Best dry yeast

[dmtaylor]

Fwiw, I just brewed a Chimay red clone Trappist with SafAle S-33 at the suggestion of my LHBS and am very pleased with the results.

Wow, funny, since S-33 isn't a Belgian yeast at all but rather is the old English Edme strain from before the 1990s. It's a great yeast, I really like it, but not for Belgians.

 

[eric19312]

I tend to use dry yeast because I brew larger batches pretty frequently and don't want to mess with giant starters. I harvest and reuse but if I have any concerns about performance of yeast in a batch I just start over with new dry yeast. I have US-05 packets on hand for this possibility all the time.

For small batch experimenting I think you could pretty easily work with liquid yeast. Small starters are not hard to manage and you could do the overbuild strategy and get into ranching a few different strains of yeast.

 

[MickB]

I always have US-05 and W34/70 packets on hand.

Same here. I am a mead maker and mostly use saf-05 but recently used w34/70 and it may have been my best tasting mead yet. 5.2% and naturally carbed/fermented under pressure at 30psi in an all-rounder around 68F. Combined 2 local honeys

 

[Steveruch]

No love for K97? I use it for alts, cream ale, and grodzieskie. And occasionally SMaSHes and other things. Great stuff.

I've used in an alt, an American wheat, and a sort of grodzieskie. I was happy with the results.

 

[bwible]

I feel like I rip open a liquid yeast pack an expose it outside the fridge it’s going to be impossible to keep some of it for the next batch.

Well, you don’t exactly “rip open a liquid yeast pack”. They are sold as pitchable yeast and are meant to be used entirely. You carefully cut off a corner with sanitized scissors and dispense the whole package.

That said, they can be split into 2 or more starters if you make some starter wort and put it in sanitized beer bottles with airlocks.

If you don’t want to split starters you can also re-use the yeast from a previous batch more than once with careful planning. Go from light to dark, weak to strong just like judges judge beer. For example, start with a blonde ale, re-pitch that onto an APA, and when that’s done re-pitch again onto an IPA. 3 beers from one liquid yeast. If you want to go further, re-pitch again even onto a barleywine or an old ale.

When I started many years ago, dry yeast had a bad rap. Much of what was sold were canned kits with a small packet of dry yeast tucked under a plastic lid on top - and everything said the first thing you do is throw away the dry yeast that came with the kit and replace it with a good liquid yeast.

Nowadays, dry yeast has come a long way and as previously stated there are now many good strains. But you can re-use liquid yeast the same as you can re-use dry yeast.

 

[NSMikeD]

Wow, funny, since S-33 isn't a Belgian yeast at all but rather is the old English Edme strain from before the 1990s. It's a great yeast, I really like it, but not for Belgians.

Go figure. Fermentis lists specialty ales and Trappist ales for its use. I’m letting the keg age before tapping and I plan to pick up a bottle or two of Chimay Red to do a side by side tasting, but so far I’m very happy with it. As for low attenuation and low floccuation, my ABV came out higher than expected and the beer was pretty clear.

I know there are many home brewers who say they would never use it for a Trappist ale, but I can’t find any write ups from anyone who has actually used it that way and been let down.

When I tap it, I’ll come back and post my opinion.

 

[Mascrappo]

I have tried several dry yeasts, while never a bad one, per say, Fermentis is my favorite brand (S-189 is my go to yeast for my Dortmunder). One of my best 5-gallon batches was brewed with one packet.

 

[CDS]

Fwiw, I just brewed a Chimay red clone Trappist with SafAle S-33 at the suggestion of my LHBS and am very pleased with the results.

I regularly use their 05 and 04

Another dry yeast I recently used with excellent results was the LalBrew Koln Kolsch from Lallemand

I just pitched LalBrew Koln Kolsch today. This is my first attempt at a Kolsch, and my first experience with LalBrew Koln Kolsch. I hydrated it according to the directions before pitching, and whoa! Did it smell! Pungent I guess is the polite term. Is that normal for this yeast?