First time with dry yeast and...

[shunt]

it kicked in less than 12 hours after pitching! Very impressed. Just opened packet, dumped it in and now she's going like crazy. Safale US 05.

What are your experiences with dry yeast?

[derfburg]

I use it all the time, easy and cheap. I just did a split Janet's Brown with 001 & US-05. I will make my final decision with this, but in a pinch, I have no issues with it.

[BigNastyBrew]

One of the 2 most recent BYO issues had an article about dry yeasts. He was using S-04 specifically and tried different dry yeasts trying to get different characteristics. It was a good read.

[shunt]

After a couple of hours since posting, those bad boys are going strong. Fermentation temp is 67f. I have 5 gallons in a conical and the other 5 in a Better Bottle. The conical started before.

[captain carrot]

I like the reliability of the dry yeasts. I usually don't plan far ahead for my brew days and start my dry yeast the morning of brewing. The last two batches I just openened the packages and dumped them onto the wort. Either way the lag time is very short (a few hours). I like US-05 for American Styles and S-04 for English beers. I bought some W34/70 for a lager but haven't used it yet. It's supposed to be the Wienstephen lager strain. Used the WB06 but fermented too warm (75F) and didn't get the hefewiezen character I was looking for. I will try it again now that I can control my ferment temp. Any comments on the W34/70?

[one_dead_soul]

i always use dry unless i'm doing something more complex like a sour or belgian. its alot less work and alot cheaper.

[Weenie Boy]

I have been using the Safale products for the past two years with great success. It seems as though I have a tough time getting liquid yeast shipped here to Arizona that survives.
I say "Viva la dry yeast"!

Weenie Boy

[brewinhard]

Dry yeast is the bomb, unless you plan ahead for a run of beers with liquid yeast. You don't have to make a starter, and as far as I can tell, US-05 is identical to 1056. Why wouldn't you use dry yeast in that situation. Obviously some beer styles can simply not be made well with dry yeast, so those are the ones you buy liquid yeast for. The S-04 is a great english strain (Whitbread, i think), and I have used countless numbers of times. It can get a bit boring after a while, but is a strong predictable fermenter with great flocculation. I havent used the W34/70 yet but I have not had great results with dry yeast for lagers. Liquid yeast seems to be more reliable. Maybe someone will chime in on that one!