And yet more questions plus some learning validations

[Dave T]

Yes, I ask a lot of questions - thanks for your patience

Aerating wort - I learned here not to do it while hot, but needs to be done. First - how does aerating hot ‘ruin’ it? And is it better to shake, use an aerator, or just violently pour the rest of the water in?

Yeast - dry yeast needs to be reconstituted - just use water?

I’m going to try my first non-kit brew - are there major differences in yeasts used, or are they all rather similar?

I’ve done 2 brews so far. First one, porter, was mostly clear with a bunch of mung at the bottom, while the second, a stout, was a bunch of yuk at the top, and more at the bottom. Both cleared when I put into the bottling bucket - any specific reason why the difference?

I have buckets - is it more exciting to watch fermentation with a glass carbuoy?

 

[grampamark]

Relax. Don't overthink things. You're making beer, not chemotherapy drugs.

I'm not sure there is universal agreement about hot aeration, but there's no reason to do it. You aerate wort before you pitch the yeast, and you don't do that until the wort has cooled.

Reconstituting yeast. You should always use a 60/40 mix of pineapple/mango juice. Actually, you use water. What else would one use?

There are several families of yeast, and hundreds of strains of yeast within each family. Use a yeast appropriate to the style you are brewing. The various brewing calculators have lists of all common brewing ingredients, with descriptions of the yeasts, hops, and malts and the styles each of those ingredients are commonly used in.

The junk in the fermenter is what it is. It will settle, with time. It won't look the same two brews in a row.

I use Better Bottles as fermenters. I don't watch. I look at it the next day, to see if fermentation has begun, and again at about day 10 to take a gravity sample. The yeast is going to do its thing with or without me.

Again, relax. Make beer. You'll learn more by doing than you will from a bunch of anonymous, virtual humans on a message board.

Mark

 

[Lefou]

Making a few mistakes and being a fly on the wall around here is a good way to learn.
One thing I've found is the brewing calculator always makes great beer - in theory.
Some noob recipe beers should never be brewed and the only way to know why is to eff one up pretty hard.

My first brewing kit contained two buckets and one glass carboy. My preference lies with stainless steel, but it's expensive, so glass was a compromise. Glass has some drawbacks but gives some great visual clarity on how your fermentation is progressing. Do I like watching the yeast work?
You betcha.

Yeasts should be matched with the beer style.
If you don't have a handle on style, read the BJCP and dig through blogs and brewing websites to get an idea of what's out there. I keep several references bookmarked and pull a lot of decisions from them.

 

[RM-MN]

Hot wort doesn't dissolve oxygen very well. Wait until it is cool to aerate. You can't pitch the yeast until it is cool anyway so why try to aerate while the wort is hot.

There are some who claim that hot side aeration is a problem and others who say it does nothing. You can do your own experimentation to see which side you are on.

I've made several batches where I carefully rehydrated the dry yeasts and several where I just sprinkled it on top of the wort foam and a couple where I added the yeast to the bucket before pouring the wort on top of it. They all made beer and I can't tell the difference except that it is a pain to rehydrate. You are free to try each way yourself and see if you can tell the difference. Adding dry yeast directly to the wort is reported to kill up to half the yeast cells. Yeast in properly aerated wort double in about 90 minutes. Draw your own conclusions from that.

There are major differences in yeasts and their temperature ranges vary. Read the manufacturers literature on the yeast before choosing.

Both the porter and the stout had the same "mung" (called krausen) on the top and "mung" (called trub) on the bottom. You just happened to catch the krausen on the stout before it dropped back into the beer. Given time both would look about the same.

If you really want to see what a fermentation looks like, pour about 3/4 quart into a quart jar and put the lid on loosely so gas can escape. When it gets done you can drink it or throw it out. Don't put it back in the fermenter with the rest of the beer as you may introduce a contaminate.

