Youngs Dried Active Yeast

[bacchus]

Hiyall,

I'm new to brewing and have a question if anyone would be kind enough to answer.

Is there a good reason why I shouldn't buy 100g of Youngs Dried Active Yeast (which I assume will ferment anything) for £1.25, rather than 5g of specific yeast (ale, wine, cider etc) for basically the same price?

Common sense tells me that if it was any good they'd be no need for the other specific yeasts.



p.s.

As thanks, please find below a picture of Brian Blessed holding a donkey, this will have to suffice until I amass sufficient knowledge to be able to contribute to answering questions myself.

 

[markp]

Firstly, thanks for the gratuitous picture of Brian.....I'm a big fan. 'Gordon's alive!!'

My thoughts on the Youngs yeast.
It seems to be a general purpose yeast and my own opinion is that yeasts should be chosen to do a particular job....the one they are designed for and do best.

What I would be most concerned about is this type of yeast would probably ferment out beer to a gravity of 1.000 or even less perhaps, and this would be far too dry for a beer.

The yeast companies (and fellow home brewers) have done a lot of work over the years on types of yeasts and I feel that it would be a little short sighted to overlook this in favour of a 'one size fits all' approach.

I brew all grain beer and a brew day takes roughly 6-8 hours depending on my mood and usually how much beer I've consumed on the Friday night.
I'd be reluctant to risk wasting this time by pitching a yeast that may not give me the result I'm looking for........I'd rather stick to what has been tried, tested and proven.

Having said all this, I am certainly no yeast expert and I'd be interested to hear what other people think. No doubt someone is going to pop up now and say Youngs is the only thing I've ever and will ever use for my beers :)

ATB

 

[MickD]

Sorry, can't answer this, but I too bought some 'general' yeast yesterday mainly for some TC im doing and thought it was a good buy as it was so much cheaper, so will be interested to see what people think, although a teaspoon in the gallon i started last night is going crazy at the mo, but thats not to say its anygood.

Mick.

 

[craigite]

Yes, I do think different yeast does give different flavours. However if you are starting out there are many other variables so one less to start with might make the process less daunting?
I use the same yeast for everything. Firstly cos I like the taste I get and that's what counts. Secondly cos I harvest the yeast off the fermentation for later brews.

Try the yeast, and if you like it