About to boil first time, already confused

Hey guys,

I've been lurking on this (great) site for a few weeks now. I'm just about to start boiling the wort for my first homebrew (have everything on the kitchen counter) and am already confused. I ordered the Easy Brew Nut Brow Ale from breworganic.com (http://www.breworganic.com/organicnutbrownaleeasybrew.aspx). They sent two yeast packages: White Labs English Ale Yeast (liquid) and Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast. I'm not sure why I have two! I checked their site and they recommend the White Labs for this recipe but I don't want to screw up the first batch.

Which one should I go for? Do I use both?

Thanks!

Either one will work fine. Just check the expiration dates on them. The WL is a more expensive yeast, but both will make great beer. Don't use both, make two batches and use one type in each so you can decide which one you like better.

Seriously though, it's good either way as long as they aren't expired.

well with the white labs its recommended that you make a yeast starter a day in advance but with the dry you don't have to really you don't even have to reconstitute it most people do but i don't think it has to be. but it looks like you payed extra for the white labs so i would prefer using that. i dont know though how well it will work with out a starter since your gonna brew today.

sgrcltpunk said:

well with the white labs its recommended that you make a yeast starter a day in advance ......

Click to expand...

White Labs only recommend making a starer if the gravity is over 1.070 or past it's expiration date.

I've used WL tubes without starters for a long time without any ill effects. That said, I use dry because it's cheap and for 90% of beers - a standard dry yeast will be just fine.

However, you bought the more expensive liquid yeast, so use it!!!

Personally, I would go with the dry yeast for this one. You don't HAVE to make a starter with the White Labs vials, but you should anyways.

Thanks for all the responses guys. This was a panicked first post that got a little tied up waiting for moderator approval. I went ahead and only pitched the White Labs (no starter, but will make one next time) and it was bubbling nicely by hour 14 and by hour 30 or so had a nice 2" thick layer of krausen across the top. Fermenting (well, at least the krausen) seems to have died down a bit, but I'm planning on leaving it in the primary until next Sunday (total of 10 days, will start testing FG on Friday) before racking to secondary for a 10-day clearing and then on to bottling.

Aside from a dumb mistake of pouring a little bit of wort I'd poured into an clean but unsanitized bowl en route to the hydrometer back into the carboy everything went smoothly. Praying I didn't wreck my first batch with that mistake, but we'll see.

Here's to hoping the rest of the brew goes well.

While it's good to stress proper sanitation - the overall chances of you catching an infection that way is probably pretty slim.

Good luck on your first batch....now start getting another one going, because as soon as these hit bottles, you're gonna start drinking them and ignoring pleas to be patient and wait for them to come into their own. (Yes, we've ALL been there) Get a pipeline going so that by the time your first batch is gone, you are almost ready to start drinking your next one!!

Ha, thanks jezter. I've been thinking about that quite a bit. I've got the recipe kit for Pike's IPA chilling in my wine cellar with the yeast in the fridge and can't wait to get that into the primary. I'm debating whether to pick up another carboy from the LHBS on my way home to get some apfelwein started tonight too. It sounds like a good holiday drink and something SWMBO will enjoy drinking (she won't touch beer, but that just means more for me!) Brewing something she'll like is probably the only way I'll get by with 2 primaries without catching too much flak from her.

I always sample the portion I I take my readings on...

If you don't want to do a starter, you can toss em both in