Using liquid yeast!! beginner brew help.

made an intro the other day about just starting to brew in january. anyways, i've used dry yeast in my first three batches and would like to try white labs for the first time next.. i order from AHB like many other people here, and was wondering how well the ice pack works for a shipment to colorado? i was also going to use the yeast fuel. what are the benefits of this?

in three batches i've brewed a dry stout, bavarian hefeweisan, and honey wheat. the stout turned out perfect but the other two had fruity off flavors. i saw the section about off flavors and would contribute them mainly to temperature. in winter upstairs where i've been fermenting probally went from 60f down to 45 in the winter. i would think that would be the cause of the problem.

since it's been getting a little warm here in sw colorado i think the upstairs should temp between 65-80 upstairs. is there a better way to control the temp or what beers can handle different temp changes better? i'll be ordering the summit ipa from AHB next(anyone tried it?). how does an ipa handle temperature change?

thanks for any help to this novice..

I would highly suggest reading up here:
http://howtobrew.com/intro.html

I have used the ice pack when I ordered liquid yeast from AHS in the past during warm months (like may-june) but anymore it's just as easy for me to omit the yeast when there is a question about temps during shipping and get the yeast at my local shop.

Off flavors from fermentation temps are generally due to higher temps...lower temps typically cause stuck ferments when the cold causes the yeast to go dormant. Palmer's book in the link above expands on fermentation temps and can prbly answer most questions.

the problem is i live out in the middle of no where. maybe i should look for a brew store in durango, it's 47 miles away..

I've used the ice pack for shipment to New England in the summer, it's melted by the time it gets here but I've never had a problem with the yeast.

I get it with the ice and have yet to have any problems. The yeast nutrient is not really necessary. My last two brews I didn't use it and had better fermentations than when I used it..of course the last two brews I had my new oxygen aeration system so maybe that's what it was


Dan