Liquid Beer Yeasts

Wyeast

Wyeast is the Oregon company that has been providing high-quality liquid beer yeast to homebrewers for twenty years. They currently sell their liquid yeasts in the "smack-pack" form. This is a pouch-within-a-pouch that needs to be solidly "smacked" about ten to twelve hours before you plan on brewing your beer. This "smacking" breaks a nutrient pouch within the main envelope and allows the yeast to begin fermenting prior to being pitched into your five-gallon fermenter. It is basically a "mini" starter culture (with none of the effort of a real starter culture) and allows the yeast to grow in both cell count and health. This is technically better for the beer, but necessitates pre-planning and having access to your yeast at the proper time.

You can "smack" the pack up to 24 hours prior to brewing, but be sure to give yourself at least six hours on the short end. We have seen sluggish fermentations with anything under four hours of incubation.

Price per pack: $6.75

To see our list of Wyeast yeasts, click here.

White Labs

White Labs is the San Diego company that is the relative newcomer in the world of liquid yeast. They sell their strains in a plastic vial that just needs to be warmed up for about two to three hours prior to shaking it, opening it up and pouring out the contents into your five gallon fermenter. (As an interesting side note, the plastic containers that White Labs packages their yeast in are the shrunken precursors to a two-litre plastic soda-pop bottle -- before they are "inflated" to their full size! These plastic vials are, for all intents, indestructible.)

Although starter cultures are always considered beneficial, and White Labs yeast are not pre-incubated as are the Wyeast smack-packs, many people have found White Labs yeast to be just as vigorous -- if not more so -- than Wyeast, and there are none of the worries about having to properly "smack" the envelope and break the inner pouch. To use a White Labs yeast, just bring the vial to room temperature (about two hours), shake it up and pour out the slurry. We have many fanatical White Labs users.

Price per vial: $6.75

To see our list of White Labs yeasts, click here.