How much dry yeast to pitch in double IPA?

[Joe1980]

Hi, I am planning a double IPA, (recipe attached). I have not brewed one before, can I get away with two packets of S-05 rehydrated or do I need to make a yeast starter?
Thanks.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Welcome to HomeBrewTalk @Joe1980!

 

[Mr. Vern]

Welcome Joe! Re-hydrate with water and send it! My vote anyways. It looks like you are making close to 5 gallons / 20 liters with that grain bill, you might want to use 3 packs for 1.075 gravity, or brew a small beer and use the cake from that! Recommended pitch rate would be close to 250 billion cells. (you get about 80 Billion per 11.5g packet of US-05)

Most people advise against starters with dry yeast, the yeast is packaged with stored nutrients and are best when hydrated in water instead of higher gravity wort. A viability starter likely does not have benefit with dry yeast.

Personally, I have re-pitched cake from dry yeast with great results but did not go past 2 batches with the same yeast. I guess you could call that an extended starter

 

[hout17]

Welcome Joe! Re-hydrate with water and send it! My vote anyways. It looks like you are making close to 5 gallons / 20 liters with that grain bill, you might want to use 3 packs for 1.075 gravity, or brew a small beer and use the cake from that! Recommended pitch rate would be close to 250 billion cells. (you get about 80 Billion per 11.5g packet of US-05)

Most people advise against starters with dry yeast, the yeast is packaged with stored nutrients and are best when hydrated in water instead of higher gravity wort. A viability starter likely does not have benefit with dry yeast.

Personally, I have re-pitched cake from dry yeast with great results but did not go past 2 batches with the same yeast. I guess you could call that an extended starter

I agree while I think 2 packs of US-05 for my double IPA should be enough I'm pitching three just to be sure since it's an OG of 1.100.

 

[Joe1980]

Welcome Joe! Re-hydrate with water and send it! My vote anyways. It looks like you are making close to 5 gallons / 20 liters with that grain bill, you might want to use 3 packs for 1.075 gravity, or brew a small beer and use the cake from that! Recommended pitch rate would be close to 250 billion cells. (you get about 80 Billion per 11.5g packet of US-05)

Most people advise against starters with dry yeast, the yeast is packaged with stored nutrients and are best when hydrated in water instead of higher gravity wort. A viability starter likely does not have benefit with dry yeast.

Personally, I have re-pitched cake from dry yeast with great results but did not go past 2 batches with the same yeast. I guess you could call that an extended starter

Thanks for the quick reply! yes it is a 20L batch. Edit: I will stick with two then as both of you agreeing this will be enough. Would you up the yeast nutrient to 3 packs also? (6g sachets). cheers

 

[Mr. Vern]

Would you up the yeast nutrient to 3 packs also? (6g sachets

To be fair (insert Letterkenny fans here) ... I used Brewers Friend for the yeast calculator / pitch rate, it may be a little overdone. It is my opinion that a little over-pitch is better than under-pitch.

For your nutrients I typically follow the instructions, I use LD Carlson and add roughly 1 teaspoon per gallon (up to 5 tsp per 21 liters). To be honest I usually just dump what I believe are a few tsp's into my palm and add it to the boil near end.

 

[Joe1980]

Thank you all..I will let you know how it turns out!

 

[hout17]

Thank you all..I will let you know how it turns out!

Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm literally finishing up my mash on my double IPA right now.

 

[hotbeer]

S-05? Did you mean US-05 or S-04?

Either way, SafeAle states the dosage in the data sheets for each of their yeasts. And for most of the ale yeasts I've used it's the same dosage...

50 to 80 grams per hectoliter

which is

1.5 to 3.0 grams per gallon

or about

.06 ounce to .10 ounce per gallon


I just pitch the dry yeast into the fermenter directly and it's always started quickly with no issue. Sometimes I see visual activity in less than 12 hours, but 24 is norm. And occassionally 36 hours.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Common hout17... there's room for at least 1 more gallon in there

Serious though, best of luck with your ale! I have a couple IPA's to put in the fermenting chamber this weekend.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Did you mean US-05

Correct.. I assumed US-05 as most people get the 04 or 05 right LOL

website claims 7B cells per gram of US-05, FWIW

 

[Joe1980]

S-05? Did you mean US-05 or S-04?

