Switching from dry yeast to liquid yeast

Jim Brewster · Nov 6, 2021

How is a liquid yeast any different to reusing the yeast from your last fermentation? say reusing US-05 for example

Galena · Nov 6, 2021

Alastair70 said:
That’s what I’m doing. But the latest lot of sachets have a use by date rather than a mfg date. I’ve got in new pouches of Wyeast Munich Lager and White Labs Irish Ale and I’m not sure how to approach pitch rates.

White Labs yeast have a manufacture date 6 months earlier than use by and I am fairly sure Wyeast is the same, there should be a page on the website where you can input the batch number and get the manufacture date.

Galena · Nov 6, 2021

Cheshire Cat said:
No we are talking about one ingredient and a very important one I admit but it's more like the difference between leaf and pellet hops.

It's not though is it, the thing with liquid yeast is there are a lot more varieties than dried yeast.

Cheshire Cat · Nov 7, 2021

Galena said:
It's not though is it, the thing with liquid yeast is there are a lot more varieties than dried yeast.

Agreed there are more choices but does dry yeast make good beer? Yes it does and the choice of dry yeasts is expanding.

obscure · Nov 7, 2021

Jim Brewster said:
How is a liquid yeast any different to reusing the yeast from your last fermentation? say reusing US-05 for example

Liquid yeast costs about £8-£9 a pack reusing it if you can is worth the slight hassle, US-05 is about £2.50 a pack ergo I am not going to bother with the hassle of reusing it just to save £2.50 on a batch I will buy a new pack instead.

Also for me the main reason for using liquid is the variety offered, I suspect due to the cost of setting up a production line for dried yeast we will never have the same range available dried as we do with liquid yeast. My first choice of yeast will always be dry due to the combination of price and sheer ease of use, but sometimes their just isn’t an equivalent available dry.

Liquid Yeast is in many ways inferior to dry, it is more expensive, needs cold storage, degrades more quickly, has lower cell counts so needs a starter, but sometimes it’s just the right yeast for the beer in question.