Is dry yeast any good?
Dry yeast once had an inferior reputation because of contamination and resulted in poorer flavor than liquid yeast strains. This is much less true today. Several brands of dry yeast are now of high quality (Danstar and DCL, for example) and will produce good results. The advantages are longer shelf life (it is still recommended to refrigerate dry yeast during storage), lower cost and no need to make a starter (assuming that you pitch the recommended amount). However, there are a limited number of dry strains available with much less variety, especially for lager and Belgian styles, than for liquid yeasts.
