US-05 and a slow start

Jknapp · 09-14-2009, 11:00 PM

I innoculated for the first time in my H-brewing career with dry yeast on Sat around 5pm, using US-05 in a 1.054OG wort. I didn't rehydrate, I just aerated well, pitched it in dry and stirred. I pitched around 76F, put my fermenter bucket in my 'poor-mans fermentation cooler' (read: ice cube with frozen water bottles).

A few hours later the fermometer on the side of the bucket was reading 68F.

Yesterday (Sunday) it wasn't really doing too much w/temp 64F. A bubble or two a minute. No visable krausen.

This morning (Monday) 1/2" of krausen had formed and temp is at 62/64F. Bubbling more often, but still nothing to really get excited about.

Everything is fine, I'm not concerned that something is wrong. Just more curious about using dry yeast. I've only used Wyeast smack packs before- so this is new to me.

Is this start typical for pitching the US-05 yeast straight out of the pack? Would rehydrating change anything?

**r2eng** · 09-14-2009, 11:18 PM

I have used many more dry yeasts than liquid yeasts, and '05 is one of my favorites. Just pitched a packet of '05 last weekend and had the IPA foaming in 12 hours.

I have found re-hydrated dry starts a bit faster than liquid from the packs. If you build a starter (I have only done this 2x) it will typically start even quicker.

Jknapp · 09-15-2009, 03:43 AM

Good info- thanks. Everyone seems to like 05, I can't wait to try this brew. It certainly is easy to use. Next batch I'll rehydrate and see the difference.

**bighandsray** · 09-15-2009, 01:46 PM

I recently had a great fermentation with US-05. It is quickly becoming my favorite. Within 12 hours I had yeast blowing out my airlock so I switched to a blow off tube. My beer is an imperial amber of 1.069. I pitched 2 packs of rehydrated yeast. I think you might get better results if you wait to pitch the yeast once the wort temp has stabilized to your desired pitch temp. I waited several hours until my wort, in the ice bottle water bath, had gotten to 68f before I pitched. All of the experts I listen to and read agree that a more consistent temp makes it easier on the yeast. I goal is to keep the temp within 2 degrees.

winstonofbeer · 09-15-2009, 03:42 PM

US-05 is all i have used.
At times it seems a little slow to start, but it allways takes off. This time airlock got filled full of beer. So it did more than its job. Yes blow off tube in works

**Bobby_M** · 09-15-2009, 04:03 PM

I know for a fact that rehydrating cuts the lag time down to almost half. Whether or not it has any affect on the finished product would probably depend on your sanitation regimen more than anything else.

Keep in mind that it's not going to start like gangbusters in the low 60's either. I like US05 in the 65-68F range myself.