Liquid vs Dry Yeast Fermenation Start Times

This isn't another, "its been 48 hrs and my fermentation hasn't started!!!" freak out thread, just curious about other people's experiences w/ dry and liquid yeast...

I brewed an Amarillo IPA on Sunday and pitched a packet of Safale 05 (rehydrated in a cup of warm sanitized water) when my wort temp got below 80 degrees. I placed my fermentor in a tub of water in my basement with an aquarium heater and it has stayed at a constant 68 degrees. It has now been almost 48 hours and there are no signs of visible fermentation (no airlock bubbles, no krausen forming etc).

I normally use liquid yeast w/ a starter and my fermentations usually take off within 8-12 hours, but I received a pack of Safale 05 in addition to my liquid yeast by mistake from my last kit and thought I would save a little $ and use it for this batch.

I have always heard that using dry yeast leads to faster fermentation starts because the amount of yeast is double the amount in a smack pack, so what gives?

I'm obviously going to wait it out for at least 72 hours before I really start to worry and think about repitching, just wanted to hear from dry yeast users if this is a normal lag time

Are you in a carboy or better bottle? Or a bucket? If the latter, have you checked for krausen?

If I don't see signs in 72 hours, I repitch.

Lag times are lag times, really regardless of whether or not the yeast is liquid or dry...I've had long lagtimes with both, and I've had short lag times with both.

kingmatt said:

I have always heard that using dry yeast leads to faster fermentation starts because the amount of yeast is double the amount in a smack pack, so what gives?

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Actually I think its other way around, particulary if you make healthy starters. Thats why liquid yeast is prefered. I had Wyeast go nuts in under 2 hours after pitching and dry yeast takes its sweet time up to 24-36 hours before it kicks in

Agreed, starters give the fastest fermentations, followed by dry, then liquid without a starter. personally, I use dry yeasts most of the time and don't sweat the start time. I've never had a failure.

I've been using 3 liter starters lately for my liquid yeast and the lag times have been less than a day. Sometimes dry yeast will do that for me. Sometimes it won't.

Try pitching two satchels of dry yeast sometime. It is technically an overpitch and the flavor profile will differ, but the thing will take off like a rocket. You can further reduce dry yeast lag times by rehydrating them with Go-Ferm, a special rehydration nutrient that seems to limit osmotic shock and rehydration damage.

Aeration is a huge factor too. Has helped cut down my lag time significantly. I have just recently begun to make starters and use liquid yeast too and I still feel like aeration has more affect on the lag time.

Just my $.02

I pitched 1 satchel of S-04 into my IPA and the thing started bubbling the airlock around 6 hours, then blew the airlock out at 12 hours. From what I've read there are a lot of veriables that contribute to whether or not you're going to have a long or short lag time. OG, pitching temp, wort temp after pitching, yeast strain, yeast condition, aeration, amount of break proteins, carbohydrate profile, phase of the moon, etc....

Thanks for the advice guys; like I said, I'm not freaking quite yet but I have never used dry yeast and wanted to see if this was normal. I'm going to give it until tomorrow before I hit up my LHBS and grab a pack of 1056 to speed things along...

I just brewed an IPA (1.071) this weekend and pitched 2 packs of US-05 rehydrated for 15 minutes. I had solid fermention (bubbling) within 4 hours.

My friend brewed an IPA that same day and we pitched a starter that I put on the stirplate the night before and he had bubbles in the blowoff tube the next day.

In my experience, you should pitch plenty of yeast, rehydrate it (lets not go there), and aerate the heck out of your wort. Pitch at right temp and it will be fine.

But in ANY case, it can take a couple of hours, or a day and a half! You just never know. I use different yeasts, though, and never took a log of how each yeast behaved. I just do what I think is right and RDWHAHB!

I have found that US 05 really likes oxygen. After sprinkling it over well oxygenated wort, I close the bucket and give it a good little swirl. Starts rockin' in 6-12 hours.

The real question is, did you pitch enough? I find that regardless of the source, if I pitch the proper amount of yeast my lag time is always 12-18 hours. Don't round to the nearest packet... use the exact number of grams that Mr Malty tells you.

Any thoughts on how wort temperture when pitching affects lag time? It seems to me that my beer starts much faster if I keep the temp above 70 until I see signs of fermentation. I then try to drop it down to around 68. But If I start below 68 it really slows things down...