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Rehydrating dry yeast - wort or water?

eddiewould

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I've almost always used dry yeast (Safale-04 or Safale-05). I was originally taught to rehydrate the yeast in wort (at least a couple of hours prior to pitching), however I was wondering whether this was bad advice and in fact I should be rehydrating in water (that has been boiled and cooled).

Your thoughts?
 
Definitely sterile water. Wort will kill half the yeast before it fully rehydrates.
 
tom_hampton said:
Definitely sterile water. Wort will kill half the yeast before it fully rehydrates.
+1

Agreed! You really dont want to murder 80-100 Billion yeast cells!
 
Thanks guys!

Will try and avoid murdering yeasties in the future. I guess I've just been lucky though - all my beers have turned out fine!
 
eddiewould said:
all my beers have turned out fine!

Exactly!

Not to be rude or harsh but if this is the case then why ask? Believe it or not, I use tap water to rehydrate my US-05. Also no problems. There have been times when I have not rehydrated the yeast and... also fine.

There is a lot of care that can be taken with yeast (especially) but I also think in general it's pretty durable. There is a reason why dry yeast was invented/created. ;)
 
FYI
This is quoted from the Yeast Gods (Wyeast, White Labs, and Mr. Malty):
Proper fermentation is what sets apart great beers from just OK beers. Proper fermentation results in a beer with the correct appearance, flavor, body, and aroma profile. It is also clean, complete, consistent, and reproducible.

Cheers
Preston
 
I have a question related to yours... basically what could/will happen to your beer when you do add it to a DME starter and is there anything that you can do to correct it?

Here is the long explanation to my question:

Been brewing for 1.5 years and still make a lot of assumptions that get me into trouble.  My latest mistake relates to this topic and makes me wonder how much of an issue is this mistake going to be.

I have always used liquid yeast but a new recipe suggested using the dry Danstar Nottingham so I purchased it.  Over the weekend I planned to make a couple 5 gallon batches with one difference so I could compare the effect.  With that in mind I purchased everything I needed and planned to double the starter size and use a half in each.  After seeing the second line of text was not English I just skipped to the suggested temp for the yeast then made the DME starter, cooled it, threw the yeast in, and shook everything up (This lesson was learned from the White Labs shake vial vigorously before opening). 

Anyway, after doing all this I see that the directions specifically say "Do not use wort" to hydrate yeast and "DO NOT STIR" until however long.  I also saw that I they yeast should be hydrated at 85-95° F and I added the yeast to 65° F wort.  I get what was done is comparable to waking someone up by throwing them off a high dive into a pool... I get that I really piss them all off and killed a good number but what is the affect going to be on my beer and is there anything that I could do to make up for my mistakes?
 
Dry Nottingham is pretty sturdy yeast.  It may depend on the gravity of the starter.  As long as that was below 1.040 I would bet you are fine. 

If it was fresh, there were about 220 billion cells in the package.  Split in half, 110 billion.  Some unknown number may have croaked, and then the survivors likely duplicated at least once. 

You may have gotten back to where you started......
 
Thanks for the feedback... Ended up using this starter instead of a couple different options I had available.  I am still a little worried about the stress and off flavoring so I am putting off my second batch and storing the second half in mason jars.  Because my blow off tube and bucket are not full of foam like normal I am hoping MaltLicker is right on about basically being back to one pack and that something else is not causing this difference from the norm. 

The article posted makes me wonder how many people add dry yeast to water at the pitching temp to hydrate instead of the suggested higher temp on back of the packs (Or at least the Danstar pack I used)?  According to the article it doesn't look like there is a big difference so I guess I'm just curious.

Anyway... it's noon on superbowl sunday so I think it's time for a home brew.
 
I once looked up all the recommended temps for re-hydration water, and they over-lapped at 86F, I think.  So, I aim for that number and don't worry too much as long as it's close.  It's gotta be better than 64F wort at 1.055, right?  Definitely a keep-it-simple-and-move-on issue for typical strength ales. 
 
I just empty the dry packet into the carboy. Always worked for me.  I use Safale 05 in the spring and fall, and Saflager 23 in the winter.

It might take a few days to get the first one going, but after that I will use a scoop of sludge from the primary for the next batch.  Starts right up!  I can get quite a few batches off one yeast packet if I time things right. 
 
I'm relatively new to brewing and would like to bring this topic back to life.... as I would like to do with my yeast.

I like to experiment with small batches (1 gal/4.5 litres) and am currently using packets of 11g dry yeast (Nottingham). I've read that this is far too much yeast than what is necessary. And while I'm sure that won't do too much damage, I would like to be frugal and split this packet in two. I've thought about weighing out the yeast into two equal measures and storing one of them in either the fridge or freezer, or even hydrating the yeast whole, putting half of the hydrated yeast  liquid solution in a small container and keeping that in the fridge until my next use.

Any advice here would be great. Thanks.

Happy brewing!
 
I don't bother to re-hydrate when using dry yeast; I followed the Brulosopher experiment and it worked the same. Just sprinkle it on top after transferring the wort to your fermenter.

IMO,

Mark
 
pcollins said:
Not to be rude or harsh but if this is the case then why ask? Believe it or not, I use tap water to rehydrate my US-05. Also no problems. There have been times when I have not rehydrated the yeast and... also fine.

Why NOT ask?  There's quite a bit of value in looking for improvement in our own processes and getting a sense of how others get things done.
 
tom_hampton said:
Definitely sterile water. Wort will kill half the yeast before it fully rehydrates.

+1 You can add nutrient if you like though.
 
I rehydrate using a double boiler...  See attached..  After a hard 10 min boil I pour out water so my glass dish is half full, I ensure water in my boiler is same.  When temp hits 100F I slowly sprinkle my yeast.  It takes me a good 4-5 mins as I allow what settles on the surface to sink.  After about 15 mins I have a very active dish of yeast.  I remove glass dish from boiler, stir with sterile spoon and allow to cool to room temp.  I use a ladle to draw a little wort then dump it in.
 

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