Dry vs. Liquid. what are the pros and cons?

the title says it all. i am relatively new at this but have made a good 6 or 7 batches using both types of yeast. just curious as to some of the differences between them. care to share?

There is a lot more variety of liquid yeast strain on the market than dry. Both are great but there are certain beers that if you want to brew to style you need to use a liquid as there is no dry form available. It is always a good idea to have some dry around in case you need to re-pitch or something goes wrong with a batch.

Liquid starters require a starter, or at least they do in my opinion to establish proper pitching rate. Otherwise many people swear by dry and others only use liquid, myself included. Some strains are identical like SO5 and WY1056 are both Chico strains.

I've used a bunch of each. I like dry yeast because it is easy to store, pretty reliable, and you don't have to worry about a starter. The only real catch with dry yeast is the lack of variety. I think dry gets a bad rap and a lot of people claim that liquid is your only option. However, my best beers have been from dry yeast. You usually want to avoid the little generic yeast packet that comes with a canned beer kit, I have had good luck with anything from Safale and Nottingham. If I am making anything american, I just use some Safale Us-05 and always have great results. I am not saying that liquid is a bad option. If you use while it's fresh, and make a starter if required, you will have good results as well. Again you are going to be able to get a lot of variety with liquid.

very cool. have you noticed any particular difference in taste between liquid and dry?

mossratt263 said:

very cool. have you noticed any particular difference in taste between liquid and dry?

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once your dry yeast is rehydrated there essentially both liquid right?
and like duboman said s-05 and 1056 are the same strain wouldent they produce the same beer?

dry yeast is cryo frozen liquid yeast
i may be wrong because if this is true why couldent they do that with a variety of liquid strains...
sry now im confused?

but to answer you question...
no i dont think i would be able to tell if a beer was fermented with dry or liquid yeast
EDIT: unless given a particular style as such a saison dubbel tripel or quad (sry love belgian beers) that there would be no dry equivalent

thanks, you guys have been a huge help! i have one more question... is one safer then the other? in the past when i have used dry yeast it just feels more vulnerable to infection when you pitch it and have to leave it for a bit. this has kind of turned me to liquid. thoughts?

Johnnyhitch1 said:

EDIT: unless given a particular style as such a saison dubbel tripel or quad (sry love belgian beers) that there would be no dry equivalent

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T-58 would probably fit those styles.

IMO, the biggest difference between dry and liquid is price. If you want to spend $8 for less chico than you get for $4 in S-05, go for it. I really can't tell the difference between the end product, though there are many who say they can.

mossratt263 said:

thanks, you guys have been a huge help! i have one more question... is one safer then the other? in the past when i have used dry yeast it just feels more vulnerable to infection when you pitch it and have to leave it for a bit. this has kind of turned me to liquid. thoughts?

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As long as you practice proper sanitation/sanitizing there should be no issue. All yeast experience lag time as this initial phase is primarily the growth phase.

As long as you aerated your wort well and your sanitation is spot on then no worries, pitched dry or rehydrated. I strictly use dry yeast until I get my stir plate together (procrastinator I am...) and have had no probs either pitching the dry yeast straight on to room temperature wort, or re hydrating and pitching. Either way using dry or liquid yeast sanitation and aeration is important.


.....edit..... somebody beat me to it. Just like the guy above me said...

I like liquid yeast, but mostly because it does seem that there is more variety in the liquid form than in dry. Why is that? I'll have to ask my freind who is doing his Ph.D on yeast and fungi.

good to know. i ask because i have recently been using liquid (last was 3711...boss) but in a recent recipe the good people at my lhbs recommended dcl yeast #s-04 for a pumpkin ale im planning on making. thanks again, i appreciate all the info/advice.

There seems to be some disagreement about aeration. From the Danstar Catalog & Technical Info, “Aeration of wort is not necessary but will not harm the yeast.” But the Fermentis Tips & Tricks shows “Oxygen is required to assure a healthy cell multiplication. Oxygenation is either made by top filling and splashing wort against the wall of the fermenter, aeration or direct oxygen injection.” I don’t know why these two companies have opposite recommendations for using dry yeast. I aerate just to be sure.

Dry yeast is cheaper, has a longer shelf life, and you get more of it in a package. I actually did a comparison in a blog post.

Liquid yeast has more variety, but I've found no other benefit.

It's not a contest as to which is better. They all can make great beer or ****ty beer depending on the brewer, NOT on the type of yeast. It's not a competition, it's not an argument, they all serve their purposes, one is NOT better than other....

If you're brewing a standard ale it's a waste of time and money to use liquid yeast. Dry yeast is fine for 99% of the brewing we do.

