Rehydrate?yeast?properly?

I must be the only one that botched this up. Put my Nottingham yeast in clean, slightly warm water. I gave it a couple of stirs, let it sit for bout a minute. Then bumped it I into my cider. My buddy that was there "helping" said rehydrate for 15 seconds. After pitching I realized it was suppose to be 15 mins. First time I have ever used notti. IS THIS A PROBLEM?

Nah. It will rehydrate itself.

FWIW, I think it was BYO magazine that just had a write up about this. They did an experiment with half the people re-hydrating and the other half not. The results were split as to which one was better, and they said either way you should have a great beer. Good luck!

Good to know, thanks! I was just a little worried after 12 hours nothing is really happening.

I would wait at least 24-36 hours and then re-pitch if necessary

I think the thought process is that you lose some viability/cell count by going directly to intense straight-wort environment...by letting them rehydrate more cells survive the process.

But those dry yeast packs pack a punch so you'll have plenty of cells to do the work. And Nottingham is a beast. 99% sure you'll have no adverse effects.

That makes me feel a little better about it. Not quite sure what I'm going for on my first batch.
4.5 gal treetop cider
4lbs dark brown sugar
I stick of cinnamon, broken in half
Nottingham yeast
Lina of curious to know what it will taste like?
OG was 1.075~1.08ish

What was the difference in temperature between your starter water and your "wort"? If it was big, you easily could have killed off a ton of yeast due to shock, not to mention that Nottingham should sit for 15 minutes or so before you stir. Dry yeast is robust, but as it is, the second you pitch dry yeast onto wort you lose a solid half of them. There's a ton of cells in dry yeast, so big deal. But then add in stirring too soon and temperature shock, and you could have lost another half. Then, in this particular case, you have a ton of fuel, more fuel than the cell count can work with. I'd re-pitch, even if you start to see fermentation.

You pitched a small amount of yeast on a TON of sugar. I don't see a way it will finish. 4lbs of sugar and 4.5 gallons of juice on a yeast with a 12% alcohol tolerance - that, in itself is fine. 1.080 OG isn't too big for Nottingham by any stretch, but pitch 2 packs to be on the safe side. Any time you're pitching 1 packet of dry yeast on an OG that high, starter or not, you're risking being under pitched. The biggest problems I seem to taste out of homebrew of any kind, at least when it comes to big beers/ciders, is being underpitched. You need enough yeast to eat up all of those fermentables and then do cleanup duty as well.

Also, for future reference, I'd add cinnamon, etc into secondary after fermentation is complete. You never know what kind of things yeast will do to adjuncts during primary fermentation - usually not good tasting things.

I'd pitch at least another packet and a half of yeast directly into your fermentation vessel and aerate if you didn't the first go around. Good luck, you should end up with some jet fuel for sure! LOL

It'll be fine. There's always better ways to do things, but the magic of this hobby is you will have success no matter what you do.

Don't worry, alcohol just happens, it's one of Newton's laws of physics, stuff wants to be alcohol.

Well I'm going to keg this, so I'm going to keep an eye on it. I'll probly rack and cold crash at about 1.03-1.035, and force carb. That's about 6-7% I think? I'll just have to see how it turns out. I'm keepin my finger crossed

Repitch dude. Better to be overpitched than under. Even the Lallemand people warn against temperature shock and what it will do to Nottingham. #4: Usage

http://beer.danstaryeast.com/sites/default/files/nottingham_datasheet.pdf

passedpawn said:

Don't worry, alcohol just happens, it's one of Newton's laws of physics, stuff wants to be alcohol.

Click to expand...

I suppose if someone's only goal is to get wasted as quickly as possible, that's true. But there's a difference between alcohol and an alcoholic beverage that tastes good.

Yeast condition and fermentation is grossly abused and underrated, no offense to anyone. I'll see people research endlessly over ingredients and process, then pick the wrong yeast fermented all over the board and then wonder what went wrong. Your yeast/fermentation is the #1 most important aspect of brewing, period, end of story. Underpitched, unhealthy yeast will make alcohol in addition to a lot of other not so delicious things!

KWKSLVR said:

I suppose if someone's only goal is to get wasted as quickly as possible, that's true.

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You don't need school me. I know. But the OP already brewed, and I'm trying to calm him down. OP rehydrated for 15 seconds instead of minutes. He knows the mistake he made, he's asking advice about his current brew. Do you think he should dump? Did you read the post?

KWKSLVR said:

I suppose if someone's only goal is to get wasted as quickly as possible, that's true. But there's a difference between alcohol and an alcoholic beverage that tastes good.

Yeast condition and fermentation is grossly abused and underrated, no offense to anyone. I'll see people research endlessly over ingredients and process, then pick the wrong yeast fermented all over the board and then wonder what went wrong. Your yeast/fermentation is the #1 most important aspect of brewing, period, end of story. Underpitched, unhealthy yeast will make alcohol in addition to a lot of other not so delicious things!

Click to expand...

The problem with your argument is that the OP did use the correct ingredients, methods, and yeast. His only mistake was he rehydrated it incorrectly, which by itself is a very minor issue when looking at the big picture. I've dry pitched yeast successfully and the result was delicious handcrafted cider with no off flavors.

OP, your cider will be fine. If you are losing sleep over this then by all means repitch with another properly rehydrated yeast packet. I would save my money personally and buy more ingredients or equipment.

I don't know why people think a pack of dry yeast isn't enough to ferment a batch of cider or wine. This isn't a beer that's being made where I'm assuming you need a huge yeast colony before pitching. I see people make the comment that you won't have enough viable cells or you lose some when you pitch and is just not enough.

I don't think they understand that the yeast reproduce and multiply until there is enough of them to feed on what environment they've been subjected to.

That five gram pack of dry yeast, even though it says is enough for five gallons is enough for easy more than that. Trust me, I should know. I've done a five gallon batch on a gram of dry yeast without a starter .

Really the only time you need to repitch yeast is when fermentation didn't kick of at all, usually by temperature difference when pitched .

I think everything's good to go. Just took a a sample out and it had a gravity of 1.05. Still petty sweet. But didn't taste bad at all.

And it was an 11 gram packet of yeast not 5

I'm not attempting to school anyone. All I'm saying is that there is a difference between something fermenting and something fermenting as well as it could. Nothing sucks worse to me than taking the time to ferment a cider and let it age only to have it suck because there were things I could have done better. I've learned that it doesn't matter what I start with, if my yeast sucks, I will have a subpar result. Not everyone is like that, and that's fine. Personally, I do what manufacturers say to do with their yeast strains.

The OP said he messed up, described how and inquired about what might happen. I took the description of what he did and made an informed post about what Danstar say's you'll get when you rehydrate improperly and temperature shock Nottingham. It's all good. Sometimes my posts come across harsher than intended!

Nottingham is definitely robust! I hydrated and overpitched some several days ago. It's fermenting like crazy @ 52F!

Thanks for all the info. I think everything is ok. After just five days I went from 1.08 to 1.03!! That's about 6.5% abv. Just where I wanted it. its still a little sweet, the wife loves it event though it's flat. I'm going to cold crash it for a few days, keg it Friday, and have a party Saturday. Thanks