Might give up on homebrew :(

[DreBourbon]

Thanks man

 

[mongoose33]

I'm going to have to test this myself at some point; I'd rather do a side-by-side comparison with the same wort, but I'm unsure if I can pull that off given my equipment. I have two fermentors, thought about doing two batches, splitting each into the fermentors so the wort would be the same in each and then sprinkle dry or rehydrated yeast into each. I wish I had a boil kettle and mash tun big enough for a 10-gallon batch.

If rehydrated yeast gives me a better shot at better-tasting beer, it's worth a trial.

I think you're over thinking this. If you just did one batch and split it truly in 2 and then split a package of yeast in 2 and went from there you wouldn't need to have 10 gallons.

Here's a little update. Yesterday I brewed a what is now standard recipe for me, an ESB.

I used S-04 and rehydrated it before pitching. It took off faster than usual (I had a bubbling airlock within 8 hours), and this afternoon it is pushing out CO2 faster than I've ever seen before--it's continuous bubbles with no interval between them to speak of.

High Krausen within 24 hours. I can't say it is a completely honest test of just rehydration--I also added some yeast nutrient, did first wort hopping for the first time, and dumped all the boil product into the fermenter, trub and all.

But it's a good recipe, came out exactly the same OG as before, and the yeast has taken off like a rocket.

Anxious to see how it comes out, and I cannot imagine that rehydrating made it worse. I'm sure it's as good or better.