I have found that a lot of new brewers especially, THINK they HAVE to use liquid yeast for everything, but in reality most ales can be made with Notty, Windsor, Us-05, Us-04 and many lagers with basic Saflager.....7-8 bucks a pop for liquid as opposed to $1.50-2.50 for dry, with more cell count, is imho just a waste of money for the majority of a brewer's recipe bank...most commercial ales us a limited range of strains, and those liquid strains are really the same strains that the afore mentioned dry strains cover, for example Us-05 is the famed "Chico strain", so if you are paying 7-8 bucks for Wyeast 1056 American/Chico Ale Yeast, and you STILL have to make a starter to have enough viable cells, then you are ripping yourself off, in terms of time and money....

I use dry yeast for 99% of my beers, for basic ales I use safale 05, for more british styles I us safale 04 and for basic lagers I use saflager..

The only time I use liquid yeast is if I am making a beer where the yeast drives the style, where certain flavor characteristics are derived from the yeast, such as phenols. Like Belgian beers, where you get spicy/peppery flavors from the yeast and higher temp fermentation. Or let's say a wheat beer (needing a lowly flocculant yest) or a Kholsch, where the style of the beer uses a specific yeast strain that is un available in dry form. Or certain certain specific English ale strains like Yorkshire or Burton

But if you are looking for a "clean" yeast profile, meaning about 90% of american ales, the 05, or nottingham is the way to go. Need "Bready" or yeasty for English ales, then 04 or windsor. Want a clean, low profile lager yeast- saflager usually does the trick.

The idea of dry yeast is "bad" is really a holdover from the bad old days of homebrew prohibition (prior to 1978 in america) when yeast came over in hot ship cargo holds, was of indeterminant pedigree and may have sat on the shelves under those cans of blue ribbon malt extract in the grocery store for god knows how long. That is simply not the case in the 21st century- all yeasts, liquid or dry ave excellent and can be used, EVEN the stuff that comes with kits.

Palmer doesn't bash dry yeasts...

Yeast come in two main product forms, dry and liquid. (There is also another form, available as pure cultures on petri dishes or slants, but it is generally used as one would use liquid yeast.) Dry yeast are select, hardy strains that have been dehydrated for storability. There are a lot of yeast cells in a typical 7 gram packet. For best results, it needs to be re-hydrated before it is pitched. For the first-time brewer, a dry ale yeast is highly recommended.

Dry yeast is convenient for the beginning brewer because the packets provide a lot of viable yeast cells, they can be stored for extended periods of time and they can be prepared quickly on brewing day. It is common to use one or two packets (7 - 14 grams) of dried yeast for a typical five gallon batch. This amount of yeast, when properly re-hydrated, provides enough active yeast cells to ensure a strong fermentation. Dry yeast can be stored for extended periods (preferably in the refrigerator) but the packets do degrade with time. This is one of the pitfalls with brewing from the no-name yeast packets taped to the top of a can of malt extract. They are probably more than a year old and may not be very viable. It is better to buy another packet or three of a reputable brewer's yeast that has been kept in the refrigerator at the brewshop. Some leading and reliable brands of dry yeast are DCL Yeast, Yeast Labs (marketed by G.W. Kent, produced by Lallemand of Canada), Cooper's, DanStar (produced by Lallemand), Munton & Fison and Edme.

Dry yeasts are good but the rigor of the dehydration process limits the number of different ale strains that are available and in the case of dry lager yeast, eliminates them almost entirely. A few dry lager yeasts do exist, but popular opinion is that they behave more like ale yeasts than lager. DCL Yeast markets two strains of dry lager yeast, Saflager S-189 and S-23, though only S-23 is currently available in a homebrewing size. The recommended fermentation temperature is 48-59°F. I would advise you to use two packets per 5 gallon batch to be assured of a good pitching rate.

The only thing missing with dry yeast is real individuality, which is where liquid yeasts come in. Many more different strains of yeast are available in liquid form than in dry.

Liquid yeast used to come in 50 ml foil pouches, and did not contain as many yeast cells as in the dry packets. The yeast in these packages needed to be grown in a starter wort to bring the cell counts up to a more useful level. In the past few years, larger 175 ml pouches (Wyeast Labs) and ready-to-pitch tubes (White Labs) have become the most popular forms of liquid yeast packaging and contain enough viable cells to ferment a five gallon batch.

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The Yeast like Notty, Us-05, u-04, and many others, made my Danstar, and fermentis are some of the best yeast around, they are just as good as the liquid strains, in fact, many are the exact same strains as those by whitelabs, and wyyeast, just in dry forms.

Good quality dry yeast has been used by commercial breweries for decades if not longer, and it was only since Homebrewing was legalized was the stuff we know available to homebrewers.

That's why every dry yeast house has industrial divisions.

