Dry Yeast Pitching

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comicsandbeer83

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So i made my first batch last month. I used dry yeast and i pitched it and it fermented just fine. However, I have been reading a brewing book and it talked about rehydrating the dry yeast before pitch. I didn't do this and just poured it in and stirred it in. It definitely fermented and my beer came out pretty decent. Does this make any sense at all?
 
Nevermind. I just read how some people just pitch it dry and some rehydrate. I see that the consensus is to rehydrate. Next time i may just get a liquid yeast.
 
Take a look at the "Dry Yeast FAQ" sticky toward the top of this forum. It goes into detail about how and why to rehydrate dry yeast.
 
comicsandbeer83 said:
Nevermind. I just read how some people just pitch it dry and some rehydrate. I see that the consensus is to rehydrate. Next time i may just get a liquid yeast.
Click to expand...
If you go with liquid yeast, you probably need to make a starter to get enough cells.
That is the advantage of dry yeast... way more cells than liquid (and it's cheaper and stores well).
Direct pitch is fine. Re-hydrating is fine. It's a toss up in my book, and since direct pitch is easier, that's what I would do,
 
I strongly endorse rehydrating dry yeast. Why settle for pitching fewer cells in poorer health if you don't have to?

Also, I agree that with liquid you should make a starter. Really, if one can acknowledge that you should make a starter with liquid yeast to pitch the right number of cells, how could s/he ignore the loss of cells by not rehydrating? Either you think pitch rate is important or you don't. Just my opinion, though.
 
Rehydrating dry yeast is always recommended. Making starters for liquid yeast is always recommended.

Recommended practice is the best way to make the best beer:)

There is a great stickie regarding dry yeast as well as making starters.
 
comicsandbeer83 said:
Next time i may just get a liquid yeast.
Click to expand...

You might want to reconsider that thought. Sprinkling an 11g packet dry without rehydrating is slightly more cells (even if you kill half of them at the start, it's likely >110 billion) than a single vial of really fresh liquid yeast (100 billion at its best).

Making a yeast starter (highly recommended) is more time, effort and expense than simple rehydration of a packet of dry.
 
Dry yeast is almost always used in my brewing.
Rehydrating the yeast is easy.

Around the same time as my wort is brought to a boil I'll put 4 oz of water into a glass container and microwave until it has boiled for about a minute.
Take it out, cover and let cool at room temperature, use a cold water/ice bath in a bowl as needed.
Once I start my wort chiller, I'll sprinkle the yeast into the 4 oz of water that is now cooled to around 85 degrees.
20-30 minutes later it's ready to be stirred and pitched.

Very easy to do and worthwhile.
 
i use dry yeast for most of my non sour beer and i re-hydrate maybe 1 out of 10 times, too lazy to re hydrate. if i don't pitch dry yeast i pitch slurry right out of the bottom of a fermentor, even easier than pitching dry yeast or making a starter.
 
corax said:
You don't need to rehydrate. Until you do. And after that, you'll always rehydrate. I recommend preempting the time you'll wish you did, and just always do it. It's stupid-simple anyway.
Click to expand...

LOL. It's kind of like "brining" a turkey (one hour for each pound) before you cook it. Plenty that I had cooked without doing it turned out OK, some even quite good. After I brined the first one, every single one has gotten that treatment. Pardon me while I go make my brining solution for the Christmas turkey.
 
I always directly pitch my dry yeast and have never had a problem. I don't see the need to re-hydrate based on my experience, but many people do. I would be interested though if any academic literature has addressed the topic... I may have to go do a search now
 
benj said:
I would be interested though if any academic literature has addressed the topic... I may have to go do a search now
Click to expand...

Plenty has been done. See the Dry Yeast FAQ sticky and go through the "Suggested Reading" portion at the bottom of the first post, there is lots of good info there. Sean Terrill did cell counts with US-05 after rehydrating in warm & cold water as well as warm & cold wort. Drs. Chris White and Clayton Cone both recommend rehydrating (White Labs and Danstar, respectively) in order to prevent losing 50% of the yeast cells to osmotic shock. Dry yeast manufacturers advise rehydrating. It's been covered. :mug:
 

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