Major Difference

So the Brown Turkey is happily percolating this morning with an inch of Krausen already fully formed.

For the majority of the this year I have been using dry yeast in all of my brews for a couple reasons. Locally sourced kits were all dry yeast, and when ordering over the internet in the middle of the summer heat I tended to use the dry option as well. I didn't want to have complications with shipping liquid yeasts and having the heat kill them off before I received them.

I had been spoiled by the quick action of dry yeast. Dry yeast is packaged when the yeast has already been through the O2 uptake phase, making them set to go as soon as they rehydrate from the wort.

Other times I used Wyeast smack packs, which also tend to take off rather quickly. It really only seems to be White Labs that takes a while for the yeast to go through the O2 uptake phase prior to getting down to work. With the Ranger Danger IPA I did a few weeks ago, it was 36 hours or so before I started noticing any airlock activity.

This time around using the White Labs yeast, I made a starter on Thursday evening to get it all kick started.
2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of wort boiled for 15 mins, then chilled down and yeast pitched in. I haven't made a stir plate for it yet, but the yeast burned through that little amount of wort in 24 hours.

Using that starter has made a world of difference with this brew.

I'm happy.