I love Dry Yeast

[BrothersBrewing]

It just seems to work better!

in the past ive waited days for liquid yeast to start fermentation... but seems every time i use you dry yeast i just pour it in, an hour or two later its chugging away...

why is this? i never really given much thought ..

 

[KayaBrew]

I'm right there with you. I'm a staunch advocate of dry yeast whenever it's applicable!

 

[IXVolt]

+1 to dry yeast, plus it's like 7 bucks cheaper!! So when I tell SWMBO that I'm brewing to save money...

 

[jschaf]

yeah dry yeast is badass. my favorite part is the last step; sprinkling the dry yeast in all trashed like I'm seasoning some grilled chicken.

 

[SavageSteve]

It just seems to work better!

in the past ive waited days for liquid yeast to start fermentation... but seems every time i use you dry yeast i just pour it in, an hour or two later its chugging away...

why is this? i never really given much thought ..

Dry yeast packages have a much higher cell count than liquid yeast packages-- that's why fermentation is visible much faster. If you were to make a starter with liquid yeast to increase the cell count, you'd see an equally fast start to fermentation.

-Steve

 

[KayaBrew]

Dry yeast packages have a much higher cell count than liquid yeast packages-- that's why fermentation is visible much faster. If you were to make a starter with liquid yeast to increase the cell count, you'd see an equally fast start to fermentation.

-Steve

Exactly. What a PITA! So, $7 for the vial or smack pack, ??$ for the DME, two extra days waiting to brew, blah blah blubbity blah. Yeas, liquid yeast has its place. Like I said, I use dry yeast whenever the style of beer I'm brewing lets me.

Steve's right, though. Why wast your money on liquid yeast unless you put in the effort and make a starter?

 

[SavageSteve]

Exactly. What a PITA! So, $7 for the vial or smack pack, ??$ for the DME, two extra days waiting to brew, blah blah blubbity blah. Yeas, liquid yeast has its place. Like I said, I use dry yeast whenever the style of beer I'm brewing lets me.

Steve's right, though. Why wast your money on liquid yeast unless you put in the effort and make a starter?

I grew up learning to brew in the early 90's, so the "liquid yeast is better than dry" meme is fixed in my consciousness. I did use some dry yeast last year for a quick brew, and I must say it worked very well and was definitely as good as liquid. S-04, if I recall correctly. I would definitely use dry in the future as appropriate for the style.

I've been doing starters in an Erlenmeyer flask now, and that makes them *much* easier to deal with.

-Steve

 

[doggage]

I started with dry, went to liquid and starters in an erlenmeyer (which I agree, Steve, is much easier) and now I'm sort of leaning back to dry.

I will say that for beers above about 1.070 i prefer to use liquid and make a starter and then a bigger starter (or a few separate starters). With big beers, I've had better luck pitching those than dry yeasts, even the "high alcohol tolerant" dry yeasts, Danstar Nottingham.

 

[david_42]

I originally used liquid and starters. After using dry yeast to move a stuck fermentation, I kept some around. Used it more and more often, so by my second year of brewing I rarely used liquid any more. Now it's like driving, I use the van unless there is a very good reason (snow, flooding, need to move dirt) to use the 4x4. Haven't used liquid in four years. Sure, it limits the styles I can brew, but those other styles are in the "I drink them at club meetings" category. I doubt I'll ever make a Belgian, even used S-04 in the Bière de Garde.

 

[jschaf]

I used s-04 for the first time in a porter-ish beer recently. It's been in the primary 9 days and since it ferments so fast (3-4 days it was complete), are there any issues leaving it longer in there? This is the first darker beer i've made as well. Just wondering about the darker, heavier beers with the dry yeast.

 

[cvstrat]

Safale yeasts are amazing. I was asking myself the same question, why spend more on liquid yeast?

From what I understand there are different flavor profiles that can be developed by altering pitch rate, growth rate (usually controlled by temp), oxygenation, etc. A subtle beer such as a dunkelweizen, or bavarian hefe, can benefit by having less aggressive yeast reproduction. Not making any recommendations as to the type of yeast you should use, but keep in mind the vigorous fermentation / pitching rate of dry yeast isn't always the best.

But the price is so sweet.

 

[Revvy]

With Liquid, If you've underpitched or not made a starter which the yeast has come out of a dormant period, then when it find it self surrounded by 5 gallons of food, before it starts truly diving in the yeastit has start growing an army to best eat it, so they have a wild orgy and then make a bunch of yeast babies. Then they get to work.

