Liquid vs Dry Yeast

[teadixon]

I've only done a few brews - 3 kits and 3 all grain - and I'm wondering, what are the arguments for dried yeast against liquid and vice versa?

I've used liquid twice and making a starter is a lot more work, especially as I have a small fridge to fit my starter in to settle it out (I have to remove shelves to fit a 2l jar in there).

It seems there's a broader range of yeast varieties available in liquid form, but is there a discernible difference in the results? I'm curious.

 

[IainM]

Ah, that old chestnut. I've had good results from both for English and American ales. However, I've used a couple of dry Belgian yeasts, Brewferm Blanche and Safbrew T-58, which were ok but not hugely impressive. I get the impression that liquids are better choices for the more characterful styles such as wheats, saisons, Belgians etc...

 

[Covrich]

I think if you're looking at getting character from teh yeast there are more varieties form liquid and in general I found liquid better for some fruitier bready English types and belgian.. If you're looking for cleaner more neutral ones like American or even some English I would stick to dry..

 

[Hoppyland]

Well, I'm perfectly sure not many folk will agree with me here - but that never put me off :lol:

My answer is neither.

Virtually all my beers are brewed using starters made from yeast slopes (Brewlab), and I reckon that for a variety of characterful British-style beers (or indeed there are clean-flavoured ones suitable for American styles if you want a top-fermenter) then they cannot be beaten.

 

[trueblue]

Absolutely no comparison. Liquid yeast is a living strain which is why it has to be stored and treated correctly. The drying process strips some of the yeast character. Think real mash potato v smash or a soup made from fresh ingredients v packet yeast. If I'm going to spend 5 hours preparing wort I'm certainly not going to pitch an inferior yeast if I can help it. But I do keep a packet of dried for emergency's only.

 

[Pfeffer]

From a microbiological standpoint yeast is yeast. The dried one is as alive as the liquid one. The liquid one is actually more sensitive with regards to losing cell count.

It's more of a convenience thing. Liquid yeast is faster and easier to use, but expires faster. Dried yeast is easier to store (temp, size, shelf life) and is therefore cheaper.

 

[Manxnorton]

Been thinking of liquid yeast vs dry for a week now, I'm not sure on the liquid yeast I tried on my milk choc stout and for all the fermintation is good I thought it was stuck for a bit!
Think I was wary of it in the start of it...making a starter Or not.
I'm happy with the dry for my one handed goings on! Lol
Great read up guys

 

[JapanBrew]

If you have to just pitch a dry pack for a regular batch of wort, up to 1.050, then you're fine. But larger beers need a lot of yeast. You can toss in 2 packs and waste a ton of money, or just, with one pack, make a quick starter, even a liter is fine, to pitch. You'll get way better results.

 

[Pfeffer]

It's about cellcount. How many there are in a packet can differ per brand, strain and sachet size. Liquid seems to have a lot more cell count per sachet, but it's also way bigger. Unfortunately liquid is much more sensitive to aging, so if not properly stored or it simply gets old, it looses much of it perks.

Technically using a fresh dried or fresh liquid yeast should not make a difference. It's al about user preference and available strains.

 

[Manxnorton]

If you have to just pitch a dry pack for a regular batch of wort, up to 1.050, then you're fine. But larger beers need a lot of yeast. You can toss in 2 packs and waste a ton of money, or just, with one pack, make a quick starter, even a liter is fine, to pitch. You'll get way better results.

Yeah I think the 1.047 was ok but making a starter is new to me...but at the wort was got plenty of airation.
More practice making starters!

 

[Sadfield]

Technically using a fresh dried or fresh liquid yeast should not make a difference. It's al about user preference and available strains.

This. Great beer can be brewed with dry or liquid yeast. In my view the opinion that dry yeast has had flavour stripped out, is false. However, the drying process is not entirely sterile, so contamination is possible.

My one piece of advice though would be to put investment into temperature controlled fermentation, before spending extra money on liquid yeast. The ability to control flavour profile from a single yeast is far more useful.



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[TartanSpecial]

. Great beer can be brewed with dry or liquid yeast.

