Rehydrated Yeast

[brew703]

I brewed two batches this weekend, a 1 gallon and a 1.3 gallon.
The 1.3 gallon batch was placed in a 2 gallon bucket and the 1 gallon in a 1 gallon carboy.

These are my 4th and 5th batches. I re hydrated my yeast for these batches. Mr Malty calculator shows 2 grams for each. So I used 2 grams yeast mixed with 25 grams water.

I let it sit for 20 min. The mixture was creamy so I went ahead and pitched. My wort temp was a little low, approx 65 degrees. Both batches placed in a 62 degree fermenter. As of this moment one batch is right at 12 hours and the other at about 18 hrs and does not appear to have any activity yet. At least no visible signs in the airlock.

I figured by re hydrating the yeast the action would start sooner.
Is it normal to go this long without seeing activity?
My previous batches i just sprinkled yeast on top and by the next morning I saw activity. Granted, I would sprinkle approx 5-6 grams where the calculations for re hydrating is less than half at 2 grams.

 

[unionrdr]

What was the temp of the re-hydrate? It should be within 10 degrees of current wort temp at pitch time to prevent shocking the yeast.

 

[brew703]

Guestimating here, but I think the rehydrate would have been close to the wort temp.
Maybe it will take a little longer since the amount of yeast is much less than I normally go with.
Spent 7 hrs yesterday brewing and cleaning up and don't want my time to be wasted.

 

[cyanmonkey]

You're fine. RDWHAHB.

What strains did you use? There are a few that are notorious slow starters, BRY97 comes to mind. I'd say after 3 days you can begin to worry.

 

[wshinn2]

Yours is an interesting post, as I too have had problems with slow starts with pitching, warm rehydrated dry-yeast to a "cool" wort.

I normally use liquid yeast, make a starter and then cool it to let the yeast settle in a 34F refrigerator the day before brewing. I then pitch almost immediately after removing from the refrigerator into 65F to 68F degree wort. I have never had a problem using this method, no noticeable/unusual lag in fermentation.

Regarding dry yeast, some of my home-brew buddies routinely use dry-yeast. They avoid rehydration and pitch directly to the wort (which is not following Palmer's or the manufacturers recommendations).

Pitching warm rehydrated yeast to cool wort hasn't worked well for me, but pitching dry yeast directly into a fermenter of cool wort seems to kick off fermentation in a reasonable time. So, I don't think pitching a warm, rehydrated yeast slurry into a cool 65 degree wort the best method.

I haven't tried it, but wonder if rehydrating dry-yeast in water that is pitching temperature (65 to 70F) would work as well or better than a "dry pitch"?

Thoughts/comments?

 

[brew703]

I used US-05. This is the first time I re-hydrated. I normally add about 5 grams per 1 gallon batch by simply sprinkling on top of the wort. never had any issues but figured I would try re-hydrating since that's supposedly the correct way.
Palmer says to rehydrate as well as several other posts I have read. Just figured since I re-hydrated the action would start sooner but so far that's not the case.

 

[flars]

What was the temperature of the water you rehydrated with? Any sugar addition to the rehydration water? Using RO or distilled water can cause problems with the yeasts cell walls because of mineral imbalances.

 

[unionrdr]

Pitching the re-hydrate at within 10 degrees of wort temp gives a healthier pitch with higher numbers of healthy yeast cells. Otherwise, a good number of cells gets shocked & the reproductive (lag) phase is longer. I've pitched re-hydrated S-04 within 10 degrees of wort temp & at high krausen take off visibly in 3 hours & was done & settling out clear in 10 days flat before.

 

[brew703]

I used filtered water. Not sure of the chemical makeup as it was from one of the machines.
Within 20 minutes the yeast was foaming, I stirred, waited a couple minutes then poured in the wort. The water temp was probably 70 degrees give or take and the wort mid to upper 60's.
Since the yeast was foaming good, I had no reason to think anything would be wrong.
I did not add any sugar to the yeast and water.
Maybe it's just slow to start. Hopefully by the time I get home this afternoon fermentation may have started.

 

[brew703]

Pitching the re-hydrate at within 10 degrees of wort temp gives a healthier pitch with higher numbers of healthy yeast cells. Otherwise, a good number of cells gets shocked & the reproductive (lag) phase is longer. I've pitched re-hydrated S-04 within 10 degrees of wort temp & at high krausen take off visibly in 3 hours & was done & settling out clear in 10 days flat before.

At what point would I make the decision to pitch more yeast? Would two-three days of inactivity harm the wort?

 

[unionrdr]

As long as the fermenter is sealed up, it should be ok. after 3 days, it might be good to re-pitch.

 

[brew703]

Looks like fermentation has begun. It's not a heavy fermentation but there is some bubbling in the airlock. SO I think all is good.

 

[pcqypcqy]

Keep an eye (nose?) on the smell coming out of the airlock. I've had some bad lags before that have exposed flaws in my brewing process and allowed infections to take hold. Nothing worse than opening your fermentation chamber and getting knocked over by creamed corn.

 

[cyanmonkey]

All is well. Give it another day and you should be at full krausen.

Cooked corn is most commonly associated with DMS, fyi, not necessarily an infection.

 

[brew703]

One batch is in a bucket so I can see what's happening but the airlock is bubbling. The other one is in a glass carboy and I can see the action.
When I opened my fermenter this morning it has a great smell so all should be good.

 

[pcqypcqy]

All is well. Give it another day and you should be at full krausen.

Cooked corn is most commonly associated with DMS, fyi, not necessarily an infection.

Of course you're right, I should have said DMS and/or infections.

 

[cyanmonkey]

Of course you're right, I should have said DMS and/or infections.

[emoji106]