Is it normal my yeast rehydration look like this after 15 minutes?

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Finlandbrews

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I understood there should be bubbles after 15 minutes when re hydrating the dry yeast... Now I have two small bubbles but no more... What to do? Is it so that If it is alive it should start bubbling?
 
What temp was the water?
Hard water, right?
Should turn into a thick, creamy sort of fluid.
Just rehydrated 2 packs 45 minutes ago. Wish I'd have taken a picture now.
I don't measure out an amount of water. I guess at about 3/4 cup, boil for 10, put about 1/2 cup in my wife's grandmother's blue bowl and cool to 70. Pour in the yeast and stir with a thermometer.
I'd use it within 1/2 hour or so.
 
Really? When I hydrate, I get a nice layer of foam on top.

I would think that yeast is dead, personally.
 
Really? When I hydrate, I get a nice layer of foam on top.

I would think that yeast is dead, personally.

It is unfortunately likely in my opinion... Let's see in 9 hours. My batch has quite a high gravity so that will not help either... Expiration date of the dry yeast is February 2017 but I opened that pack 8 days ago but kept it in fridge... I put it in my tap water at 37 degrees and I let it go down to 18 as well as my wort then pitched. Now it is under 21 degrees celsius for fermentation... Let's see the results... Cheers
 
It is unfortunately likely in my opinion... Let's see in 9 hours. My batch has quite a high gravity so that will not help either... Expiration date of the dry yeast is February 2017 but I opened that pack 8 days ago but kept it in fridge... I put it in my tap water at 37 degrees and I let it go down to 18 as well as my wort then pitched. Now it is under 21 degrees celsius for fermentation... Let's see the results... Cheers

You might need more than 9 hours. Wait like three days before calling the yeast bad. And make the determination only after taking gravity samples before and after.
 
Here's a shot of some of my dry yeast re-hydrating nicely...

After re-reading a manufacturer's PDF on US-05, as an example, Get water in flask up to 90F (my preference), sprinkle in yeast, cover & let sit 15 minutes. Then stir with sanitized skewer, or the like, cover & sit another 15 minutes. I used to think this was enough. But the PDF also says to spend another 30 minutes stirring it before pitching. :mug:
 
If you want to proof the yeast before pitching, you rehydrate the yeast according to manufacturers directions, then add a small amount of fermentable to the yeast solution. Proofing isn't necessary, but may be desirable if you're unsure of the yeast's viability. Look at the before and after pictures from John Palmer's book:

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yeast/preparing-yeast-and-yeast-starters
 
Re-hydrating dry yeast isn't so much for proofing as waking up the dry yeast in water, rather than in the wort. You keep more viable cells by re-hydrating dry in water. Then add some wort to either cool it down, or make a starter with it. Depends more on gravity of the wort where starters are concerned. I just like re-hydrating because, keeping more cells vs loosing up to half of them sprinkled dry, makes for shorter lag times. Those books also say that they now think off-flavors start during the lag, or reproduction phase.:mug:
 
Re-hydrating dry yeast isn't so much for proofing as waking up the dry yeast in water, rather than in the wort. You keep more viable cells by re-hydrating dry in water. Then add some wort to either cool it down, or make a starter with it. Depends more on gravity of the wort where starters are concerned. I just like re-hydrating because, keeping more cells vs loosing up to half of them sprinkled dry, makes for shorter lag times. Those books also say that they now think off-flavors start during the lag, or reproduction phase.:mug:

+1
In your photo, unionrdr, it looks as though you have an active fermentation. Did you add some fermentable to your rehydrated yeast, or has it been vigorously stirred?

I think it's important that the OP knows that his yeast may still be OK even though he isn't seeing bubbles like that. I always rehydrate, but I've never proofed my yeast, and it always looks like the the picture on the left in Palmer's book. I may start proofing from now on just to ease my mind!
 
Well, it was a dry yeast- I forget which one atm- that I rehydrated. Then added some DME after that to grow the cell count. Took the better part of a week, since it seems I added too much DME, as remember.
 
Well, it was a dry yeast- I forget which one atm- that I rehydrated. Then added some DME after that to grow the cell count. Took the better part of a week, since it seems I added too much DME, as remember.