 

[jalc6927]

If you pitch dry yeast in top of cooled wort (60-68 F), there’s no need to rehydrate it

At these temps along with a good aggressive aeration my dry starts fermentation in 6-10 hours

Also as stated above keep it simple at first until you can consistently get good brews, then start to expand your process to more advanced techniques

 

[DonnyBenét]

This is not true... Re-hydrating yeast is mandatory. You will have a better idea if your yeast are alive or if it's mostly dead. Don't make the mistake of ruining a batch because of bad fermentation.

 

[jalc6927]

Mandatory is incorrect, not sure where you get this from but it’s not true at all

Pitching yeast directly into wort works great

Just because you choose to rehydrate it doesn’t make it the only way or the best way, just your way

And it’s unsubstantiated advise like this that has no place in these forums

 

[ancientmariner52]

This is not true... Re-hydrating yeast is mandatory. You will have a better idea if your yeast are alive or if it's mostly dead. Don't make the mistake of ruining a batch because of bad fermentation.

This is perfectly true. I have pitched dry, I have rehydrated, I have even made starters of dry yeast. Couldn't tell a nickel's difference between 'em.

Mandatory? Who is the mandating authority and what are the penalties for non compliance? Words have meaning.

Relax, everybody gets to make their own choices, nothing is 'mandatory'.

 

[auburntsts]

This is not true... Re-hydrating yeast is mandatory...

Ummm, you got facts to back up that supposition? I happen to rehydrate but know for a fact that what you state is not universal and good beer can be made reliably without rehydrating.

 

[DonnyBenét]

Language barrier. I used the wrong word. If you read what I said, I tell why re-hydrating is better.

Didn't think I would offend someone...

 

[ancientmariner52]

I was not offended, and I apologize for assuming English is your native language.

 

[DonnyBenét]

I was not offended, and I apologize for assuming English is your native language.

No need to apologise my friend. Cheers!

 

[DonnyBenét]

Ummm, you got facts to back up that supposition? I happen to rehydrate but know for a fact that what you state is not universal and good beer can be made reliably without rehydrating.

Sorry I used the wrong word. I should have said "preferred".

Like I said, it's better to re-hydrate and make sure your yeasts are not all dead then ruining a batch.

Pitching dry yeast right into the wort can work as well. But you have a chance to have old packages with too many dead cells. Also, when you pitch yeast, cells die because of stress and shock, so that leaves you with even less cells. So imagine if your yeast is not that fresh.

For OP, you can read more here about re-hydrating yeast https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/rehydrating-dry-yeast/

 

[auburntsts]

Sorry I used the wrong word. I should have said "preferred".

Like I said, it's better to re-hydrate and make sure your yeasts are not all dead then ruining a batch.

Pitching dry yeast right into the wort can work as well. But you have a chance to have old packages with too many dead cells. Also, when you pitch yeast, cells die because of stress and shock, so that leaves you with even less cells. So imagine if your yeast is not that fresh.

For OP, you can read more here about re-hydrating yeast https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/rehydrating-dry-yeast/

No worries!!! It's all good! Like I said, personally I rehydrate because I believe it's cheap and easy insurance to insure a healthy fermentation. It's just not the end of the a world if you choose not to.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I use dry yeast almost exclusively and have rehydrated and sprinkled about 50/50. Since I am brewing 2 gallon batches it is rare that I am under pitching, so that could possibly mean the difference if one way was better than the other. As far as lag time or how active the ferment is, I haven’t noticed a difference. I also haven’t ever brewed the exact same recipe twice so I am not comparing apples to apples.

When aerating the wort, if you use dry yeast there is less need for strong aeration. When I fill my fermentors, I put my syphon tube at the top of the mouth and let it splash down in. I think if there is little air in your fermentor shaking it will not provide the maximum amount of oxygen.

I use too one gallon glass carboys to ferment. I will never use plastic buckets because seeing the fermentation is fun and informative. If I needed to make more beer I would use a pet fermentor because I have seen the broken carboy injury thread.

The different yeasts are vastly different with variables like flocculation, temp range, flavor profiles, activity profiles and more. Choose your yeast after considering carefully.