Hops and yeast

[Ian]

I would really appreciate your sagely and experienced thoughts on a matter guys - two matters I suppose, but closely related, so I hope I'm in line treating this as one topic.
Briefly, by way of background, I have a mate in WA who is a passionate and veteran Full mash brewer (in fact he and two partners have a small commercial brewery as an additional business to their 'day jobs') and it is he who has nudged me to the brink of the reverent pursuit of AG brewing. Anyhow, he tells me that such great strides have been made in recent years in the area of dry yeasts that he now uses little (or nothing) else - and that goes for hops too, and they use just hop pellets.
I have the ingredients for my first two brews (hence my earlier question regarding liquid yeast) and they include liquid yeast and fresh hops.
Now I am sure there would be specialist brews where you would need (or want) to use specialist yeast and hops and that personal preferences play a huge part in all this, but my two questions would be:

A. Would you agree that for 'general brewing' (at least whilst trying to master AG brewing) one would do well to stick to dry yeast and hop pellets and

B. Since I have the mentioned ingredients, and my first brews will utilise the hop flowers (they have provided aroma, bittering and finishing hops) how should one use these to best avoid a clogged cooler? The brewquip guys talked about blitzing the hops in a food processor or coffee grinder for that purpose, or should I make up little cheescloth or muslin bags to pop into the kettle at the appropriate time?

I hope I have been concise enough and, again, I know personal experience and preference play a big part in these choices, but some practical guidence would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers,
Ian

[Kempicus]

Ian

What are your first two brews gonna be?

I only use dried yeast but that's partially because i only brew ales so SO-4 and SO-5 are my yeast of choice but i've heard it's a good idea to specialise for lagers
for your every day ale i'd certainly stick to dried

Sorry can't help with the other question...only ever used pellets

James

[Ian]

Sunsplash golden ale and Black Sheep ale, both of which I got from Dunedin Malthouse. I got a Brewcraft kegging kit from Dennis too ($430) and almost have my mash gear together - so as you can see, it will be a steep learning curve, since I don't yet know how to drive all this stuff properly yet!
Cheers,
Ian

[Mike Neilson]

I use both Yeast's but that for Trappist, Hefe's and Wits I use Wyeast and Dry yeast's for Ales. I see no need for Wyeast 1056 instead of S05, as in my early stage of brewing I have still alot to do to clean up and perfect my brewing. As for whole hops I just used cascade plugs In my Indian American Pale Ale. Quite a few got through the siphon and are on top of the Krausen they were a flame out addition so hopfully they dont affect the beer to much, Time will tell.

[JoKing]

Both of those brews would taste good if you (as Kempicus does) used SafAle S-04. As far as your hops flowers go, Blitzing them is fine if you want; putting them in a cheescloth bag is fine too. In fact it is easier to seperate the hops out of your brew if you use the bag - I'd do that for the 1st few times just to aid in simplicity.

Watch this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFxuooOKe4o

Obviously - you dont need to get the ring and stuff, but the concept is what is important,

[Reviled]

Cant comment on the hops cos ive only used pellets... But with the yeast, I recently starting using liquids and im absolutely loving it...

I personally find S-04 pretty boring, the character you can get from a liquid ale yeast is devine! Ive used 1469 West Yorkshire Ale and it honestly walked all over the S-04! Ive managed to farm the smack packs and get several brews from one pack...

I also have some 1026 British Cask which I will probably use next, with my Galaxy PA to do a side by side comparison on the yeast character...

And also agree with Mike that I wouldnt waste my time on 1056 cos US-05 is just as good...

[Stu McKinlay]

A. Yes - I've tasted a higher percentage of poor brews made with liquid yeast than dry yeast. it takes one step out of the equation for you. Unless you are trying to brew something with an overt yeast character, go dry for a while.

B. Depends on what your kettle is really. With a spigot/tap you will need something to keep the hops from blocking it. If you are lifting and pouring into the fermenter, then you could just pour through a colander or sieve. If you use a bag, then put something in it to weigh it down, otherwise it will just float on top. I'm not really sure why anyone uses flowers to be honest. I know a few commercial breweries who have tried because it is "traditional", and their beers taste just as good with pellets.

[Ian]

My kettle (almost finished) is a converted 55L ss keg with ball valve and will double (at least initially) as my HLT so I'll take the advice and use the weighted bags - unless anyone thinks the blitzing idea is easier. But, although Dennis (DMH) was on my case about the liquid yeasts which he talks about with reverence, I was advised that US-05 would be good with the golden ale and S04 with the Black Sheep - so maybe I'll do what Stu suggested some time ago and chicken out of the liquid stuff in favour of simplicity. From what you guys have said (and my WA mate), from then on I'll use dried yeast and hop pellets until I know more than vaguely what I'm up to. This has been a help. Cheers for the thoughts.
Ian

[JoKing]

Dennis' yeast makes your brewing process a fair bit more complicated... He only gives you a very very small amount of yeast that would take a week or so to build up into a pitchable amount.

As a beginner, you would definately be better off starting out with US-05 or S-04. All you have to do is sprinkle it in when you've got your cooled wort into the fermenter..

[Ian]

That seals it then - thanks. I admitted to Dennis that this was my plan and he was most agrieved - but I'm the learner driver at the end of the day.

[JoKing]

All of the more experienced home brewers still use dried yeast. Everyone I deal with still does around half of the time!

There is no point spending extra money on liquid if you don't really know what you're doing. You will more than likely end up with an average tasting brew as liquid's are way more fussy than dried's.

[Dan]

If you use a tap on your kettle a stainless steel pot scrubber hose clipped on to the back of the tap works a treat, ive had the same one on there for over a year now and havent taken it off even for cleaning and haven't had 1 stuck runoff.
I do prefer to use at least some cones in the brew as I believe they aid in the filtering out of material like break and pellet particles.

[Ian]

Dan, I'm sorry to sound the dumb novice mate, but that advice seems most sound though I can't quite visualise the type of pot scrubber hose you are refering to. And I'm lost with cones too. Must ask or I might pass up on just what is needed.
Cheers,
Ian