Do I really need to to re-hydrate?

[telebrewer]

My LHBS was out of WLP-001, which I usually always use. The said safale-05 is the same. They said I could re-hydrate if I wanted to or not. The package says to sprinkle it into the wort. I have never used dry yeast before. I always use a tube of white labs and make a starter. This batch will be little a higher gravity than usual and want to make sure there is enough yeast to ferment it. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[bob1852]

I tend to sprinkle with US05 as well...

There is some thought that re-hydrate is better, and heck, it doesn't take a whole lot of time or effort....

But, either work.

What's your OG? If it's really high (above 1.070) it wouldn't hurt to pitch two packs...

EDIT: And, yest US05 is a perfect sub for WLP001 or Wyeast 1056.

 

[telebrewer]

The O.G. will be around 1.065. Wouldn't two packs make it taste yeasty? What is the difference between re-hydrating and not?

 

[Special Hops]

Use Safale 05 all the time and never re-hydrate. Much cheaper and easier then liquid yeast.

 

[ChshreCat]

Rehydrating in water allows the yeast cells to get up to speed before you expose them to wort. When the yeast are first rehydrating, they can't control what passes across their cell membranes. They can suddenly take up a large amount of sugar and other things and you will lose many cells that way.

I used to just sprinkle on top until I heard about rehydrating. To be honest, the ones that I did without rehydrating came out just fine. But rehydrating is so easy a step it's a no brainer to do it to give my beer a better chance of coming out good. It's just dumping it into a cup of water while I boil. Piece of cake.

2 packets of yeast won't make your beer "yeasty". The yeast will still drop out of suspension like usual.

 

[telebrewer]

Have you ever had to pitch two packs because of higher gravity?

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Rehydrating allows the cell walls of the yeast to recover properly from their freeze dried state. It's said that if you sprinkle dry yeast directly into wort, half of the cells die before they fully rehydrate due to wort sugar levels and pH. Will it still ferment? Sure, but at a much reduced pitching rate potentially causing off flavors and affecting attenuation. Rehydrating is super easy and is a great way to ensure that all the yeast you pitch actually get active and working.

 

[rockfish42]

According to the Mr. Malty pitching calc, you'd need ~12 grams of rehydrated yeast to hit the right pitching rate. In my batches where I sprinkled instead of rehydrating I detected a bit of yeast bite, though those were early on in my homebrewing career and that could be attributed to other problems.

 

[telebrewer]

If dry yeast is so easy, why have I been making a yeast starter with liquid yeast on a stir plate all this time? I'm going with dry yeast and see what happens. I'll go ahead and re-hydrate also. Thanks.

 

[bob1852]

If dry yeast is so easy, why have I been making a yeast starter with liquid yeast on a stir plate all this time? I'm going with dry yeast and see what happens. I'll go ahead and re-hydrate also. Thanks.

There's certain strains you can't get in dry, and quite honestly (about to duck), even though US-05 and WLP001 and Wyeast 1056 are purportedly the same strain, when I use liquid, the beers tend to taste better. No scientific evidence though....but keep in mind most of the AHA winners use liquid yeast (really ducking now )

 

[surreal_trip]

There's certain strains you can't get in dry, and quite honestly (about to duck), even though US-05 and WLP001 and Wyeast 1056 are purportedly the same strain, when I use liquid, the beers tend to taste better. No scientific evidence though....but keep in mind most of the AHA winners use liquid yeast (really ducking now )

He's just partial to the mucky stuff... But ya he's right, the dry strains need to be hartier to handle the freeze drying process. So it's not as good for the 'refined' yeast such as those dainty packets of liquid joy! Rehydration is also good I did a few split 5 gall batches (2.5 galls in 2 carboys) and pitched one rehydrated and one sprinkled... The rehydrated always came alive quicker and had a much more solid fermentation cutting off even a few days to the primary ferment (only in two cases but still)!

 

[telebrewer]

Thanks, I'll try the dry and re-hydrate.

 

[Tread82]

There's certain strains you can't get in dry, and quite honestly (about to duck), even though US-05 and WLP001 and Wyeast 1056 are purportedly the same strain, when I use liquid, the beers tend to taste better. No scientific evidence though....but keep in mind most of the AHA winners use liquid yeast (really ducking now )

THEMS FIGHTIN' WORDS!!!