OK, so I think we're all mixing our terminology. Finlandbrew's picture of rehydrated yeast is normal. It's the addition of fermentables that's called proofing, and will produce the active fermentation, and that's when ya get yer bubbles.
 
Not in my experiences. Not entirely anyway. Even when I'm strictly re-hydrating in plain 90F spring water, it makes a krausen. Usually about half that in the picture.
As far as dry yeast is concerned, it can be thought of as proofing too. Now in the case of liquid yeast, the starter is proofing.
 
OK, so I think we're all mixing our terminology. Finlandbrew's picture of rehydrated yeast is normal. It's the addition of fermentables that's called proofing, and will produce the active fermentation, and that's when ya get yer bubbles.

Thanks for the clarifications!
 
As unionrdr said, you don't have to have fermentables in your liquid to proof.

Hydrating the dry yeast in plain water is proofing it. I do this and get foam on top, but not what I'd call krausen. It isn't light or airy at all, even though it floats on top. Hydrating beer yeast looks exactly like proofing bread yeast when I do it.

*shrug*

I have an old pack of Cooper's yeast, maybe I should hydrate it & take pics...

...nah, I actually don't care that much.

*shrug*
 
Oh, nonono... in your pic, yours looks like krausen. When I just hydrate the yeast for 30 minutes (no stirring after the initial stirring up of the yeast in the water) it doesn't look like that - that's why I said mine doesn't look like krausen.

If I ever brew again, I'll take pics of what I'm talking about. Maybe.

:)
 
I have always had foam when rehydrating. I use 1/2 cup of warm water and leave it for 20 minutes. 1/2 hour should be plenty. I don't see any action in the OP's picture but that doesn't necessarily mean it is dead. Though I would also be very concerned.

Uniondr's looks more like a starter which is unnecessary for most beers when using dry yeast. More packs of dry yeast is actually cheaper than making a starter.

From Fermentis:

rehydration instructions
Sprinkle the yeast in minimum 10 times its weight of sterile water or wort at 27°C ± 3°C (80°F ± 6°F). Leave to rest 15 to 30 minutes.
Gently stir for 30 minutes, and pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel.
Alternatively, pitch the yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20°C (68°F). 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, then mix the
wort using aeration or by wort addition.
 
When I rehydrate it looks like this:
attachment.php


When I *proof* bread yeast with a little sugar or honey it looks like this:
Proofed-yeast-1-of-1.jpg
 
Oh, nonono... in your pic, yours looks like krausen. When I just hydrate the yeast for 30 minutes (no stirring after the initial stirring up of the yeast in the water) it doesn't look like that - that's why I said mine doesn't look like krausen.

If I ever brew again, I'll take pics of what I'm talking about. Maybe.

:)

It had about half as much before & added the DME. It had to be rehydrated first. But the foam was there. A bit thicker looking perhaps...
 
If I ever brew again, I'll take pics of what I'm talking about. Maybe.

:)

uh, what?


OP, just rehydrate per the instructions from the yeast lab next time, and all subsequent times. Though it's usually:

In 30C water equal to 10x the weight of the yeast (i.e. if it's an 11.5g pack, then 115ml of water), sprinkle the yeast on top, making sure to spread around. Let sit for 15 minutes. After that stir gently (key word here is gently, you don't need it sitting on a fast moving stir plate) for 30 minutes. With your already cooled wort, bring the temperature of the yeast down in intervals until it's no more than 5C off from the temperature of the wort.
 
When I rehydrate it looks like this:
attachment.php


When I *proof* bread yeast with a little sugar or honey it looks like this:
Proofed-yeast-1-of-1.jpg

That's exactly my experience!

Rehydrated yeast, done according to recommended instructions, looks "creamy". No krausen or bubbles at all.

Proofed yeast gets "foamy" for me.

I no longer proof my ale yeast, as I did many years ago following John Palmer's advice in How to Brew, because times have changed. But that's how it looked when it was proofed.
 
When i rehydrate dry yeast, i have an rehydration bowl that i use. ( plastic cereal
bowl ... sanitized ) warm water, add yeast, wait 15 minooties, stir, add to wort...
done ... :D
 
Some of the advice in here is ok. I think it's still better than not rehydrating it (though not by much). If you want the most out of your yeast, rehydrate per the instructions of the yeast lab. Don't even listen to me. Don't listen to anybody on here. Follow those instructions only. A quick google search will likely find those for you.

