how much yeast?

[frontiercdk]

Fixing to brew a 10 gallon batch of wheat. This is my third 10 gallon batch. My LHBS initally told me one pack of yeat was plenty. So I did the first two batches with one package (no starter, just sprinked it dry). Picked up the ingredients today and a new guy checked me out. He told me I had to use at least 2 packs of yeast. He said just using one pack would ruin the batch!? I thought it would just ferment slower. What is the deal? (Safe ale 05)

 

[RM-MN]

Well, the new guy is right and wrong at the same time. Underpitching (which you were doing with one package of yeast) will lead to off flavors and probably a stalled ferment but if your beer didn't exhibit these he was definitely wrong. Yeast don't always do what they are expected to do.

If you aerated your wort well the dry yeast might have propagated enough to make up for being underpitched.

 

[JLem]

There's a good yeast pitching rate calculator available at mrmalty.com - I always use that to figure out how big a starter I need. There's a dry yeast option and will tell you how many packets of yeast you need.

 

[BigFloyd]

The second guy was closer to the mark.

According to Mr. Malty, a 10.25 gallon batch of 1.050 gravity wort requires 1.7 packets (11 grams each) of dry yeast.

You don't do a starter with dry yeast, but for better results with dry, look into rehydrating it. The percentage of cells that survive intro to the wort is much higher if you do. Sprinkling dry into the wort can result in cell loss as much as 60%.

 

[frontiercdk]

thanks, done with with batch gonna pitch 2 paxkets, hope will work good!