Hydrating yeast?

Hey guys, quick question;

Should I, or should I not re-hydrate my dry yeast before I add it to my wert? Can I just add the dry mix on top of it and mix it in? If not, whats the best way to prepare the yeast?

Thanks!

Cheers

It doesn't really make any difference if you re-hydrate the yeast or not. You can rehydrate it if you want to, or you can just sprinkle it on top - doesn't make a nickel's worth of difference.

I always hydrate it but that's just me.

I know Jamil recommends it for all his recipes.

Something about water being a better hydrater than wort, and some of the yeast lagging because they can't absorb the high density liquid they need to hydrate.




Or something like that.

You'll get a good fermentation either way, but it is better to hydrate your yeast in warm water before pitching. You get much healthier yeast that way. Do a search for hydrating yeast and you should find lots of info.

I've always read that it reduces lag time by an hour or so? But that could also just be anecdotal.

nick

HP_Lovecraft said:

I've always read that it reduces lag time by an hour or so? But that could also just be anecdotal.

Click to expand...

I definitely had less lag time when I started hydrating instead of pitching dry.

Okay, thanks for the quick replies!

I may as well go ahead and another question I have. Should I just place the hydrometer in the primary to take readings? I have a small beaker that I can fit the hydrometer in but im not really sure the best way to take the sample (dipping directly? syphon???) Also im worried about returning the sample back to the wert without something getting contaminated.

Thanks for any help! apologies for the off topic question!

Cheers

You should siphon out enough for a sample and NEVER dump the sample back into the wort, just drink it down You can get a hydrometer flask fairly cheap, just google "hydrometer flask" and you will find one easily online. Also you can take samples with a sanitized turkey baster or use a wine thief:

http://tinyurl.com/2uks8r

If you want to be able to return the samples to the fermenter, you need to make sure EVERYTHING that will contact the beer is sanitized. The easiest way to do this is to get yourself a wine thief, they are designed to make taking the reading and returning the sample simple.

Personally I use a wine thief but empty it into a hydrometer test jar and take my measurements from there. Then I drink it. I only take samples to confirm fermentation is completed so it's beer at that point, may as well enjoy it.

Not hydrating kills about half of your yeast and weakens the rest. It will still ferment, but not as fast or as well.

You might also want to take a quick peek at Bobby M's experiment that looked at the effects of hydrating dry yeast vs. not hydrating it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=47726