Rehydrate dry yeast.. Any gotcha?

Got my first brew ingredients locally for a try at hefeweisen, and it came with dry yeast.

I will rehydrate it. Anything I should watch for?

I am following John Palmer's instructions -where, incidentally he speaks of "For best results, re-hydrate 2 packets..." Hmm, I have only one!

11.5 g says the Safbrew packet, and it is the newish WB-06, apparently, not true hefe to some... a moot point to me newbie.

An 11g sachet is plenty for a single batch. I think they used to come in 5 or 6g sachets which is why he recommended 2.

Use boiled and cooled water to rehydrate and remember to sanitize the container you do it in. I also cover the container in plastic wrap while it proofs.

beergears said:

11.5 g says the Safbrew packet, and it is the newish WB-06, apparently, not true hefe to some... a moot point to me newbie.

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Here's the manufacturers directions:

Re-hydrate the dry yeast into yeast cream in a stirred vessel prior to pitching. Sprinkle the dry yeast in 10 times its own weight of sterile water or wort at 27C ± 3C (80F ± 6F). Once the expected weight of dry yeast is reconstituted into cream by this method (this takes about 15 to 30 minutes), maintain a gentle stirring for another 30 minutes. Then pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel.

Alternatively, pitch dry yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20C (68F). Progressively sprinkle the dry yeast into the wort ensuring the yeast covers all the surface of wort available in order to avoid clumps. Leave for 30 minutes and then mix the wort e.g. using aeration.

Don't worry about geting technical or anything. I use a beer glass about 1/2 full and you want the water to be warm. About half way though your boil I pour the yeast in the warm water and cover with plastic. Stir after maybe 20 minutes. Boiled water and sanatized glass like Bradsul said, of course.

The rule for dry yeast is not to pitch less than 10 grams for 5 gallons. When the book was written many yeasts came in 7 gram packets. So he suggested 2 packets. He should have said at least 10 grams. You don't need to pitch 2 packets of 11.5 gram yeast.

Go with the manufacturers recomendations that BlindLemonLars posted.

I'll also mention that Safbrew's yeasts do form an interesting 'yeast cream' that I've not seen from other dry strains.

generally speaking Safbrew yeast is pretty high quality dry yeast, and their dehydration procedure is a little more forgiving on the yeast.

mrk305 said:

...you want the water to be warm...

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I think you're confusing proofing with rehydrating. You're not proofing the yeast, simply rehydrating it. The water should be the about the same temperature as the wort at pitching temperature.