Thoughts on Dry Yeast

So a friend whom I brew with just started to use Dry Yeast and seems to be very happy with it.  I have been sceptical ever since I used it in my first brew.  He argues that professional craft brewers use dry over liquid.  So I was wondering if anyone here uses dry yeast and what your thoughts are on it.

Being a former professional craft brewer I have to disagree with your friend. Pure liquid cultures are generally more reliable and viable than a dry yeast. The procedures you have to go through to reactivate dry yeast merely introduces more possibilities for error and contamination. I won't say outright that dry yeast is bad, but that I prefer a liquid culture. I only know of one craft brewer that uses dry yeast, and his beer is generally not that great. He has a lot of infections.

Darin

dhaenerbrewer said:

Being a former professional craft brewer I have to disagree with your friend. Pure liquid cultures are generally more reliable and viable than a dry yeast. The procedures you have to go through to reactivate dry yeast merely introduces more possibilities for error and contamination. I won't say outright that dry yeast is bad, but that I prefer a liquid culture. I only know of one craft brewer that uses dry yeast, and his beer is generally not that great. He has a lot of infections.

Darin

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Hmm, good to know thanks.  We just finished a batch earlier today using the dry yeast and he pitched the dry yeast right into the wort without reactivating....which I thought was wrong.  But low and behold he is already getting fermentation about 10 hours later.  But I am still not sold, as I agree with your reasons to like liquid yeast.

For homebrewing, dry yeast works fine if it fits your requirements for that batch.  When I use it, I always re-hydrate it with cooled, pre-boiled water in a sanitized pint jar.  Conversely, lots of well-meaning brewers out there probably cut their smack packs with dirty scissors and just pour it in, despite all the recommendations to sanitize the pack, the scissors, and to do a starter. 

So, to get useful feedback from brewers, you'd have to ask each of them how they do it. 

One clear difference is the variety of strains available and thus the beer styles one just could not do with dry yeast. 

""Conversely, lots of well-meaning brewers out there probably cut their smack packs with dirty scissors and just pour it in, despite all the recommendations to sanitize the pack, the scissors, and to do a starter.""

Hey - I do wipe down the yeast pack and spray the scissors with Starsan before I clip the pack and sprinkle the yeast ( Safeale  US-05  or S-04) onto the wort ....

SleepySamSlim said:

""Conversely, lots of well-meaning brewers out there probably cut their smack packs with dirty scissors and just pour it in, despite all the recommendations to sanitize the pack, the scissors, and to do a starter.""

Hey - I do wipe down the yeast pack and spray the scissors with Starsan before I clip the pack and sprinkle the yeast ( Safeale  US-05  or S-04) onto the wort ....

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Exactly my point.  You do those things and presumably have had good luck with dry yeast.  So your opinion on dry yeast is likely positive (as is mine).  But everyone's practice is different, and everyone picks up some biases from those that taught them, and other opinions from their own experience. 

The yeast calculator at MrMalty.com says that dry yeast viability is much better than liquid, assuming the same mfg date of May 1st (88% to 70%), so for the same age yeast, one 11.5g package of US-05 would do the job without a starter, whereas 1056 liquid would require a 2L starter.  Presumably it is the same yeast strain, and liquid is 3X the cost, and doing a starter is another opportunity for infection, and a starter must be done in advance, so which is truly better?  Depends on each brewer.

But both those calculations probably assume the best practice of rehyrating the dry, and actually doing the starter for liquid, but I bet many (even most?) home brewers would do neither for a 5.25 gallon batch of 1.048 ale. 

Know why you are picking the yeast you choose to use.
If I am brewing a beer and I want a clean yeast my goto yeast is US-05,  In my BW's 3 packs re-hydrated.

Liquid yeast is my choice if I am looking for a "character" yeast.  there are so many liquid yeasts out there to choose from and all of them are good as long as you are targeting a beer that typically uses that yeast.  but then we are homebrewers and we can break the rules.

Fred

bonjour said:

Know why you are picking the yeast you choose to use.

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Absolutely. The yeast largely determines the beer's character, so it must fit your target beer style. 

