US05 and pitching question

I brewed Friday and used Safale US05.

I live in FL and my wort chiller did very little since the water out of the tap is not exactly cold. I got the wort down to about 78, pitched the US05, then put my primary in a water bath. I got the temperature to 65 (water bath temp) pretty quickly (well before fermentation started) and have maintained it between 60-65. Fermentation started as normal, and chugging along well.

So, when you get the fruity esters it's usually because the fermentation temp was too high. When does it matter most? Will I get fruity esters because I pitched high, essentially while the yeast was rehydrating, or will I not get them because the temperature was low at the start and throughout fermentation?

PS. Water bath is an ICE CUBE cooler with the inside lid cut out, frozen water bottles, and an aquarium pump to circulate water for uniformity.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475229736233073913/FermentationChiller?feat=directlink

No you should not get any fruity esters.

I do have to ask though, did you rehydrate or not?

If you have never rehydrated you will have noticed that it is a requirement to pitch the yeast in to 85 degree water or so. Then you slowly bring the temps down to pitching temp.

If you did not rehydrate then you are going to get essentially the same thing as rehydration. You did good pitching at 78 but continuing to drop to ferment temps.

No.I didn't rehydrate. It was a BB kit. The instructions just said to sprinkle and stir in. I've had a lot of success doing this so far. I may try a starter someday when I get more experienced. I assume if I do, I will have a higher attenuation rate? Although it's been pretty good so far.

I think you'll be OK pitching when you did. Most of the ester production is in the first 48 hours or so, but as long as you kept dropping the temps I think you'll be fine.

BTW, rehydrate it next time. I used to pitch dry, then I tried rehydrating once (Safbrew yeast) and fermentation took off like a rocket. I know they say on their website to pitch dry, but I saw much better results after rehydrating.

You are probably fine on the esters, but I'd recommend pitching the yeast after bringing the wort down to the proper temperature. As long as your sanitation was ok, letting the wort sit for an extra few hours without yeast is perfectly fine.

taurean said:

No.I didn't rehydrate. It was a BB kit. The instructions just said to sprinkle and stir in. I've had a lot of success doing this so far. I may try a starter someday when I get more experienced. I assume if I do, I will have a higher attenuation rate? Although it's been pretty good so far.

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Rehydration is recommended for minimizing loss of viability, making starters with dry yeast is not (you'd need a very big starter, which is often more expensive than just buying another sachet of yeast).

You're fine on the esters.

To those who said you HAVE to rehydrate.... I almost never rehydrate and I use almost exclusively dry yeast (poor college student )

I tried rehydrating a couple times and didn't notice any difference (on BM's Centennial Blonde which I have brewed many times) from time it took to take off, time it takes to fully attenuate, as well as ester production.

Just my $0.02

I always (almost) rehydrate. Takes but a few minutes extra and insures a higher survival rate. If you have a lower OG beer probably not a big deal, with a bigger beer it's worth it. I found that with some fermenters if I dry pitched a lot of the yeast would wind up on the sides of the fermenter and never get involved with the ferment - think tall 15 gallon soda keg with small opening.

Interesting if you read the Danstar rehydration instructions for Nottingham they have you temper the rehydrated yeast before pitching, which is a bit more than I am prepared to do.

re-hydrating allows the yeast cell walls to reform before being exposed to the sugary environment of your wort. The higher your OG the tougher it is on the yeast and the more won't survive to get your fermentation going. So for a low OG the pack of S-05 has yeast to spare to hit a proper pitching rate and survives ok in the low gravity wort.

As your OG goes up you need a higher pitching rate and more yeast won't survive without re-hydration. This means as you get into higher OG wort you either need to start using a lot more dry yeast to hit a good pitching rate or re-hydrate.

Besides, re-hydrating yeast is easy. Just boil some water, put in a sanitized bowl and cover with tin foil. I do this while my mash is going. I put a sanitized candy thermometer in it and just let the water sit. It takes a good long while for it to cool down to 100F but it happens in time. When it's there I just sprinkle my dry yeast in and re-cover the bowl. 15 minutes later I stir it up and cover. When it's time to pitch it's all nice and frothy. I just stir it up well and pitch.

I found it a pain at first because getting it timed right seemed difficult. I would find myself waiting for my yeast to hydrate while my wort sat there in my fermentor. Now it's ready to go when needed.

Thanks for all of the advice.