Good experience with dry yeast. What are your tips?

[havoc531]

This past Saturday I brewed an American Pale Ale for the first time on my eBIAB setup. We got carried away cleaning kegs during the mash so it ended up a 90 minute mash at 152f.

Back to the yeast. Safale S-04 yeast. Rehydrated and pitched into 1.063 wort to ferment at 63f; in five days it's fully attenuated to 1.016.

The beer tastes amazing. Biscuity and complex. Light in body but that's not a problem to me.

One other thing, the yeast I pulled from the conical fermentor on day five looked amazing. Anyone order a yeast cappuccino?

What are your tips for dry yeast?View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1458184538.109023.jpg

 

[lumpher]

I would suggest you use it for your next fermentation, as is meant to happen from conicals.

 

[TaylorT]

Based on my experience with US-05:

Always allow the yeast to warm up before pitching it. I usually take the pack out of the fridge before I start brewing and just leave it out on the counter the entire time. This alone was making the difference of 16-20 hours of lag time between pitching and vigorous fermentation.

Hydration also helps, but read the spec sheet. I've seen recommendations around here and other sites that say to use water around 95-100 F, which is way too hot. The instructions for US-05 calls for 80 or so.

I only have a glass carboy, so no fancy yeast harvesting for me, but I do wash the yeast I use after bottling... The last time I bought yeast was probably 6 or 7 batches ago.

 

[Kerrbrewer]

I also have had good experiences with US-05 & Nottingham. Just rehydrate as per instructions and pitch. I have washed both of those and gotten 4 5 gal batches with each. The only complaint I have with 05 is when I fermented at 63f it had really heavy esters.

 

[dmtaylor]

My tips for dry yeast? Use it as often as possible, it's cheaper and very effective, stores forever, don't need a starter, yadda yadda. And you do NOT need to rehydrate it or aerate at all. I never do, and it always takes off like gangbusters anyway. Very reliable yeast source. If I could get a dry yeast for every beer style under the sun, I would use dry yeast for every batch. No exaggeration.

Seriously, you don't need to rehydrate. Sprinkle it in there and you're done. Save yourself a few minutes of dorking around that doesn't add any value.

 

[jwalk4]

I love fermentis products, and they are pretty reliable for me.

Danstar is another story.

However, I have the most reliable results when I rehydrate, maintain temps, and allow my beer to free rise on the 3rd or 4th day. Never let the temp drop during fermentation.

I love dry yeasts, but I have never explored liquid yeasts, so I don't know what I am missing out on.

 

[dmtaylor]

I have never explored liquid yeasts, so I don't know what I am missing out on.

Not a whole lot, actually! You can make nearly anything sticking with just dry yeasts. They keep developing more and more strains to make the different styles. Even if you can't find the "perfect" dry yeast for any given style, you can almost always find something that is "close enough".

 

[jwalk4]

Not a whole lot, actually! You can make nearly anything sticking with just dry yeasts. They keep developing more and more strains to make the different styles. Even if you can't find the "perfect" dry yeast for any given style, you can almost always find something that is "close enough".

True.

I mean I'd like to be able to make some specialty beers that rely on a specific strain. Kolches,etc.

But for the moment, I'm happy with dry yeasts.

 

[dmtaylor]

They actually make a dry Kolsch yeast, it's K-97. I haven't tried it yet. I think it's only recently been released for homebrewer use (11 grams or whatever). Before that it was only sold in big packages for commercial use.

 

[slym2none]

Seriously, you don't need to rehydrate. Sprinkle it in there and you're done. Save yourself a few minutes of dorking around that doesn't add any value.

Seriously, you don't have to rehydrate, but it won't kill you to, either - but, I really feel you are spreading misinformation saying that it doesn't add value. Healthier yeast are happier yeast, and it's been proven that hydrating dried yeast makes them healthier. Also, active time actually doing it is less than a minute. Like many things in brewing, most of the time you are standing around waiting, and likely doing other things during the wait (like cleaning up, or getting the next whatever ready).

 

[dmtaylor]

Seriously, you don't have to rehydrate, but it won't kill you to, either - but, I really feel you are spreading misinformation saying that it doesn't add value. Healthier yeast are happier yeast, and it's been proven that hydrating dried yeast makes them healthier. Also, active time actually doing it is less than a minute. Like many things in brewing, most of the time you are standing around waiting, and likely doing other things during the wait (like cleaning up, or getting the next whatever ready).