So that is why it can take up to three days before the really get going..the first part of it is called lag time, the waking up part, lag time, then the sex part is obviously called the reproductive phase....

With dry yeasts with an already high cell count, when they are confronted with the food they just wake up and go to work....they are still getting it on...but they seem to be doing it all a bit faster.

 

[Revvy]

+1 to dry yeast, plus it's like 7 bucks cheaper!! So when I tell SWMBO that I'm brewing to save 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.

I have found that a lot of new brewers especially, THINK they HAVE to use liquid yeast, 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....

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.

That's one thing about dry...you don't need to reproduce anymore yeasts than are already in the packets of dry. Also if you are brewing gluten free, Fermentis (safale/saflager) yeasts are the only true gluten free yeasts available. They are grown on molasses plates as opposed to malt plates. And as long as you only use them for no more that 2-3 re-uses they still remain gluten free (evidently after the 3rd or 4th generation the yeast itself will spontaneously produce gluten.)

 

[sundowner]

Award winning homebrewers use liquid yeast 10-1 over dry. There's a reason for that.

To dispel another myth: Liquid yeast is not more expensive than dry if you know how to use it properly. In fact, it's less expensive.

 

[CaptYesterday]

I used s-04 for the first time in a porter-ish beer recently. It's been in the primary 9 days and since it ferments so fast (3-4 days it was complete), are there any issues leaving it longer in there? This is the first darker beer i've made as well. Just wondering about the darker, heavier beers with the dry yeast.

You'll be fine. I've used Notty for porters and stouts and left them in primary for up to one month before bottling. Never had any problems and the beer always turned out great.

 

[jschaf]

thanks captyesterday. seems more people opt for longer primary and no secondary on here. My problem is getting enough bottles together for bottling in time, so i go to secondary, often too soon.

 

[Denny]

It just seems to work better!

in the past ive waited days for liquid yeast to start fermentation... but seems every time i use you dry yeast i just pour it in, an hour or two later its chugging away...

why is this? i never really given much thought ..

It doesn't always work like that. Sometimes liquid yeast takes off much faster than dry. As much as I like and use dry yeast, the variety of liquid yeast keeps me using it even more.

 

[Denny]

"Award winning homebrewers use liquid yeast 10-1 over dry. There's a reason for that."....source of the statistic, please?

The reason is not because liquid yeast is better, it's because there's more variety.

 

[Denny]

Also if you are brewing gluten free, Fermentis (safale/saflager) yeasts are the only true gluten free yeasts available.

Not so.....Wyeast produces GF yeasts.

 

[Joos]

Award winning homebrewers use liquid yeast 10-1 over dry. There's a reason for that.

To dispel another myth: Liquid yeast is not more expensive than dry if you know how to use it properly. In fact, it's less expensive.

This is true,But I think especially for a new brewer trying to get their recipe down(instead of washing and starting a yeast bank)Dry is the way to go.Less room for error.And as Revvy said most successful micro breweries use 1 common nuetral strain in most of their beers.S-05 is a perfect example of that.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Dry yeast is great if you like your beer to taste the same every time. Yeast has such an impact on the flavor of your beer, I can't imagine using the same kind for every style. I keep a pack or two of Notty around, but I can't remember the last time I've actually used it. And I can't remember the last time I've actually bought yeast, so I have to think that liquid yeast is actually cheaper, unless you are actually washing dry yeast, which I doubt.

 

[Joos]

I think it also has A LOT to do with which styles your brewing.Personally I do a lot of IPAs and APAs so I like to taste the malt/hops more than the yeasts.If your doing belgians,kolsch,saison,wits, or anything that the yeast is a major part of the flavor profile than yeah go liquid.

 

[SisterThelonious]

With Liquid, If you've underpitched or not made a starter which the yeast has come out of a dormant period, then when it find it self surrounded by 5 gallons of food, before it starts truly diving in the yeastit has start growing an army to best eat it, so they have a wild orgy and then make a bunch of yeast babies. Then they get to work.

So that is why it can take up to three days before the really get going..the first part of it is called lag time, the waking up part, lag time, then the sex part is obviously called the reproductive phase....

With dry yeasts with an already high cell count, when they are confronted with the food they just wake up and go to work....they are still getting it on...but they seem to be doing it all a bit faster.

