dry yeast: how big of starter?

[hammy48]

Hello,
I am making my second beer this weekend. My first beer tasted kind of yeasty, it was also low in potency, and I used a dry yeast to make a starter for that brew.

Just wondering if I am going to have too many yeast cells if I pitch 1 package of dry yeast into a liter of sterile water with 4oz of DME 18-24 hours before my brew.

Thanks!

 

[beergynt]

Dry yeast does not require a starter. Just rehydrate in about 10x the weight in ~100ºF water for 20 min or so before pitching. (eg - 11.5g sachet in 110-115g water). For a bigger beer pitch two sachets.

 

[mcwilcr]

a lot of people dont do starters with dry yeast packs and simply rehydrate them as per the directions since the dry yeast packs supposidly contain about 200+B yeast cells when properly hydrated. that being said, the amount of yeast you pitch should be directly related to your original gravity. use a pitching rate calculator like the one from Mr. Malty .com to determine the required amount of yeast for a given recipe.

 

[hammy48]

That is actually what I did for the first brew (re-hydrating). I guess the process I described would be for liquid yeast. I'll go check out mr.malty

Thanks a lot!

 

[beerman0001]

What dry yeast did you use?

 

[osagedr]

Some people just sprinkle; I like to rehydrate as per the manufacturer's PRODUCT SHEET instructions. Sometimes the instructions on the yeast package are not as detailed.

 

[hammy48]

I used a Safale ale yeast... I think it was #5, maybe #33.

For the beer I am brewing this weekend I was just going to use the yeast that came with my white house honey porter kit... you think that is safe? I figure that because they only released the kit in September the yeast they packaged with it can't be so bad right?

 

[Stix]

Safale ale PDF states it can be either re hydrated or just sprinkled on wort.

 

[osagedr]

Safale ale PDF states it can be either re hydrated or just sprinkled on wort.

It only says sprinkling is ok if the wort is 68 degrees or warmer. Many brewers would pitch cooler than this. It also says to aerate after 30 minutes if sprinkling.

Conventional wisdom is that rehydrating is superior.