Yeast

[BadDogNoBiskit]

What is the benifit of using liquid yeast vs. dry yeast?

[BrewDog]

There are two main reasons liquid is better than dry:

1) There are way more varieties of liquid yeast available (though this is changing with the SF brand). Most dry yeasts are labeled simply "ale", "lager", "pilsner", and such

2) You cannot easily reuse dry yeast. The drying process is not sterile. There are guaranteed to be bacterium in a dry yeast pack. Without a microscope, etc, reusing dry yeast is a bad idea.

The best reasons to use dry are:
1) Cheap
2) Easy to store without killing them.


I'm sure others can add to these lists

HTH-

[wortchillergoal]

Some people can taste a difference between dry and liquid. It seems dry will leave an after taste that liquid does not. It is not a bad or unplesant taste, it is just there.

[Vienna Lager]

Dry yeast is cheaper (about $1 per packet) and easier to store. I usualy have on hand a packet or two of Nottingham Ale yeast in the frig as it is good for ales and has a wider fermentation range so it can produce lager like beers if fermented at lower temps. It also is neutral for giving off sulfer.

Liquid yeast cost $6.50 to $7.50 for a smack pack or vial so it is more expensive. With that cost you get a ton more yeast cells (100 Billion for the Wyeast smack pack) so your fermentation kicks off a lot sooner. Also liquid comes is a greater variety of styles allowing you to fine tune your beer. Another advantage of liquid and the large # of active cells is that it makes it easier to thief off (harvest) the yeast from your secondary to use in a future batch. My LHBS sells his 6 month old (dated) White Labs for $3.75 a vial and $4.25 for Wyeast smack pack. You can get at least a second if not third generation of yeast from the liquid so the cost is down to less than $1.50 for yeast per batch.

jmo

[danno]

one more thing to add to the list, you can get a much greater variety of yeasts with liquid, compared to dry...

(Vienna, I'll disagree with one of your points. dry yeast packets have a higher cell count, by far, than liquid yeasts. that's why you don't have to make starters with dry yeasts, and even with the new bigger smack packs, it's still a good idea to do so with liquid yeast...)

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by danno
one more thing to add to the list, you can get a much greater variety of yeasts with liquid, compared to dry...

(Vienna, I'll disagree with one of your points. dry yeast packets have a higher cell count, by far, than liquid yeasts. that's why you don't have to make starters with dry yeasts, and even with the new bigger smack packs, it's still a good idea to do so with liquid yeast...)

Danno is correct on this, IIRC. Most dry have an avg yield of around 10 billion viable cells per gram - so 110 billion cells per 11 gram pack. They usually have a guaranteed viable count of 5 billion per gram so at $1.75(approx) per satchet your count per dollar is much higher.

[BadDogNoBiskit]

Originally posted by danno
one more thing to add to the list, you can get a much greater variety of yeasts with liquid, compared to dry...

(Vienna, I'll disagree with one of your points. dry yeast packets have a higher cell count, by far, than liquid yeasts. that's why you don't have to make starters with dry yeasts, and even with the new bigger smack packs, it's still a good idea to do so with liquid yeast...)



What is a starter? LIL help here, I'm still a begginer.

[BrewDog]

Palmer discusses yeast preparation and starters (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html) here.


If you haven't found John Palmer's Online Book (http://www.howtobrew.com) yet, check it out. It is arguably the best online homebrewer's resource available.

HTH-

[gallowd7]

I use dry yeast if I'm trying out a new recipe and don't want to throw the extra dollars into it or if I'm turning out a cheapo batch.

I really like using liquid yeast and I do actually think I can tell a difference (that's as far as I'll go with the tooting).

To throw another wrinkle at you BadDog, do a seach for "parallel" and get really confused, I mean efficient.

Have fun!