Dry Yeast HELP!!! ASAP

Boiling now so I need this answered asap, I was planning on pitching safbrew dry yeast WS-06 but I went to the website and it said I have to rehydrate I thought I could just sprinkle in how I usually do the liquid after I aerate. The website says to sprinkle and let sit 30 minutes and then aerate the wort? Is this correct? How should I pitch this yeast dry??? I am nervous because I have no aeration stone, I was going to whisk after dumping cooled wort into bucket from kettle for aeration and then pitch. :/

with dry yeast there is no "need" to aerate due to the large amount of yeast. You can areate and that will help; and you can rehydrate and that will help as well.

Also, Aeration by just capping the bucket and shaking/rocking on the bucket edge for 15 minutes works good too

just sprinkle in how I usually do

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy: No matter what you do, it'll end up great. Seriously.

Best to "rehydrate" dry yeast, but you can just dump it in and (especially for a german hefe, the most estery of beers) it'll be fine.

[thanks Luke]

Its the subject of much debate. Brew Your Own did a fairly extensive article on it a couple months back and wasn't able to conclude anything definitive despite various experiments and studies. In brief summary, you can hydrate, not hydrate, aerate, not aerate, any differences will be minimal at most, and it wasn't consistent or absolute what was best or worst.

i use wb-06 all the time with no special eqpt. i pitch it into the fermenter and just swish it around a little. it's great, and neighbors love it

Thanks guys I have calmed down a bit now, I am boiling water and thinking of rehydrating but still not sure which way I am going to go as I have never rehydrated before, sprinkling it on sounds so much easier. As far as the brew I am working with what I have, I got 6 lbs. of dark belgian wheat, 5 lbs. of Canadian two-row, ounce of hallertau 60 minutes, and throwing in a .25 oz of liberty for 45 min. Any thoughts on how this will taste?

BlueZooBrewing said:

Its the subject of much debate. Brew Your Own did a fairly extensive article on it a couple months back and wasn't able to conclude anything definitive despite various experiments and studies. In brief summary, you can hydrate, not hydrate, aerate, not aerate, any differences will be minimal at most, and it wasn't consistent or absolute what was best or worst.

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Almost every bit of evidence I've seen shows that re-hydration will results in substantially more live yeast after pitching.

Whether that makes a difference is the debate.

dude.. at this stage sprinkle it on. it'll be fine. i've done it for years

make the wort, cool it, put it in primary, shake the primary to get some good bubbles, put your funnel on, drop the yeast in, shake the primary some more gently. Let it sit for 2-3 weeks. You'll be fine.

I actually just finished brewing an all grain honey wiezen. I used 2 paks of the same yeast. When I'm to lazy to do a starter or don't have enough time, I usually double up the paks. I always have great success and always hit my FG. GL with your brew. Cheers!!

Ok dudes, I just finished pitching and I opted to rehydrate, however now that I reread the instructions (after posting on this edit how simple I found rehydrating :/) on rehydrating I realize i missed a step and might have messed this batch up. First of all I heated my sterilized water to 70F not 80F as the instructions indicated, secondly I did not do the additional stirring of 30 minutes. I stirred the yeast and mixed it up good but it wasn't that long at all and I then let it sit for about 25-30 minutes while I cooled the wort and then just dumped it in. I should have listened to the dude that told me to just sprinkle it on, my question is did I mess this batch up? Should I go buy another yeast packet in the morning and dump it on? Starting to worry. Its been 4 hours and I see no action in the airlock.

Sounds good. As long as you got all the rehydrated yeast slurry into the fermentor you should be good to go. The main thing with rehydrating is not going to hot with the rehydration water. BTW, my thoughts are you did your beer a favor by rehydrating first. You won't see activity in 4 hours. Wait 12 at least. Don;t get too concerned until 36 hrs have passed.

I usually rehydrate the yeast in a glass of 80 degree water for 30 minutes and pitch right in. I've found that the rehydrated yeast tends to start slightly quicker. It works either way.

You should have some bubble action this morning ? Yes....... See... Relax; Have a Homebrew@

Yes brothers yes, you were all right... I relaxed and had a few homebrews and slept in, as I got up to piss in the morning, we all know how relieving the first piss of the day is at 9 am, 9 hours after I pitched there was still no action, so I went back to bed like any good bear would and woke up at the crack of noon and blam! 12 hours after we have lift off! bubbles galore! Cheers brethren.

Dry Yeast Rehydration

- boil a cup of water (use tap water, not Reverse Osmosis or distilled)
- pour boiled water into a sanitized container (I use a measuring cup)
- cover container with sanitized foil or saran wrap and cool (either in a small ice bath or in the fridge)
- when the water is between 90 & 100 degrees F, open dry yeast pack and pour into the warm water. DO NOT STIR. Just leave the yeasties be.
- re-cover the container with the sanitized covering
- After 15 minutes of leaving the yeast alone, take off cover and stir the yeast up into a slurry
- pour entire slurry into cooled wort (about 65 deg F)

I know there are other methods of rehydrating dry yeast, but I've had great success with this method. Good luck!

barrooze said:

Dry Yeast Rehydration

- boil a cup of water (use tap water, not Reverse Osmosis or distilled)
- pour boiled water into a sanitized container (I use a measuring cup)
- cover container with sanitized foil or saran wrap and cool (either in a small ice bath or in the fridge)
- when the water is between 90 & 100 degrees F, open dry yeast pack and pour into the warm water. DO NOT STIR. Just leave the yeasties be.
- re-cover the container with the sanitized covering
- After 15 minutes of leaving the yeast alone, take off cover and stir the yeast up into a slurry
- pour entire slurry into cooled wort (about 65 deg F)

I know there are other methods of rehydrating dry yeast, but I've had great success with this method. Good luck!

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Easier to just microwave the water in a container, then you don't need to transfer or sanitize anything. Just start with a small clean plastic container and microwave the water in it. Put the cover on, but loosely, before start. I boil it in the mike for a minute. This way the cover and all are sanitized. Cool in fridge or on counter for a bit.

Glad we could help and talk you off the ledge; "most" of us have been there in the beginning as well..........

To update everyone that cares, this beer is the best I have ever made. The yeast was great, fermenting in a bucket was no problem. Although I did crack the top trying to get the airlock out, but all that aside. This brew is very tasty and I appreciate the help and well-wishes.

Woot! Great job. Living the life!

( is that a coors light case in the first pic? gasp! j/k )

passedpawn said:

Woot! Great job. Living the life!

( is that a coors light case in the first pic? gasp! j/k )

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ha it was a coors light coaster man, not trying to damage this good audio making equipment and it was a gift of glasses and coasters for secret santa at work when I had a job. Cheers brother. No Coors light over here.

I rehydrated some notty today. I think I had it in my primary at about 12:30pm. I checked it at 10pm and it is bubbling away. I've done it both ways, but I always get a faster response from the yeast after rehydrating.

I have only used dry yeast twice. The first I sprinkled on and it took about 12 hours to start. The other I re-hydrated and it took about 8 hours to start. Both brews turned out great. I would not worry either way!

I always aerate by running the wort through my bottling bucket. I also use dry yeast and dump it right on top without rehydrating. I never have any issues as long as I mix in my dry yeast.

Jamil and John Palmer strongly recommend rehydrating dry yeast. You can kill almost half of your cells by pitching directly into the wort due to osmotic shock.