Ok to hydrate yeast the night before?

[unionrdr]

Thanks to everyone that chipped into this thread. I had two helpers show up unexpectedly so it turned out to be no problem to rehydrate the yeast shortly before pitching while others supervised the kettle/burner. Nonetheless I'm sure I'll be brewing alone at some point, so this information will come in handy.

I now have a dark ale from a Coopers kit in the fermenter. OG was 1042. The brew went smoothly except that I forgot to submerge the wort chiller into the boiling wort 15 minutes prior to the hour... so I ended up boiling for an extra 10 minutes. Not quite ideal, but I shrugged and opened a beer...

I hope you didn't boil the pre-hopped Cooper's can?! Never do that,as it messes up the brewed in hop profile.

 

[andy6026]

uh oh. I sure did. I've got two batches in the fermenter that I boiled for an hour from pre-hopped cans (a Muntons Pale Ale and the Cooper's Dark Ale can).

What is likely to happen and what should I have done instead?

 

[BigFloyd]

Have you ever used a yeast starter or know anything about it? I would dare say it is one of the easiest ways to improve your beer substantially.

Wow, and here I was wondering what the heck my stirplate and 2-liter flask were for!

Your first sentence is simply ignorant. Your second sentence is quite true when dealing with liquid yeast, but that's not what we're talking about now, is it?

The cell walls of dry yeast dry are different than the cell walls of liquid yeast. Until rehydrated, their cells walls are fragile and need to be reconstituted. Until that happens, they tend to leach out their insides and die when introduced into the wort. For whatever reason, those cell walls of dry yeast rebuild best and fastest in 95-105* tap water (boiled first, of course).

If you want to argue about it, go debate it with yeast expert Dr. Clayton Cone, a microbiologist and consultant at Lallemand (they make lots of dry yeast).

You should never do a yeast starter with dry yeast. For all the reasons previously stated, even 1.040 wort used for liquid starters will kill a significant amount of cells. When properly hydrated, dry yeast has twice the cell count of liquid yeast and can easily handle anything 1.060 or lower. For any brew higher than that, it is cheaper and more effective to just pitch a 2nd packet of dry yeast.

+1. By doing a starter with dry yeast, you are merely taking a large step backward in cell count (killing a large % of dry cells by tossing them into a typical starter wort) so that you can then work to regain the cell count that you just lost.

 

[fizgig]

uh oh. I sure did. I've got two batches in the fermenter that I boiled for an hour from pre-hopped cans (a Muntons Pale Ale and the Cooper's Dark Ale can).

What is likely to happen and what should I have done instead?

generally you dump them in after the boil and stir. You would have boiled off the flavor compounds from the flavor/aroma hops and made the beer more bitter. You might replace some of that flavor using a hop tea and dry hopping, I'm not super experienced so hopefully someone else will jump in with some better suggestions.

 

[andy6026]

Does that go for the DME as well, or does that get boiled for any amount of time?

 

[unionrdr]

If you're going to use extract in the boil at all,use plain (un-hopped) extract. Be it DME or LME,it doesn't matter. You'll boil off the flavor & aroma hopping in the pre-hopped varieties. That's why,when using Cooper's cans in an AE batch,I us plain DME in the boil. The pre-hopped LME can at flame out. Lighter color,better flavor. I also typically add flavor hops to them, occasionally dry hopped as well. I also have added a small partial mash to a Cooper's can with a pound of DME to make a black pseudo lager. Gotta take a 1st FG sample today.

 

[wilsojos]

Wow, and here I was wondering what the heck my stirplate and 2-liter flask were for!

Your first sentence is simply ignorant. Your second sentence is quite true when dealing with liquid yeast, but that's not what we're talking about now, is it?

Ok, swallowing my pride and apologizing for my ignorance. I only ever do starters with liquid yeast but I thought maybe it would work the same for rehydrated dry yeast. Obviously, I was wrong. Sorry for the smart a$$ comment too

 

[BigFloyd]

Ok, swallowing my pride and apologizing for my ignorance. I only ever do starters with liquid yeast but I thought maybe it would work the same for rehydrated dry yeast. Obviously, I was wrong. Sorry for the smart a$$ comment too

I appreciate this post as well as your kind PM.

Now let us go brew some tasty fermented malt beverages!!!

 

[podz]

You don't want to do the rehydration the night before. The yeast should only be without food for 20-30 minutes, otherwise they begin to starve and begin the process of going back into dormancy.

I know this is an old thread, but I have an experience to add.

I have made 10 x 5 gallon batches of apple cider all using half a packet of Kitzinger Reinhefe Champagner (dry champagne yeast). With 9 batches, I rehydrated for 2-3 hours each time (simply because I'm lazy and just get back to it when I get back to it). All 9 of those batches showed lacing at 12 hours and started building up the krausen after about 24 hours, and all 9 of those batches finished in a week or so and tasted fantastic a day after cold crashing.

So, the 10th batch just got started. I put half a packet of Kitzinger in a glass of water and put a plastic bag around it like I always do. And then I forgot about it until 26 hours later. So, after I had remembered that it was still there then I poured the juice, sugar, and 26 hour rehydrated yeast into my demijohn. This time, I had a full kreusen in 8 hours instead of the usuall 24. I'll let you know how it tastes.

I don't measure the water temperature when I rehydrate my yeast, I just feel it with my elbow and pour in approximately half a packet. I don't even use a sanitized glass to rehydrate in, just one that has come out of my cabinet shelf where the rest of my glasses are. They all get dishwashed regularly enough, having 5 people in the house.

I found half a packet of dry yeast that had been in my fridge for over a month, used that one and it worked just as well as the others. It wasn't sealed or anything, just folded in half.

My point is that, even given my lackadaisical approach, it seems to be exceedingly difficult to screw up a fermentation. Either that, or Kitzinger Reinhefe is a far more hardy strain than most anything else on the market - but I don't really believe that.