If you are using liquid yeast you should make a starter....whether you are brewing AG or extract. Since you are beginning this hobby, then why don't you start off on the right foot, by adopting good brewing practices?
For one thing by making a starter, you will know that your yeast is healthy, AND you would also know that you have produced enough viable yeast to ferment...and that you will have reduced the lag time, so it would more than likely take off under the 72 hours that fermentation sometimes takes to begin...And the more viable yeast cells you have when you pitch, the less stressed the yeast will be and the better your first batch will taste.
Seems to me doinf it the RIGHT way would be a good step towards not having newbitus and worrying that something has gone wrong...If you look at the "Is my beer ruined?" Or "my fermentation hasn't begun yet" threads you will see often, besides the posters being nervous first time brewers, that they pitched a tube or used a smack pack without a starter...and that is why the beer has had such a long lag time.
You have enough awareness from reading here
that you should be using a starter with liquid yeast. So why do you hesitate to do it? Becasue you are impatient and don't want to delay your brewing a day or two? Well if you don't make one, more than likely
you will be delaying the yeasts in doing thier job of fermenting your beer by a day or two....A day or two where more than likely you will be stressing out, and then probably start a "something is wrong" thread...which we will then tell you that had you made a starter, you would have known that your yeast is viable.
A big part of successful brewing is developing your
process as a brewer. How you move from grain to glass..... Because honestly it's not about the ingredients you use, the gear you use, or the methodolgy (all grain or extract) that determines whether it is a good or bad beer (I have tasted great extract and crappy all grain and vice versus).
It is the brewer and their process that makes great tasting beer.
So I would start off on the right foot from the beginning...make a starter, use your hydromter, all the stuff we talk about here.
Do it right from the beginning. ANd you will be one step further down the line towards mastery in the hobby...
Like lefty said, the difference between good and FANTASTIC beer...comes down to what you do.....
