Doubling Up Dry Yeast Packs

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

smellgoats

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2012
Messages
49
Reaction score
0
Location
Cleveland
Going to be brewing a high OG (~1.090) Imperial Pale Ale. Its a 5 gallon batch and I'm using good ole standbye Safale 05 dry yeast. My question is: I have 2 packs on hand, this being a high gravity ale, would there be any harm in pitching both? Would there be a noticeable discrepancy in final character because the two packs could potentially be minorly different. My other option, I could do a starter for 3 days as well before brew date, if so should the OG of the starter wort be as close to 1.090 as possible? I'm thinking about 4 cups water, 2 cups DME and both packs of Safale. I also have a stir plate, etc if that makes any difference. Thoughts?
 
Okay after looking around I realize I don't need to make a starter with dry yeast. However are two packs recommended or advisable at 1.080-1.090?
If I were to make a starter for a high gravity ale with a liquid yeast hypothetically what would be the ideal recipe? I have stir plate, 1000ml flask, etc on hand
 
You don't need to make a starter but I would highly advise it. You can build up your cell count with one pack if you have time or ***** both packs, but a starter is something I wouldn't brew without. You can put both packs in a starter and just shorten the time on the stir plate.

Plus, it is a great reason to keep a pound of extra light DME around.
 
Pitch at least both packs on that recipe. I would actually consider 3 myself. I'd have to see the recipe and do the math to decide between 2 or 3 packs...
 
According to MrMalty you would need about 1.6 packs at 11.5 grams each. I would just pitch both packs after rehydrating. It's not necessary to make a starter or rehydrate with the dry yeast, but rehydrating might be a good idea for a big beer of 1.090....
 
Just pitch both packs. I just made a strong ale with an OG of 1.083, pitched 2 packs of US-05, turned out great!
 
Back
Top