liquid vs dry ale yeasts

i'm going to do a switch from dry to liquid yeasts. what are the differences between the two? will there be a noticable flavor change?

I actually use both depending on what I'm brewing. US-05. S-04, Notty and various Wyeast & White Labs yeasts. IMO, Liquid yeast requires a starter which inherently requires planning ahead. Just depends.

Some of the strains of dry yeast have gone up a lot recently so the price differential has blurred. I use quality dry yeast over liquids if available for what I am brewing as it is easier and as mentioned does not require any plan ahead for starters.

Safale 05 & 04 are my main yeasts and I see no point in buying liquid versions.

samc said:

Some of the strains of dry yeast have gone up a lot recently so the price differential has blurred. I use quality dry yeast over liquids if available for what I am brewing as it is easier and as mentioned does not require any plan ahead for starters.

Safale 05 & 04 are my main yeasts and I see no point in buying liquid versions.

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samc,

Do you pitch new packets each time or do you harvest your yeast after primary fermentation and make a starter from that? I've wanted to get into re-using yeast and got all the stuff for starters so I harvested and washed S-05 from my last fermentation. I thought I'd make a starter for my next batch from this. What do you do?

Beavdowg said:

samc,

Do you pitch new packets each time or do you harvest your yeast after primary fermentation and make a starter from that? I've wanted to get into re-using yeast and got all the stuff for starters so I harvested and washed S-05 from my last fermentation. I thought I'd make a starter for my next batch from this. What do you do?

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I just use fresh packets. Last brew I saved the slurry and made a starter and in the end I decided that it was just easier to spend $5 on a 10 gallon batch and not worry about how much slurry I had and how much trub was in it, etc.

Next brew requires 4 packs of Saf W34/70 which is starting to amount to some big $$$. I might save the slurry off of that and reuse, although I don't brew many lagers.

Most basic brews i use dry yeast. Really the only time i'll use liquid yeast is when i need a very style specific yeast contribution (ie: Belgian ales). In those circumstances i'll wash the yeast and keep it around for future use. Regarding starters for liquid yeast... i've never done one. I will sometimes pitch 2 of my washed jars though.