How can yeast chemistry be a turn on...?

 

[sundowner]

The reason is not because liquid yeast is better, it's because there's more variety.

Every year I read the NHC winning recipes and rarely do I see one that uses dry yeast, even in the 'neutral' styles. We had 12 entries make it to the final round this year and not one used a dry yeast. That's not a 'statistic' but I think it's a pretty good cross section of America. I believe the ratio could actually be higher.

If a homebrewer wants to limit the styles to APA's, CACA's, A CAP or two, that's fine.

As to dry yeast being less expensive, that's just not true.

 

[ghpeel]

Safale S-04 seems to be turning into my go-to yeast. It hits the wort like a champ, and is usually done in just a few days. Sometimes, as little as 2.

There are 3 basic flavors in beer: malt, hops and yeast. If you are brewing any style that needs a clean yeast flavor (any pale ale, porter, stout, American wheat, etc) then you can use a dry yeast like Nottingham, US-05, S-04, Windsor, Coopers, etc.

If you are making any style that accentuates the yeast (Wit, Belgian, Hefe, etc) then you'll need that appropriate liquid strain.

I don't personally do it (out of laziness), but you can wash and re-use yeast collected from a batch of dry yeast just as you would from liquid, so there's no real cost difference in the long term if you are washing yeast and saving slurries and such. But I don't fool with it, as I'm too afraid my technique would suck and I'd infect a batch.

The best thing for new brewers is to eliminate as many variables as possible when starting. So if you want to explore 20 diff kinds of hops in your first couple batches, then stick to 1 kind of yeast. Using the same dry yeast (no starter) fermented at the same temps every time will allow you to taste the different flavors imparted by the other ingredients, without having to wonder if a particular flavor was coming from a certain grain, or from the yeast .

 

[jschaf]

How is liquid yeast not more expensive? $8 > $2. I guess you'd have to reuse the yeast four to five times to be economical about it.

 

[FuelshopMcgee]

Its true if you have the time/resources to start a yeast bank and wash your yeast....You finish a batch do your yeast wash and split your yeast into two vials or jars....next time you brew you get a starter and only use one of those reserves...you can then use that one again and split and so on and so on.....not even touching the 2nd reserve from the beginning...


That being said I'm too noobie to be trying that and I've been using liquid yeast everytime throwing them away and buying new vials because I'm afraid of infection...I'd rather spend 8 more bux then tossing in potentially infected yeast slurries.

 

[Revvy]

"Award winning homebrewers use liquid yeast 10-1 over dry. There's a reason for that."....source of the statistic, please?

The reason is not because liquid yeast is better, it's because there's more variety.

I'd like to know where you got this statistic from as well?

It's really funny but on every bjcp sponsored homebrew contest I have ever entered I have never noticed a spot where it asked what type of yeast was used, just like I have never come across a spot on the entry applications where it asks whether or not the beer was all grain or extract.

Nor have I ever after the fact been asked to fill out a survey asking whether or not I brew with liquid or dry yeast or ag or extract.

So I call shenanigans on the above as anything other than another brewing urban legend or marketing ploy....

And I won't even get into the economics of dry yeast over liquid. I already addressed it in the above post...It can be economical if you wash it and re-use it or repitch on it, but honestly how many new brewers do that?

 

[Revvy]

Not so.....Wyeast produces GF yeasts.

Not from what I heard on the basic brewing podcast a couple years back that was all about gluten free brewing and yeasts (I have posted the link to the discussion in various gluten free threads.) The discussion seemed to stress that fermentis was the only one.

The links to the info I use to back up my claim can be found here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/985103-post7.html

But hey if they are and you can show me the info, then I will include that whenever I get asked about gluten free brewing.....I'll even go back and revise that old post to include the links so anyone who searches for the info in the future will find it.

but until I see a reference or come upon the info myself...I am still going to stick by my original answer and source material....But I hope I'm wrong because that means more variety for zgf brewers to choose from.

 

[budbo]

How is liquid yeast not more expensive? $8 > $2. I guess you'd have to reuse the yeast four to five times to be economical about it.

I do that but it is a PITA, Since I am now 1.5 hours each way to the LHBS and don't want to pay for overnight shipping, I use dry more often than liquid and seems every year there are more varieties of dry.

As far as GF, Yeast itself is GF, the Gluten you get is from what it ate in the culture, since most yeast is cultured in a gluten environment it gets contaminated