My one piece of advice though would be to put investment into temperature controlled fermentation, before spending extra money on liquid yeast.
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Id go along with that. I used liquid and dried yeast last year...liquid ones (WLP002 and WLP028) for my English and Scottish style ales, tried both of those plus Saf05 for my pale ales. I did starters for all, also just rehydrating saf05 for a couple of brews, and harvested yeast from the bottom of the fermenter to re-use in the next brew. All the beers came out well, personal preference might be 05 for the pale ales (maybe I should try wlp001), but the biggest improvement I made last year , re consistency and clean flavour profile was more attention on temperature control, specifically not letting it get too high (>20 C wlp002, >23 C Saf05) in the first few of days when the fermentation is at its most vigourous.

 

[trueblue]

I am still convinced drying yeast takes away some of the character, and not just based on my own 40 years of brewing. Several of the brewery tours I have done, both in the UK and abroad, I have been lucky enough to talk to head brewers. Yeast has always been the subject I try to talk about, always trying to blag some live brewery yeast, and they all seem to agree yeast is the most important ingredient. One brewer claimed 70% of a beers final taste is dependent on the yeast strain and how it's managed. Another brewer was very dismissive of some of the newer micro-brewery's that use dried yeast. He said best brewery's in the UK, he stated Adnams, Timothy Taylor and Fullers, all spend big money on their yeast laboratory's to maintain the strains. They could save big money switching to a dried strain but know the beer would not be as good. When I have secured some live brewery yeast that raises the beer to yet another level.

 

[MyQul]

I am still convinced drying yeast takes away some of the character, and not just based on my own 40 years of brewing. Several of the brewery tours I have done, both in the UK and abroad, I have been lucky enough to talk to head brewers. Yeast has always been the subject I try to talk about, always trying to blag some live brewery yeast, and they all seem to agree yeast is the most important ingredient. One brewer claimed 70% of a beers final taste is dependent on the yeast strain and how it's managed. Another brewer was very dismissive of some of the newer micro-brewery's that use dried yeast. He said best brewery's in the UK, he stated Adnams, Timothy Taylor and Fullers, all spend big money on their yeast laboratory's to maintain the strains. They could save big money switching to a dried strain but know the beer would not be as good. When I have secured some live brewery yeast that raises the beer to yet another level.

I'm not sure yet whether dried is better than liquid (I've used liquid, dried and yeast cultured up from bottle conditioned beers) but I'm definatley convinced of what your saying about 70% of a beers taste is dependant on the yeast and how it's managed. Like the saying goes, ' brewer's make wort, yeast makes beer'

 

[Pfeffer]

I agree with yeast being extremely important, but yeast is a living organism. So if you rehydrate the dried one, it's exactly the same as the liquid one. I'm afraid the difference is between the ears.

You can make a perfect beer with dried yeast as good as a pint of goat **** when using liquid yeast. But I'm convinced that if you BELIEVE you are brewing a good beer, it will taste better than the exact same beer if you had doubts about the yeast.

And drying is indeed not perfectly sterile, but I can't imagine they don't produce it in a cleanroom with a laminar airflow. The hygiene standards would certain be on a very high standard.

I might not know that much about brewing, but microorganisms are my turf.

 

[MyQul]

I will say that the two liquid yeasts I've bought (Wyeast 1469 and WLP001 were the absolute bollards)

 

[teadixon]

Thanks all for your thoughts!

Not sure I'm any clearer... My conclusion is that only experimentation will tell.

Thinking it might be interesting to split my next batch and pitch 2 different yeasts (one dried, one liquid) and see what comes out!

 

[Pfeffer]

You'd need to use the exact same strain to compare better invest in finding the right strain for your taste..

 

[trueblue]

You'd need to use the exact same strain to compare better invest in finding the right strain for your taste..

This is something myself and a few other local brewers did around 15 years ago. The same wort divided into two and pitched with a liquid and dried yeast reputed to be of the same origin, I used WLP007 and SO4 others used different strains. It was a total blind tasting. The results were every single liquid yeast was chosen as the best by everyone. I do believe the same experiment was carried out by other brewers on Jim's forum with similar results.