Just kidding. I only use liquid too. I never use that strain anymore since I discovered the joys of 007. The James Bond of yeast.

 

[winvarin]

I will preface this by saying I have still not fully trained my palate after all these years of drinking (guess I need to keep trying).

But I tried US-05 in a similar situation. I was making an IPA and the LHBS was out of WLP001. My modest palate was not able to tell the difference. I had a couple of bottles of the same recipe on hand that I'd brewed with 001. When I tasted them side by side, the only perceptible difference was that the beer made with us-05 had a better hop aroma. But that could be attributed to a number of things (hop strength and timing during the aroma phase and dry hop; the fact that the second beer was fresher and aroma seems to mellow over time, etc.)

I have since gone to us-05 for all my "standard" or "house" American style ales (I usually try to keep IPA flowing for me, and Blonde Ales for my wife and her buddies). Dried us-05 is perfect for that, as well as being cheaper and easier to use.

And FWIW, I re-hydrate because it's also simpler. Glass measuring cup goes in the sanitizer while I am sanitizing other gear. I pour in about 150-200 ml of room temperature bottled water from a freshly opened bottle and sprinkle the yeast and cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. It sits for about 10 min then gets a quick stir with a sanitized spoon and covered again. About 15 min later, it's nice and creamy and ready to pitch.

 

[jfr1111]

Fermentis instructs to sprinkle US-05 and S-04 on the packet. Their Safbrew yeasts (S-33 and T-58) have instructions on how to rehydrate them properly: take that into consideration, the company that puts out the yeast might use a special packaging technique that allows straight sprinkling. US-05 and S-04 also cost more than their "rehydratation needed" cousins, so maybe there is somethign to it...

You can rehydrate all you want and get technical about why it is better, but in the end, unless you have a highish OG, the pitching rate is going to be ample. Myself, after a bad experience with Notty that didn't proof, I will probably rehydrate every time just to make sure it gets good and creamy.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I don't rehydrate. I go for the simplest available effective method and for me that's the don't aerate/don't hydrate approach for dry yeast. I invariably use 11 gram packets and that's an overpitch for most of my brews, so if some of the yeasties don't survive hydration in the wort, so what. They become food for the others.

 

[jjones17]

Since I started reyhdrating, I have not gotten any random ester profiles from S05 or Notty. I reccomend just doing it unless you are super lazy.

 

[JonK331]

The O.G. will be around 1.065. Wouldn't two packs make it taste yeasty?

If it tastes yeasty, use gelatin, works like charm. I always pitch two packs and rehydrate.

 

[munklunk]

I'm a recent convert from liquid to dry yeast. I've used all the traditional ones: 05, 04 and notty, and do not rehydrate.

The only time I have rehydrated, I did something wrong and four days later fermentation still had not stared. I put together a liquid starter and the batch went crazy. Since then I simply sprinkle. K.I.S.S. is what I would say.

 

[ChshreCat]

Fermentis instructs to sprinkle US-05 and S-04 on the packet. Their Safbrew yeasts (S-33 and T-58) have instructions on how to rehydrate them properly: take that into consideration, the company that puts out the yeast might use a special packaging technique that allows straight sprinkling. US-05 and S-04 also cost more than their "rehydratation needed" cousins, so maybe there is somethign to it...

But... on the Fermentis website, when you look up the specs for either yeast, the pitching instructions say:

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. 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. 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.

First option is to rehydrate with sprinkling as an alternate.

*shrug* they both work, but rehydrating is pretty easy. If it was a 3 hour process, I'd be sprinkling away.

 

[Beer_Guy]

…
I never use that strain anymore since I discovered the joys of 007. The James Bond of yeast.

I just bottled a Robust Porter that I used WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast. I get a laugh out of the expression on people’s faces when they ask, "White Labs now makes dry yeast?.

 

[jfr1111]

I had noticed the fact that they have rehydratation instructions on their site but not on the packets. Fermentis dry yeast is probably one of the worst marketed product ever: almost no info on the site (attenuation: medium, wtf does that mean?) and a bunch of mystery yeast that are labelled belgians but are probably other stuff...

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

If dry yeast is so easy, why have I been making a yeast starter with liquid yeast on a stir plate all this time? I'm going with dry yeast and see what happens. I'll go ahead and re-hydrate also. Thanks.