Either way, SafeAle states the dosage in the data sheets for each of their yeasts. And for most of the ale yeasts I've used it's the same dosage...

50 to 80 grams per hectoliter

which is

1.5 to 3.0 grams per gallon

or about

.06 ounce to .10 ounce per gallon


I just pitch the dry yeast into the fermenter directly and it's always started quickly with no issue. Sometimes I see visual activity in less than 12 hours, but 24 is norm. And occassionally 36 hours.

Sorry, yes US-05

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Warning - Heads are fixing to explode.

One would work fine as well, ask me how I know.

Answer - I've pitched one packet in a ten gallon IIPA with good results on more than one occasion, although - Your mileage may vary.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm literally finishing up my mash on my double IPA right now.

View attachment 767229View attachment 767230

Mashing indoors, you are brave, hats off to you.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

If I sold yeast, I would provide similar advice as they do, two is good, three is better.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If I sold yeast, I would provide similar advice as they do, two is good, three is better.

Meh. Lallemand has a best practices PDF (link) that explains how to make a starter with Diamond Lager yeast.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Either way, SafeAle states the dosage in the data sheets for each of their yeasts. And for most of the ale yeasts I've used it's the same dosage...

50 to 80 grams per hectoliter

which is

1.5 to 3.0 grams per gallon

or about

.06 ounce to .10 ounce per gallon

+1 for refreshing the forums on this information.

---

Another observation (based on listening to a number of videos from a couple of the dry yeast providers over the last couple of years) is that some of the guidelines are conservative. Follow them and you will get a good beer.

With the conservative starting point, there is opportunity to optimize for cost. Whether one does that on the 1st batch or follow-on batches, is likely to be a personal decision (often based on experience).

 

[hotbeer]

Another observation (based on listening to a number of videos from a couple of the dry yeast providers over the last couple of years) is that some of the guidelines are conservative. Follow them and you will get a good beer.

I do agree with you that the dosage levels they state are probably conservative for the home brewer.

They probably are based and aimed at the volumes produced by commercial brewers since commercial brewer are probably a larger part of their sales.

The fact that they give their dosage in hectoliters first seems to be a good suggestion that brewers making >100 gallon batches was the target group.

It'd be interesting to know how much if any of the research Fermentis and other yeast producers is based on lower home brew quantities or if it's all just scaled down numbers and extrapolation of research aimed at the commercial brewery quantities and processes.

From what I've read autolysis from over-pitching is an issue for those brewing commercial quantities, it seems to be a virtually non-existent issue for < 15 gallon homebrewers.

So over-pitching might be a useful practice for small quantity brewers though I so far have stuck to the upper level of 80g/hl. Though I've read post from others where they must be twice or more that rate and apparently make great beer.

 

[Joe1980]

So in the end I switched things up entirely and went with Voss Kweik yeast (fermented at 35-40c, not 20c as stated in screenshots). Not quite a double but came out well around 7%. Very tasty, if a little rushed as it went from grain to glass in a week! all finished on the day though and provided good conversation at a bbq. Cheers!

 

[MHBT]

5 gallons 1.075? One pack is all you need max 2 , 3 would be a waste

 

[Kickass]

grain to glass in a week!

I love it! Turn that kveik quickly. Style considered, resting beer for weeks or months prior to packaging is an unnecessary exercise in patience. It doesn’t get better.

 

[MHBT]

I love it! Turn that kveik quickly. Style considered, resting beer for weeks or months prior to packaging is an unnecessary exercise in patience. It doesn’t get better.

I agree, and you dont need kviek to do so

 

[Kickass]

I agree, and you dont need kviek to do so

So true.

 

[brewpharm Hill]

Mr. Malty is a great tool for yeast pitching rates. I've used it for dry yeast (Fermentis yeasts) many times and have never had any issues with poor fermentation. Always seems to take off in a time consistent with that yeast and finishes as expected too. If you're using Lallemand dry yeast, then I would recommend using their yeast pitching calculator on their website. And of course you can follow what your brewing software recommends. I've had great results with both the Mr. Malty pitching calculator and the Lallemand calculator.

Mr. Malty: Mrmalty.com
- only available as a smart phone app now, I believe. You do have to pay for it but it is cheap!

Lallemand yeast pitch calculator: Pitching rate calculator | Lallemand Brewing