Using Liquid Yeast

[matthej]

Hi,

I am using American East Coast Ale Yeast and it says to leave it out at room temperature a few hours before I use it.

I also see they show directions for rehydration procedure on the back of the package.

Right now its pretty solid as its been in the fridge for a while.

Do I need to rehydrate it before pitching it?

Thx!

 

[RCope]

No need to "rehydrate" liquid yeast. Many would make a starter but probably not necessary if it is relatively fresh and/or your wort is < 1.060 OG. Try to homogenize the slurry by kneading/shaking as necessary, you don't want to leave a big clump of yeast behind.

I have never warmed up a liquid yeast or a starter prior to pitching. Theoretically, pitching your yeast at or just below your wort temp is ideal. Pitching cold has never been an issue for me...

 

[ba-brewer]

If there are rehydration instruction it is not liquid but dry yeast.
I am assuming this is the yeast you have, Lallemand LalBrew New England American East Coast Ale Yeast.

I did not see anywhere on the package that you can just sprinkle on the wort so I would rehydrate to get the most of the yeast.

 

[matthej]

ok thanks! It is dry yeast. For some reason I thought it was liquid.

 

[danb35]

I did not see anywhere on the package that you can just sprinkle on the wort so I would rehydrate to get the most of the yeast.

Here's what Lallemand have to say about it:

Lag phase can be longer when compared with other strains, ranging from 24-36 hours. Our research suggests that pitching LalBrew New England™ directly into wort without prior rehydration will often result in better performance including shorter lag-phase and greater attenuation

 

[Chorgey]

According to Lallemand, rehydration is recommended but not essential, they also state that it is unnecessary to aerate the wort (in most cases)

Personally, I never rehydrate my dry yeast and I am going to start the practice of just sprinkling the dry yeast on top of the wort (when it's at pitching temperature), without adding oxygen .

edit: Regarding dry pitching, the technical data sheet has the following information:
Dry pitching is the preferred method of inoculating wort. This method is simpler than rehydration and will give more consistent fermentation performance and reduce the risk of contamination. Simply sprinkle the yeast evenly on the surface of the wort in the fermenter as it is being filled. The motion of the wort filling the fermenter will aid in mixing the yeast into the wort. For LalBrew New England™, better fermentation performance is achieved with dry pitching compared to rehydration.

 

[ba-brewer]

thanks @danb35 and @Chorgey for looking at the website. I opened the datasheet and looked it over and did not notice the section you listed. Not seeing anything about dry pitching I looked at images of the packaging at NB which also did not mention dry pitching.

After seeing your post I regoogled the yeast and looked at the datasheet again and this time I found that section and dry pitch information in the datasheet. I closed the previous datasheet I looked at earlier but it looked different from one the Lallemand website. I thought I was on their site but it must not of been.

Lesson learned, go to the MFG website and look at the datasheet there to make sure you are looking at the latest information.

 

[RCope]

@ba-brewer Don't feel bad...I didn't even recognize that the OP was talking about dry yeast...

 

[ba-brewer]

OK regoogled again and see the other datasheet and it was on the lallemand website, but I over looked the recommendation to direct pitched.
https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/docs/products/tds/TDS_LALBREW_PREM_NEWENGLAND_ENGLISH_DIGITAL.pdf

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

And yeast providers will typically date their PDFs - check the page header or footer. For example:

probably in mmddyyy format: 04032019 is Apr 3, 2019 & 03212033 is Mar 21, 2023