I asked Jamil Z. about the yeast count of dry and liquid after checking something on his yeast calculator, and he told me that dry is actually approx. 20 billion per gram, so the typical 10 or 11-gram package may deliver 200 billion cells, compared to a liquid's 100 billion.  The yeast makers assume some loss during shipping/handling, and assume users will sprinkle it rather than re-hydrate it, so they guarantee only 6 billion cells per gram (per the tech sheet's online).  So a fresh dry yeast, properly used, may be a decent alternative, esp. if one doesn't like to do starters.

I tend to make simple beers using dry yeast (Safale US 05) with good results. 
If my brewing schedule permits I'll make a few back to back batches, recycling a scoop from the racked batch into the newly brewed batch.  I've never tried to keep it going more than four generations, and I've never had problems that could be traced to being cheap with the yeast.

I look at it from a dollar standpoint.  I'm a cheap bastid buying base grain by the 55# bag and hops by the pound if I think I'll use them.  I'm also quite happy with the results from stretching a two dollar package of yeast over four batches, as is most everyone I share the beer with, and see little point in shelling out five or more dollars for a specialized liquid yeast unless I'm doing something out of the ordinary that really warrants it.

Also I don't bother with any of that re-hydration nonsense.  I pull the packet out of the freezer before I start the batch, and sprinkle it on top before attaching the lid.  I do wait at least twelve hours before affixing the airlock, unless I used a scoop from a previous batch which starts a vigorous fermentation almost immediately.

I rehydrate dry yeast in part because I have always done that for bread-baking, and it's one way to ensure that the yeast is in good shape. Plus I assume it would assimilate better and bloom faster if it's first rehydrated and given a jump start (in sterilized water that is baby-bottle warm).

I've been using mostly liquid yeast (in starters) for the last few batches but used dry yeast for the last batch on advice that it would be the best for that particular brew.

Yeah -- Plus 100 on MaltLickers comment above ...

Whether you're using liquid yeasts - or dry --- there are so many variables that any person (especially a newbie) can inject into the whole process which can make your fermentation a flop. To be honest the one time I prepped dry yeast (looked very healthy) the fermentation was so-so (most likely I screwed up somewhere). Yet the last time I sprinkled on Fermentis US-05 --- I had a krausen 3" high in a day and a half and a rousing fermentation (actually I over shot the mark by 4 points).

So as mentioned - a lot of us are driven by our own out comes with yeast(s) or influenced by comments on forums etc.
"I would never use blah blah yeast because of ....."

Right now I'm in a learning mode and keeping it simple --- and getting some very tasty beers.

I have had my struggles with dry yeast, but dry yeast is all I can get from my local brew shop, mail order would be the alternative. So I have to get it right with using dry yeast. I am an all grain brewer, and the procedure that works and has proven to be very effective for me is this: I boil two cups of water and let it cool to the temp at which I will pitch the yeast. I rehydrate my yeast a sanitized measuring cup. Then I put the sealed pack of yeast in the sanitized water (I use one step sanitizer, no rinsing required) for two minutes and then I cut the pack open with sanitized scissors and pour the dry yeast into the cooled boiled water. I leave it set for 15 min. and then gently stir the slurry to get rid of any yeast clumps.
This next two steps are very important in order to get good fermentation from your yeast. 1- AREATE your wort BEFORE you pitch your yeast. I put pure oxygen from my oxygen tank, from my acetylene torch via an air filter(purchased from Northern Brewer) and air stone and plastic hose (sanitized) directly into the wort for 2 min.
2- Make sure your temp is right for your yeast! I had trouble maintaining my ferm temps especially in the winter. I purchased a couple of Thermowells with heaters and digital thermostats to regulate and maintain my temps. They are not cheap, about $130.00 for one set up but to me they are worth every penny.
This has made all the difference in the world for my brewing. I get better tasting beer and I great attenuation from my yeast with great F.G. numbers. I get great results from the SafAle and SafLager yeasts.
If you follow these steps you will have good success with dry yeast, if you are using healthy viable yeast.
Good Luck,  Cowboy Up!! 

I use both. Liquid with big starters.  Zero effort cut and dumps of us05.  The later is all but foolproof and only $2.