..................... Honestly, you're kind of right here. I used to use liquid with a 1 or 2 litre starter. I am a dry yeast convert. Just sprinkle it in and you're done. Rehydrate if it makes you feel better but I've seen no difference in rehydrated vs. not rehydrated beers.

The only reason I can ever convince myself to pay 7 bucks for yeast and go through the trouble of making a starter is if I'm brewing a belgian, saison, or something else that uses a specific yeast.

All my IPA's, IIPA's, Pale Ales have gotten US-05 for the past year. I personally can't taste the difference between the beers that use US-05 and the ones that used the liquid california ale yeast. Cheaper and no planning days in advance required. SOLD!

 

[ChshreCat]

There are plenty of good reasons to use liquid yeast and take the time to make a starter. There are TONS of styles of beer that depend on the yeast for specific character that there isn't a dry yeast for. My favorite is the saison. Can't make a saison with a dry yeast.

But if you're making a stout or APA or something like that. Dry yeasts are GREAT! Most of my beers are made using dry yeast, usually US04 and US05. The only time I reach for a liquid yeast for something like an APA is if I want to use Pacman. I loves me some Pacman.

 

[telebrewer]

..................... Honestly, you're kind of right here. I used to use liquid with a 1 or 2 litre starter. I am a dry yeast convert. Just sprinkle it in and you're done. Rehydrate if it makes you feel better but I've seen no difference in rehydrated vs. not rehydrated beers.

The only reason I can ever convince myself to pay 7 bucks for yeast and go through the trouble of making a starter is if I'm brewing a belgian, saison, or something else that uses a specific yeast.

All my IPA's, IIPA's, Pale Ales have gotten US-05 for the past year. I personally can't taste the difference between the beers that use US-05 and the ones that used the liquid california ale yeast. Cheaper and no planning days in advance required. SOLD!

Damn straight. This is the first time I used dry yeast. It is going off. I thought it was settled down and put an airlock on it, but it blew that out. It's been 4 days. I put the blow off back on. I planned to re-hydrate, but it got late and had to pitch. Just followed the directions, sprinkle into wort. I'll have to see what the finale product is. But if I can do that for my IPA's, I'm doing it. It's a lot easier than making a starter out of WPL-001.

 

[ChshreCat]

Damn straight. This is the first time I used dry yeast. It is going off. I thought it was settled down and put an airlock on it, but it blew that out. It's been 4 days. I put the blow off back on. I planned to re-hydrate, but it got late and had to pitch. Just followed the directions, sprinkle into wort. I'll have to see what the finale product is. But if I can do that for my IPA's, I'm doing it. It's a lot easier than making a starter out of WPL-001.

Now try some different dry yeast out! There's still some variety among dry yeasts, just not as much as there is with liquid. I like 04 and 05, but lots of folks here are big fans of Nottingham.

 

[LCTitan]

Originally Posted by telebrewer
If dry yeast is so easy, why have I been making a yeast starter with liquid yeast on a stir plate all this time? I'm going with dry yeast and see what happens. I'll go ahead and re-hydrate also. Thanks.

..................... Honestly, you're kind of right here. I used to use liquid with a 1 or 2 litre starter. I am a dry yeast convert. Just sprinkle it in and you're done. Rehydrate if it makes you feel better but I've seen no difference in rehydrated vs. not rehydrated beers.

The only reason I can ever convince myself to pay 7 bucks for yeast and go through the trouble of making a starter is if I'm brewing a belgian, saison, or something else that uses a specific yeast.

All my IPA's, IIPA's, Pale Ales have gotten US-05 for the past year. I personally can't taste the difference between the beers that use US-05 and the ones that used the liquid california ale yeast. Cheaper and no planning days in advance required. SOLD!

But if you wash and harvest your liquid yeast your cost savings will far exceed the savings of buying dry yeast.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

But if you wash and harvest your liquid yeast your cost savings will far exceed the savings of buying dry yeast.

You can just as easily wash and harvest a dry yeast and save even more.

 

[LCTitan]

That is correct!

 

[Stellrbrewr]

Chshrecat, have you ever tried safbrew T-58, supposedly a saisan-style dry yeast, to see how close it comes?