Liquid yeast fermentation failed. Just ordered dry yeast; should I re-hydrate?

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krantze

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I shook up my liquid yeast before I pitched and when I cracked the seal it exploded, losing half the yeast. It has been 4 days since then and any minimal activity there once was has ceased. I just ordered Cooper's dry yeast and am wondering what the best method of pitching would be since the wort has already seen at least some yeast activity. Should I re-hydrate or just sprinkle it on?
 
I'm not sure I agree with that. I think re-hydrating is always a good idea with dry yeast. Especially when you start out with a very low yeast count. Obviously the yeast aren't doing very well, so why pitch more half-good yeast into the beer?
 
Rehydrating is always a good idea with dry yeast, and it won't hurt anything as long as you sanitize whatever container you use.

However, did you check gravity and make sure the yeast you pitched didn't finish the job? I've had many brews cease visible activity after four days and turn out great. Even if you underpitched, the yeast may have multiplied to get the job done.
 
I second Shawnbou's comment.. A low pitching rate could have given you a slower more gradual fermentation (no explosive blow-off tube fun) but may still have finished the beer out in 4 days with ease. Check you gravity, if it's within 2 points of your desired FG call it done and keg or bottle. Adding more yeast at that point won't do much except waste a package of yeast.
 
I rarely rehydrate and my beer comes out awesome everytime. Dry yeast has more than enough cells in it for a 2.5 gallon batch. I'd even be willing to bet that it would technically be over-pitching for that batch size if you use that many healthy cells. If i wasn't lazy, tired and on my phone I'd check mr malty :)

Edit: remember he already had 1/2 vial of liquid yeast in there as well.
 
Yeah I took a gravity reading yesterday and I was at 1.06; hardly any fermentation.

I'm leaning toward throwing it in dry given the way liquid yeast has not responded to my recipe. It's all settled at the bottom. I've stirred it up very well twice and both times after a few minutes of fermentation it would settle and fermentation would slow to a crawl. At least the dry yeast would chill at the top for a little while.
 
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