Danstars website even alludes to this...

The use of active dried professional yeasts for amateur brewing is a relatively new phenomenon introduced by Lallemand. Now, choose your active dried yeast for brewing with confidence. Ask for Danstar superior quality yeasts at your local retailer.

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And this from Fermentis....Beer Industrial Brewing Why use Fermentis Yeast

Bottom line, use what you want, but realize that is only a preference. Both liquid and dry are excellent these days. They both have the potential to make great or crappy beer.

Depending on YOU, the brewer.

Dry is cheaper and doesn't need a starter.

Liquid has more variety and has less contamination.

IMHO US-05 is the only dry yeast I think is useful. And then in only highly flavored beers such as IPAs and big Stouts. In a blonde there is some weird ester that I dont care for. Some don't notice it though so try it for yourself.

S-04 is one of my least favorite yeasts. It is a version of a ringwood yeast which I don't care for in liquid either.

Nothingham and Windsor are ok but I prefer Wyeast west Yorkshire for my English ales.

dannypo said:

Liquid has more variety and has less contamination.

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This has LONG been proven to be false....There's no more contamination in MODERN dry yeast than in liquid.

Actually this has been proven to be true. Check out Basic Brewing Video a couple years ago. James made some beers using single base malts, dry yeast and no hops and every batch was sour. When he did the test again using liquid yeast the dour note was gone. I'm not saying it will effect most beers though.

Not trying to hijack but doesnt liquid yeast give you more control over pitch rate? I know its hard to over pitch but wouldnt an appropriate pitch rate be better then pitching "one packet or two"? Also with liquid you can buy a single vial and step it up to be larger, with dry you dont have the option.

Revvy, post #14, great post! I just have one question. Where do you find dry US-05 for 2 bucks or less? I really like the stuff for the same reasons as you mentioned. Just haven't found it for less than $4 dollars out here in Ca.. which is weird since it was derived (I believe) from this state. Then again I live in a dairy community and milk isn't cheap even though the pungent smell of dairy cow permeates the air we breath around this valley.

dannypo said:

Actually this has been proven to be true. Check out Basic Brewing Video a couple years ago. James made some beers using single base malts, dry yeast and no hops and every batch was sour. When he did the test again using liquid yeast the dour note was gone. I'm not saying it will effect most beers though.

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That's no definitive proof....He could have just as easily screwed up his sanitization during those batches. His experiments are hardly the best in scientific research. He's not working in a sealed lab doing them.

The plate contaminants listings of most yeasts are easily found on line, and they're NEGLIGABLE....Do you really think if there were major contamination issues people would actually use them? Especially in COMMERCIAL BREWERIES?

It's sort of like the "Glass vs Plastic" argument, the Glass industry has been spreading all sorts of BS about plastic fermenters for years that have been mostly shut down, do you think the Liquid yeast manufacturers would be any different?

Most of those anecdotal arguments for there being significant contamination is dry yeast are from 40+ years ago, and don't have much bearing in modern yeast production. Do you really think dry yeast these days are made in back alley labs with chicken feathers and bird**** on the floor?


From BYO Magazine 2006 Dried Brewing Yeast on the Rise.

Dried yeast companies report a very low contamination rate. (Fermentis yeast, for example, reports less than 5 bacterial cells/mL of wort in adequately pitched wort.) Patterson (of Fermentis,) however, mentions that sometimes the level falls below what can be detected in the lab. And, the experience of many brewers shows that this level does not result in problematic beer.

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*shrug*

Dan said:

Revvy, post #14, great post! I just have one question. Where do you find dry US-05 for 2 bucks or less? I really like the stuff for the same reasons as you mentioned. Just haven't found it for less than $4 dollars out here in Ca.. which is weird since it was derived (I believe) from this state. Then again I live in a dairy community and milk isn't cheap even though the pungent smell of dairy cow permeates the air we breath around this valley.

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My Homebrew shops in Michgan range anywhere from 1.50- under 4 dollars for dry yeast. Whereas liquid ranged anywhere from 7-15 dollars.

Part of the reason is simply that we have more homebrewshops in Metro Detroit than any other region in the nation. Heck I lived in a small town with 30,000 people and there were 3 places to buy supplies in a 3 mile area around me.

In the Greater Detroit area, I can think of 12 in a 30 mile radius. So we have lots of competition and reasonable prices on things.

Well my posts last night came off a bit wrong. I had a bit too much to drink and turned into an expert on everything. My apologies.

As for the contamination. It is there, but so low that almost any amount of hops would stop the growth. It is impossible to obtain a pure culture with current yeast drying techniques but it's close enough.

My original point was that I prefer liquid except for using us-05 in my hoppy or roasty beers. But I would never tell people not to use dry yeast. It works well.