Been awhile since brewing. Picked up a kit at store while out of town and going to get back into it. I have always used liquid yeast. Instruction say to just sprinkle on top but should I rehydrate it instead? American Cream Ale
Half your yeast die right off the bat if you don't hydrate properly and just sprinkle it on the wort.
I agree with ya Bob, but I tend to be a "directions" type of guy and at least US-05 says to sprinkle into wort.
If I do that, I have one less thing to clean up later
Revvy said:I agree. That's what I've been doing for years, since I read THAT on the fermentis website in their "tips and tricks" section years ago and I've been doing it ever since. I sprinkle on the surface of the fermenter seal up my fermenter, let it sit on the surface for 15-30 minutes while I begin clean up and then I move it into my brew closet. And since 90% of what I brew is with safale 05, and I get great scores and comments on beers, I'm not going to stop doing it that way. Some will, of course, argue differently, but I maintain that that is "rehydrating with wort" only not is a separate container. If you can rehydrate it in a small container of "sterile wort" then you can do it in a 5 gallon container of wort as well.
It's weird how they say different things in different places. Huh.
Anyway.
Bob
revvy said:And that's why I think the argument is silly because the differences in doing it an not are probably insignificant, at least on the homebrew scale.
But this is what it says in the current version of the tips.
Water or Wort?
Fermentis yeast can be rehydrated with sterile water or sterile wort.
Whatever media is chosen it is compulsory to assure its sterility.
After the wort has been boiled for at least 15 minutes collect the volume
required for rehydration and leave to cool to the required temperature.
Rehydrate the yeast for 30 minutes.
I'm just not doing it in a smaller container.
And even on this pdf. It says sprinkling http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_US-05_HB.pdf
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.
I call BS on this statement.
It's patently absured. It's just something you've "heard," right? How do they do it? Do their chutes not open? Do they drown? Or do they just commit hari kari because we dissed them by not sprinkling? And who takes the dogtags and determines that it's 50% of them that don't make it, and not 37%, or 10%*facepalm*
In fact fermentis yeasts on their website, actually say that their yeast can be sprinkled or even rehydrated on wort (including the surface of the beer) there are lots threads discussing this, as I mentioned above. It's one of those debates like aluminum vs stainless, or Ag vs extract where it may not truly. There was a recent discussion about that here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/two-packs-safale-us-05-vs-rehydrating-198654/#post2318350
Here is some of that discussion;
Fermentis wouldn't suggest what they suggest if dry yeast spontaenously just committed suicide because we didn't rehydrate.
but... THINK OF THE CHILDREN
Fermentis wouldn't suggest what they suggest if dry yeast spontaenously just committed suicide because we didn't rehydrate.
This is not just speculation. This is based on actual experiments where yeast was rehydrated and counted. That's right, with a microscope.Skipping rehydration kills about half the cells pitched. .... Why would anyone recommend skipping rehydration? For the same reason you would avoid making a starter: Your process is either unsanitary or damaging to the yeast health.
Ideally, the mineral content should range from 250 to 500 parts per million hardness. During the first moments of rehydration, the cell cannot regulate what passes through the membrane. High levels of sugars, nutrients, hop acids, or other compounds can enter freely and damage the cells. This is why adding dry yeast directly to the wort results in such a high percentage of dead and damaged cells.
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