I can see we need a discussion about this. Are we entering an era where the dry yeast will become what the wet yeast is? I haven’t had my nose in the PC looking, yet as I’m reading, it sure sounds like dry is closing the gap. Whats your take on this? Sneezles61
IMHO it has closed the gap. There’s many more choices and the quality is much better. And at half the price of liquid yeast you can buy 2 packets and not worry about a starter.
If they made all the liquid strains in a dry form it would be hard to pass up.
Edited to add: dry also is less stressful to ship, has a significantly better shelf life, and is a beast. On another post I mentioned that I had a dry packet of US-05 dated Dec 2010. Thought I would see if it was any good and pitched it in a starter. It took right off. Incredible. 6+ year old yeast.
Not as old as yours but I pitched some belle saison that was expired…no problems at all.
As long as there are hundreds of liquid yeast strains that appeal to those wanting to use an appropriate yeast for a particular style, then I think liquid wins. However, there are more and more good dry strains, and they sure are more convenient. At this point, I’m using WY1007 for kolsches and alts, WY2206 for lagers and WY1450 because hey it’s Denny’s, but otherwise it’s either US-05 or S-04. I don’t do any Belgians or Saisons, so no opinion there.
I’ll say for a clean, American ale strain, us05 isn’t my favorite. I spent a year limiting myself to it (eliminating variables), and really didn’t care for my beer that year. Switched to wy1272, and saw instant improvement. I still associate 05 with “homebrew twang.” I will say, my fermenting area is in the low 60s, so right in the famed peach ester range, which probably has a lot to do with it.
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I totally get that “twang” you speak of with 05… I brewed a beer with it that usually uses 1056 and noticed something strange and “twangy.” It seems to have aged out though.
At first I thought it was “grainy” and that some jokester switched my Rahr with Briess… 
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I’ve stayed in the whites camp once I discovered wet was so much better. Now I have only tried the 34/70 out in the last 2 years. I really don’t buy much yeast at all as I just propagate a bunch first, then as I brew, repitch. I will come out of my box and try more dry yeast. I had some dry yeast, that was like 5 years old, and it took off, back in the late 2000’s… Sneezles61
