Rehydrating / proofing nottingham yeast packet

Hi there,

Apologies if this has been addressed somewhere already.

Brewing first batch as we speak (porter from BB kit). Came with sachet of nottingham yeast which the BB instructions said to dry pitch. The yeast packet said to rehydrate in warm water, but i went kn the advice of Palmers HTB and made a starter with boiled and cooled sugar solution.

I have now read that making a starter with dried yeast can actually have a negative effect on the yeast.( danstars website for nottingham)

In anyones experience, would this likely affect the fermentation of my wort and are there steps i should be taking?

My initial fermentation as vigorous but only lasted two days at most. I know there is a lot of other factors and info to post to get a proper answer, but was curious about the effect of the apparent messing up of the yeast prep.

Thanks in advance

J

This thread will get you a lot of answers for sure,,

Nottingham (as per Danstar) rehydration involves proper temperature water (not distilled or RO). It also states not to use wort or in your case a sugar solution.

FWIW I use it all the time and contrary to a lot of brewers I pitch it dry on most of my ales, up to about 1.06 OG.

bosco

Best practice is to boil some water for a few minutes to sanitize (tap water- not distilled or RO as bosco mentioned) with NO SUGAR and let it cool to ~105F, and toss your yeast in. Once it looks creamy, you can pitch, but don't wait more than 20 minutes or so. The yeast will probably not foam, but it might, too, either way it's fine.

The reason you don't use sugar is that when you toss your yeast in, for a few seconds/minutes it cannot regulate what crosses its cell walls. By dumping it into sugar you're really stressing out the yeast by filling it with way more sugar than the inside of the yeast would ever have.

Vigorous = a good start. Like others have said, rehydration is the best practice but many of us sprinkle with good results. A starter is not necessary (with dry yeast) and may do more harm than good. Congrats on your first beer, it'll be fine.

Thanks all for your input. Here's hoping its fine. No airlock action since the initial pitching( 6 days ago). Will wait a few more days then check if good FG.