Thanks for spending some time on this and keep up the good work.

I’m sure the dry yeast manufacturers are pretty seriously interested in increasing their market share, although I wonder how much yeast homebrew and even craft brewers actually buy (I guess that would depend on what your barrel/year cutoff is between micro, craft and macro – I assume all the larger breweries re-culture their own yeast, but maybe not). Regardless, besides great tasting beer and a fun hobby, I’m motivated to brew partly by frugality – i.e. I’m cheap! So with increasing ingredient costs it sure makes sense to do what you can to hold down your batch price; if we can do that without sacrificing quality, and in fact have increased convenience and consistency, I’m all for that. How could anyone be against that? I do want my homebrew store to do well, so I guess the more dollar value of stuff they sell the better off they are, I know their margins are slim now – but I’m going to recommend to my local guys that they just stock one liquid (they now have a big selection of both Wyeast and White Labs) and get all the SAF and Lallemand yeasts they can. It’d be a shame if we (they) lost homebrewers (customers) because they decided it wasn’t worth paying $15 for grain, $6 for yeast, and $3.50 for hops + incidentals = $25/5 gal batch + your labor…heck I can almost buy good beer for $10/gal at the store ;-)

table

Yeast
Cost
Shelf life
preparation
activity

Liquid
$5 – $6
4 – 6 months*
24 – 72 hrs†
variable

Dry
$1.50 – $2
2 years**
30 min‡
high

The upshot: three years after writing this, I’ve had nothing but great results, and become a total dry yeast convert. I’ll still use liquids when I want a specific strain that’s not available dry, but that’s the only reason to IMO.

Dry brewing yeast: as good as liquid?

Or maybe even better…?

When I first started brewing, I was advised to throw the packet of dry yeast that came with the can of malt extract in the garbage, and get a Wyeast smack-pack instead, because the results were always superior. I’ve used it ever since, or the White Labs. Between them, they have almost a hundred strains to choose from, and their literature is full of glowing sensory descriptors such as “malty, minerally, spicy” etc. and also gives attenuation, flocculation and other tips. What more could you want?

Well, the last time I brewed, I made a Vienna lager with some old yeast I’d saved, and since I was unsure it was still alive, I bought a packet of dry yeast as insurance. Sure enough, mine was dead, so I put the dry yeast in and it kicked right up in a few hours. I put it in the fridge that night, and it’s bubbling along happily at 35º. The same day we did another batch for my friend, and put in a Wyeast “Activator” pack, which I hadn’t activated – I didn’t realize it was still a smack-pack, and in fact they advertise that it has just as many cells as the White Labs tube, so you can just pitch it in. I mixed and aerated well, but after 48hrs, the only activity was a wee bit on the floating (unbroken) inner nutrient pouch, which I guess had a little yeast stuck to it, and since it was on top it got enough O2 to get going. That night I sprinkled a packet of SafBrew S-33 on top, and within a few hours it was going strong.

This got me thinking, why am I using liquid yeast? Let’s compare:

Yeast Cost Shelf life preparation activity
Liquid $5 – $6 4 – 6 months* 24 – 72 hrs† variable
Dry $1.50 – $2 2 years** 30 min‡ high

* if you’re lucky; the liquid ale yeast was made in April
** the SafLager S-23 I used was actually right on the expiration date, seemed good as new
† You may have to make a starter; they guarantee it’ll swell in 6 days, which seems pretty sad really
‡ if you rehydrate it; just sprinkling it on top seems to work just as well

OK, so why are liquids better? Because they’re “fresh”? What good is that if they don’t start up quickly?
My experience in ten years as a baker is that nobody uses fresh yeast any more, because dry is much better in terms of shelf life and activity; the best brands were SAF (Fermentis) and Fermipan (Lallemand). Similarly, winemakers have used dry yeast with no complaints forever, only recently have liquids made a foray into the wine world. I just started a mead with dry ale yeast too. I’m curious to see how it goes, since meads are notorious for being slow and often stuck fermentations – so far, so good.

My recent experience in microbiology leads me to believe that liquid yeasts took over because a small lab can easily go out and culture yeast strains from various sources, and prep and package them quickly. The large array of available strains puts the choices in dry yeast to shame. To make dry yeast profitable, it needs to be done in a fairly large scale (in fact, Fermentis offers to culture your preferred strain and dry and package it for you, but only with a minimum order of 1,500 kg or more of dry yeast!). That doesn’t make it inherently inferior, just different. The small liquid labs were ideally poised to take advantage of the home- and craft-brewing market, and they make a fine product, but right now, I’m thinking of becoming a dry yeast fan. I like the idea of keeping a dozen or so packets on hand, so I can brew at a moment’s notice and not worry “is my yeast alive?” Even if the packets with those old malt cans weren’t any good, that doesn’t mean dry yeast is all bad. There are not as many choices as in liquid, but there are at least a dozen to pick from, so you should be able to vary the yeast to suit the beer style reasonably well. Of course, for us, taste is the final arbiter. I haven’t brewed with dry yeast until now, so I’m eager to taste the results, and will share the tasting notes (if not the beer ;-) with all of you soon.

Here are some links to dry yeast info:
http://www.crosby-baker.com/DCL.htm
http://www.fermentis.com/FO/EN/00-Home/10-10_home.asp
http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/danstar.html

I’d be interested to hear what others have to say about this, maybe we can get a discussion forum on our website?

- Dave Lubertozzi 7/20/05

If Jamil is still watching, his calculator figures 1.7 (20g) of dry yeast for a 1.048 lager. Here, you’re basically pitching two packs, so curious if we’re only talking ales or just go with one pack for a lager too?