Here are some pictures of the yeast I just rehydrated to pitch into a black IPA (us-05). The bluer looking one was with a flash. I just wanted to put both because it looks like there's a ring around the bottom of the one with no flash, but that's simply the glass and the lighting. Not yeast settled at the bottom. Notice the foam that forms on its own. I think your main problem looks to be not enough water. Either that, or way too big of an area to gently stir it around.

IMG_0115.jpg


IMG_0116.jpg
 
Some of the advice in here is ok. I think it's still better than not rehydrating it (though not by much). If you want the most out of your yeast, rehydrate per the instructions of the yeast lab. Don't even listen to me. Don't listen to anybody on here. Follow those instructions only. A quick google search will likely find those for you.

Here are some pictures of the yeast I just rehydrated to pitch into a black IPA (us-05). The bluer looking one was with a flash. I just wanted to put both because it looks like there's a ring around the bottom of the one with no flash, but that's simply the glass and the lighting. Not yeast settled at the bottom. Notice the foam that forms on its own. I think your main problem looks to be not enough water. Either that, or way too big of an area to gently stir it around.

I think your advice to only follow the manufacturer's directions is excellent, but I think what we've learned here is that some yeast may produce foam when rehydrated under certain conditions and others won't. I know when I rehydrate US-05 according to the manufacturer's instructions on their website, it does not foam, so the absence of bubbles does not necessarily mean Finlandbrews has a problem.
 
I think your advice to only follow the manufacturer's directions is excellent, but I think what we've learned here is that some yeast may produce foam when rehydrated under certain conditions and others won't. I know when I rehydrate US-05 according to the manufacturer's instructions on their website, it does not foam, so the absence of bubbles does not necessarily mean Finlandbrews has a problem.

Great!
 
I think your advice to only follow the manufacturer's directions is excellent, but I think what we've learned here is that some yeast may produce foam when rehydrated under certain conditions and others won't. I know when I rehydrate US-05 according to the manufacturer's instructions on their website, it does not foam, so the absence of bubbles does not necessarily mean Finlandbrews has a problem.


And every time I have rehydrated US-05 according to the manufacturer's instructions, it has foamed.... lol

Maybe the water being used has something to do with it?
 
And every time I have rehydrated US-05 according to the manufacturer's instructions, it has foamed.... lol

Maybe the water being used has something to do with it?

I think that may be a possibility. I was thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that I do my rehydration in a stainless steel saucepan. It's about 7 inches in diameter and the water is shallow. The instructions say to sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water, and let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes, then stir. The large diameter of the pan allows me to do so without piling the yeast too deep, so it all gets wet without any big clumps. Maybe the foaming occurs if it's stirred sooner or when if it's stirred too soon or too vigorously.

http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_US05.pdf
 
I think that may be a possibility. I was thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that I do my rehydration in a stainless steel saucepan. It's about 7 inches in diameter and the water is shallow. The instructions say to sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water, and let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes, then stir. The large diameter of the pan allows me to do so without piling the yeast too deep, so it all gets wet without any big clumps. Maybe the foaming occurs if it's stirred sooner or when if it's stirred too soon or too vigorously.

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

Those are the exact instructions I followed this time to a "T," because normally I'm pretty lax with it. I followed it exactly this time in order to show what it should look like. Stirring according to the time frame and vigor described in that very link. Most of that foam happened on its own during the time that it said to let it sit without stirring. If anything, the gentle stirring helped to knock some of the foam down.

I think you're on to something with the deep vs. shallow though. I've not seen any instructions with recommendations as to the depth of the vessel.
 
Could be the container, I always use a 2 cup glass measuring cup similar to the pictures posted previously, with similar foaming.

It definitely seems though that following the manufacturer's directions is the key, and just because people see foam, does not mean everyone will. Now if you have used that yeast before, using the same water, and the same container, then see something abnormal, then there might be an issue...
 
I actually saw a bit more foam rehydrating in a 2C Pyrex cup versus a bit less in my 1L flask. I use spring water @ about 90F as well in either. You could have something here...
 

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