Watching the hops go round and round.....

You know, before this batch that I've got fermenting right now (Merlin's Ale), I've always had my brews in a orange plastic bucket. With this brew, I put it into one of my carboys. Watching the foam build up was fun, but I never really noticed, until tonight, the leave fragments from the hops pellets swimming around! I mean it looks like one of those lava lamps with the sparkles in it. LOL!
I mean it looks like a very turbulant undersea storm in there!
This is my first batch using liquid yeast too. The recipe called for Wyeast 1728 Scotish Ale Yeast. I made the starter like you guys advised me to also. I'm hoping for a different taste.
Don't get me wrong, but with the exception of my Cherry Ale and the Chocolate Ale, all the batches have seemed to have mostly the same taste. I'm wondering if its from using the same yeast all the time, Safale US-56. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks with this batch. I know I've read some posts on here that people swear that the liquid yeasts give the brews a much more diverse flavors.

I definitely know where you're coming from. I used the same dry yeast for my first three batches, and although the two that I've tried are very different (trappist vs. porter) there is an underlying similarity that I think could be due to the yeast. I used a liquid yeast for my fourth batch, and I'm looking forward to seeing if that makes a big change in the flavor.

There have been several things that made marked improvements on my brews. The first was going to partial mash...it doesn't require any extra equipment, but it makes all the difference. The second was an aeration kit to aerate the wort before pitching---which means a much healthier fermentation. The third was lower fermentation temps, in the mid-sixties for most ales. The last, and I believe most important next to PM, was moving from dry safeale yeast to liquid strains.

So you're on your way...hopefully you'll see a big difference.

Yeah, the tempestuous storm in your wort is lots of fun to watch. I've been enjoying the show that my 1.071-OG IPA is putting on right now. It IS really amazing that it's that turbulent down there...