Moving up from dried yest

[timbowden]

Hi all,
I have been using dried yeast (Safale so4) for all my all grain brews so far but am considering moving up to using wet yeast (if that's what we call it).
What's the best route to go slap packs or other. :wha:
Tim

 

[jonnymorris]

I've not used the Wyeast smack-packs but can vouch for White Labs. Bear in mind you're probably best off making a starter appropriate for your brew (unlike dry yeast).

 

[anthonyUK]

Hi Tim,
I can't recommend enough the value of the Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zhainasheff.
For the cost of a couple packs of liquid yeast it will infinitely improve your yeast knowledge and I haven't heard of anyone that has not learned something from reading it.

If you are going into liquid yeasts be prepared for yet more equipment :ugeek:
Magnetic stir plate (easy to make), stir bars, Erlenmeyer flasks etc. You can of course make do without any of these but you will get the best from liquid yeast with them.

 

[Good Ed]

Hi Tim,
I can't recommend enough the value of the Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zhainasheff.
For the cost of a couple packs of liquid yeast it will infinitely improve your yeast knowledge and I haven't heard of anyone that has not learned something from reading it.

+1

Also Bewlab yeast slants are excellent http://www.brewlab.co.uk/analysisandresearch.asp#homebrew and as well as the yeasts that they list, they have a huge data base of yeasts. So if you are brewing a Timothy Taylor Landlord clone you can order the TTL yeast. They are very helpful, either email or phone them. The advantage of these slants are that they are made to order and are just a couple of days old when you receive them, you will then have to do stepped starters to get your correct quantity for pitching.

 

[brewtim]

I can't recommend enough the value of the Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zhainasheff.
For the cost of a couple packs of liquid yeast it will infinitely improve your yeast knowledge and I haven't heard of anyone that has not learned something from reading it.
.

+1, superb book not just about the technicalities of yeast but also gives you insights into the whole fermentation process and how temperature affects yeast activity and the many yeast processes that affect the flavour, clearing and quality of your beer, with info on finings, conditioning, lagering all related to yeast activity.

The Wyeast smack packs are easy to use, but despite the claim on the packaging that a pack will inoculate a single 5(US) gallon batch, the pack only contains 100billion cells from the factory (White labs vials are the same, but not used them). So for a 23l batch it is likely you will need 150-250billion cells requiring to estimate number of cells remaining in the pack to estimate the size of starter (usually 1-2litres, check out http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html).

I guess alot of people do innoculate without a starter and it ferments with no problem, but doing it without the correct number of starting cells can affect the flavour (which may be beneficial/preferred), however the book explains all - so def get it.

:thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Quality wise I find little between wyeast and whitelabs. But whitelabs are easier to handle compared with the smack packs, just open the vial slowly.

 

[timbowden]

Thanks for the help so far ever gone. Ill get hold of the book for sure. Sorry if I sound a bit obvious but is there a big difference moving away from dried yeast :wha:
Tim

 

[dennisking]

Thanks for the help so far ever gone. Ill get hold of the book for sure. Sorry if I sound a bit obvious but is there a big difference moving away from dried yeast :wha:
Tim

I personally think there is a noticeable difference, others in the past have though different. Remember with good management you can get several brews from one vial/smackpack.

 

[anthonyUK]

Liquid yeasts give you that much more control over fermentation and the flavours that can be produced such as esters.

If you reuse the yeast a number of times it also works out costing less.

 

[wilsoa1111]

its definitely worth having a special yeast or two up ur sleeve they can really add a nice new depth of flavour or variations on your fav brews, but its sometimes nice to have the guarantee of a nice new packet of dry yeast for a brew u really need to go well... just about picking the right yeast for each brew...

for example i dont see the point in getting a san fran pale ale yeast when s-05 is essentially the same and half the price