPA Clone as I write this. Because I forgot to order DME for a starter, I decided to experiment. I split the batch into 2 carboys, then added different but similar yeasts. One with US Safale-05 and the other Wyeast 1056. Based on my techniques and anal sanitation this has potential to be my best brew yet. I'm definitely excited to taste the difference. Who else has tried this sort of side by side experiment with dry vs liquid and what were your results?
 
I just swore off liquid yeast since I buy most of my yeast on the internet. I ordered a smack pack for my witbier and I got the ice pack too. When it got here (florida) the contents of the box, including the yeast were all HOT to the touch. Not surprisingly, the smack pack swelled only slightly in the 5 hours I gave it. It's fermenting now, slowly. Dry from now on except for the occasional strong belgian, in which case I'll make the drive to the LHBS.
 
I pretty much use Nottingham & Safale-05 for all my beers except my German styles, and those use German Liquid yeasts.
 
I use liquid if I'll be doing a hefe or a certain yeast-driving style, but normally I just use Coopers dry. All my beers have turned out awesome, and I like using both. As for the liquids, I don't use starters but let it sit for 4hours to warm up and pour it in a well aerated wort and have had great success.
 
I've used dry yeast probably 90% of the time; basically, everything except lagers or beers where the yeast is a major flavor component (Belgian styles, hefeweizen). It's mostly convenience, you really need to do a starter with liquid yeast and so often, I don't know I'm going to actually be able to brew until the night before brewday.

I've heard from other sources, too, that the dry yeasts today are miles ahead of what they were a few years ago. I'll be damned if you can pick up anything different using US-05 versus WLP001, for example.
 
I was big into liquid yeasts when I first started. I somewhat enjoy the process of making a starter and consider it one more step of brewing fun. After using Nottingham, I will definately use it more often on standard ales. I've skipped re-hydration and sprinkled with no problems at all. It's definately alot cheaper.
 
I do not enjoy making a starter, and I do not rehydrate dry yeast. Dammit, they'll rehydrate in the carboy and they'll like it. I would rehydrate myself in the same manner if I could. Don't they know there are starving wild yeasts out there that don't even have a carboy to live in? Wake the hell up and get to work. They don't need no stinkin warm water bath.
 
This is kind of wild. I was trying to backtrack where I got the idea for mutated dry yeast, and I came across this:

"
DRY YEAST / LIQUID YEAST

For a homebrewer, dry yeast is much more convenient than liquid yeast. There are numerous strains of dry brewer's yeast that give very nice results for certain beer styles. However, the variety of dry brewer's yeast seems very limited. I would like to see dry satchels of yeast for making German Weizenbier (like Wyeast 3068), Belgian beers (like Wyeast 1214 etc), and a better selection of dry yeasts for lagers. Can we expect to see a better selection of dry yeasts in the future? What are the technical problems that prevent development of a greater variety of dry brewer's yeast?

Sincerely,
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY


RESPONSE:

This is not so much a technical problem more an economic issue. We would like to supply you with a whole range of different yeast strains but to guarantee competitive prices we produce certain quantities which we have to sell all of or we sell very little of it at perhaps uncompetitive prices. We have to meet our costs. If there would be a significant demand for a specific brewing yeast we would be more than happy to supply it. This is why we introduced our new lager yeast ( Diamond Lager Yeast ) last year.

Tobias"




source
 
I see there a many fans of Nottingham out there. Has anyone done a side by side comparison with US Safale-05?
 
Just kegged a 10 gallon Hefe Wiezen batch. Pitched A dry yeast WB-06 in one and Wyeast 3068 in the other. Both 5 gallons were threated the same throughout. Hands down on the taste of the 5 gallon with Wyeast 3068 yeast!!!!

My 2 Cents!!!!
 
Rehydrate! It was already discussed on this forum, bot it is worth repeating: if you don' give yeast a chance go get back into shape in clean water, you will loose ~50% of them.

Another thing: I have heard, that there are other dry yeast strains available for big breweries: K-97, S-189, W-34/70 (= Wyeast Bohemian Lager). Has anybody seen or used them?
 
I see there a many fans of Nottingham out there. Has anyone done a side by side comparison with US Safale-05?

Hmm, I dunno...but I direct pitched (no rehydration) a packet of Nottingham onto a 1.095 OG and in 3 days hit 1.022. That's 77% attenuation, plus the recipe had a fair amount of Crystal and the mash temp was very high. I would not be confident that S-05 could do that...but I have never tried.
 
When I started brewing I used dry yeast only and then as I got to my 8th or 9th batch of extract I started trying liquid yeasts. I used predominately liquid yeasts for the rest of my extract batches plus the 7 PM batches I did. I enjoyed making the starters and washing the yeast when a batch was done. Once I started AG I decided it was time to get back to basics until I had the AG process itself worked out so I went back to dry yeast. The 9 AG batches I've done so far, all with either Nottingham or S-05, have all turned out great so I don't see myself going back to liquid any time soon.
 
Just kegged a 10 gallon Hefe Wiezen batch. Pitched A dry yeast WB-06 in one and Wyeast 3068 in the other. Both 5 gallons were threated the same throughout. Hands down on the taste of the 5 gallon with Wyeast 3068 yeast!!!!

\

Yeah, that WB-06 seems to confirm the going wisdom that dry yeasts are great for clean American or English styles, but that Belgians, Hefes, and other specialty brews do better with the liquids. All of my favorite beers fall into that American/English vein, so the dry yeast works terrifically for me, but then I don't brew many hefes.
 
I also am just using dry yeast now for all my standard ales. I have found no downside to using them but I sure appreciate the advantages over liquid yeast.
Beerbeque
 
I just brewed a saison with T58 dry yeast. It has that spicy phenolic smell to it so we will see how it goes. I live in an apartment so my yeast would sit in the hot office if I ordered liquid.
 
I can understand having a preference for one over the other but I really don't understand any need to be exclusive.....Why limit yourself to the number of colors you paint with?
 
what about the yeast cake from the previous batch that you stored the fridge until next batch?? isnt that like 80 trillion yeast in there??
 
Rehydrate! It was already discussed on this forum, bot it is worth repeating: if you don' give yeast a chance go get back into shape in clean water, you will loose ~50% of them.
Details on how? I used this method and it was just OK

5. Rehydrate the dried yeast. Although many people skip this step with fair results, re-hydrating it assures the best results. While you are waiting for the brew water to boil, rehydrate two packets of dried ale yeast. Put 1 cup of warm (95-105°F, 35-40°C), preboiled water into your sanitized jar and stir in the yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and wait 15 minutes.



Next, "proof" the yeast. Start by adding one teaspoon of malt extract or table sugar to a small amount of water (1/4 cup, for example) and boil it to sanitize. (A microwave oven is good for this step.) Allow the sugar solution to cool and then add it to the yeast jar. Cover and place in a warm area out of direct sunlight. Check after 30 minutes, it should be exhibiting some signs of activity - some foaming and/or churning. If it just seems to sit on the bottom of the jar, then it is probably dead. Repeat the rehydration procedure with more yeast. (See Chapter 6 - Yeast, for more info.)
- http://howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-1.html
 
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