I understand your point, and you're right. If you don't rehydrate, half your yeast will die. That's pretty much a fact.

Yet fortunately for us lazy bastards like me, the beer still miraculously turns out perfect every time if you just skip the rehydration and sprinkle it right on top. Personally I find any part of the brewing process that does not affect the final quality of the beer in any discernible manner to be a wasted effort. My 2 cents.

 

[JonM]

Don't want to monkey around with giant stirred starters and huge Erlenmeyers for lager yeast? Use a few packs of reyhdrated 34/70.

 

[iosete]

What temperature is good for us05?

 

[jmitchell3]

What temperature is good for us05?

http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_US05.pdf

 

[JonM]

What temperature is good for us05?

I recently used 05 for the first time in a while. I read up beforehand, and saw a comment from Yooper saying below 65° F is where the "peachy" flavors develop. I tried to keep it at 65 or slightly above.

 

[kombat]

I agree w/ @slym2none, I always rehydrate my US-05. I've said this elsewhere, but I'll repeat it here: I firmly believe that yeast management is the single most important factor in producing good beer. You can accidentally mash a little high, or forget your Campden tablet, or use a recipe with a little too much crystal, and still end up with perfectly drinkable beer, but it's essential to keep those yeast happy. I pitch an ample quantity of healthy, happy yeast, feed them plenty of air to start with, and keep them comfortable at 63.5° F, and they reward me with delicious beer. That includes rehydrating them to ensure I'm getting my money's worth out of that packet of yeast and not killing off half the packet right out of the gate.

 

[slym2none]

I learned just that through experience, kombat. I make smaller batches, and have always used half a pack of yeast because they are half-sized, and I have more than a few posts about how Notty likes to lag. Well, this last beer isn't even the biggest I have ever made, but I pitched a full pack of (hydrated) Notty on it and had krausen less than 12 hours after pitching. No lag, no possible stressed yeast, and if that makes my beer better, then it's well worth it.

I probably will still pitch half-packs, but only on beers with an OG of 1.050 or less. Anything over that will get the full pack from now on. I spend enough $ to get the ingredients for beer that I want, why take chances for another $2?

I have learned.

 

[BreezyBrew]

My experience... YMMV

US-05 - Much more temperature sensitive then people think. Fermented at 63 and got the peach ester. Fermented at 68, and got almost a Belgian character. Fermented at 64, and it had a cidery flavor I wasn't a fan of.

US-04 - When I used it, it gave the beer a slight tart flavor that was inappropriate in an American stout.

Notty - Seems to have been more reliable a while ago. The last time I used it, lag time was 2 days. Really is a workhorse, doesn't care about temp variation as much, and is extremely clean when fermented at 62. So clean it seems to diminish the malt character of the beer. I would use this over the other two at a low temp.

 

[slym2none]

@BreezyBrew - what dry yeast would you use for a maltier beer then? I have two clones I want to try to make, both call for US-05, and I'd rather not have any of their character & flavour diminished.

 

[BreezyBrew]

@BreezyBrew - what dry yeast would you use for a maltier beer then? I have two clones I want to try to make, both call for US-05, and I'd rather not have any of their character & flavour diminished.

Personally, I'd jump to the dark side of liquid yeast. This may not be an option for you though. I enjoyed 1272 when I used it, kept the temp low, and it didn't turn tart on me. I also like using 1968. One of my favs is 007, since it's somewhere in between, but leans more to the clean side of things. It's kind of a baby though, and can stop a bit short if it doesn't have enough 02 since it is so flocculant. I've also made some great beers with 090 but that's also a clean yeast.

 

[slym2none]

@BreezyBrew - what dry yeast would you use for a maltier beer then?

Personally, I'd jump to the dark side of liquid yeast.

 

[dmtaylor]

@BreezyBrew - what dry yeast would you use for a maltier beer then? I have two clones I want to try to make, both call for US-05, and I'd rather not have any of their character & flavour diminished.

I just brewed an ESB that is malty as all heck, using BRY-97. Seems like a pretty good yeast for malt accentuation. I've also been wanting to try the K-97, which is a new kolsch/altbier yeast.

 

[YYC]

Completely non-scientific, but I had my best result with Nottie when it's was over-pitched by 2x. Before that, a fellow brewer and I detected a signature taste that we were not fond of. At the 2x over-pitch, the beer was cleaner tasting. YMMV.