Dry yeast to make a starter?
 

I bought a yeast starter kit yesterday from my LHBS, and they sold me some us-05 and danstar dry yeast and said it was fine to use as a starter. Is this good advice?

People don't always make starters with dry yeast. But give any yeast the right conditions and you can grow as much as you want. There are usually more cells in dry yeast compared to the sometimes low viability of liquid yeast.

Just rehydrate it, no starter necessary

:DI read somewhere that most dry yeast companies accomidate to the fact that the yeast is probably going to just be sprinkled into the wort as is so they put more in the package. I do not have the link where I read that, with that being said. Just RAHAHB do what the package of yeast says. If it says sprinkle into wort, then sprinkle into wort, if it says to rehydrate in water at 105 degrees for 15 minutes then do just that. IF you hungry for a more involved method, build a stir plate (its a TON cheaper tha purchasing one) and make a starter using liquid yeast. I have made 1 starter using liquid yeast and a stir plate. OMG The lag time wasnt really long enough to be called lag time. Im talking less than 6 hours it was booming!!!! My flask broke and I have not been able to make starters so I have just been folowing directions on the packages but I just purchased a flask and now startes are goin to happen again!

From what I understand, dry yeast should always be rehydrated, or you end up with half the pitch you should have.

When pitching rehydrated dry yeast, starters aren't usually necessary unless you're pitching a big beer. And in that case, it's often cheaper just to use two packs.

That said, I don't know of a reason why you CAN'T make a dry yeast starter, but it's so cheap that it's not really worth it.

i dunno about half as much...? ..!

At least according to the JZ/Chris White "Yeast" book, pitching unhydrated dry yeast will kill approximately half of the pitch.

that seems a bit much, maybe thats why so much is in the packet then.. but i know many who just sprinkle with great\fast starts.

Well, I just pitch it on the top of the wort myself. Read EdWorts Haus Ale thread and see how he uses it in one of the most (if not the most brewed) recipe on site. YMMV, but with dry yeast I just toss it in. I do rehydrate when making bread though :D

I'm sure sprinkling works in most brews because the required pitch rate is still enough even with only half of them surviving the pitch. Brew a bigger beer or have some other variables less than optimal, and you're asking for problems. Rehydrating is an easy, simple step that preserves more of the yeast in the packet, why fight it?