Pitching US-05

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schadelh

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On the package of Safale US-05 it says to pitch the yeast straight into the warm wort. No starter, no nothing... just pitch it in, and stir it in a few minutes later. Is this a good idea, or should I pitch the yeast into a starter, and then stir it into the wort?

If I am going to pitch it into a starter first, does anyone have a recommendation for how much water etc to put in the starter for 23g of US-05?
 
You don't need to make a starter for dry yeast. You can rehydrated it with warm water, but with O5, I just pitch it directly into my fermenter. Never had a problem, and I use 05 for 90% of my beers.
 
On the package of Safale US-05 it says to pitch the yeast straight into the warm wort. No starter, no nothing... just pitch it in, and stir it in a few minutes later. Is this a good idea, or should I pitch the yeast into a starter, and then stir it into the wort?

If I am going to pitch it into a starter first, does anyone have a recommendation for how much water etc to put in the starter for 23g of US-05?

When I use S-05 or S-04, I usually boil a couple of cups of water, let cool to 80-100 degrees, then drop the yeast in for 20 minutes or so. I do this mainly because I read that getting them hydrated is a good thing. I mainly use Wyeast activator packs though, so I may just be doing overkill on the dry stuff.
 
Like mentioned above, I usually rehydrate in warm water for 15-20 minutes before pitching, but not always. Sprinkling it directly onto the wort also works fine for most people.
 
As said, you don't need a starter, but you should rehydrate. Not rehydrating dry yeast is the same as not making a starter with liquid. Chances are it will work, but you won't be getting the optimal cell count. A smaller count will result in a longer lag time while the yeast reproduces. This in turn could lead to off flavors.

From Fermentis:
Before dry yeast cells can start fermenting, they need to absorb the water they lost during the drying process. The rehydration step is done in a vessel outside the fermenter. The objective is to reduce the lag phase: the time necessary for yeasts to start fermenting sugars to alcohol after pitching/inoculating the wort. This is done by rehydrating at a higher temperature than the initial fermentation temperature. Yeasts are living organisms and rehydration temperature is critical for good yeast performance. Fermentis recommends that top fermenting/ale yeasts are rehydrated at a temperature between 25-29°C (77-84°F) and that bottom fermenting/lager yeasts are rehydrated at a temperature range between 21-25°C (69-77°F).
They go on to say that you can use either sterile water or sterile wort to rehydrate, so here's what I do. Chill my wort to around 80 degrees and then scoop out about two cups in a sterilized one quart measuring cup. While the main wort continues to chill, add your yeast to the wort sample and gently stir into a creamy slurry. Cover it with sterilized foil and let it sit. When the main wort has reached pitching temperature, whirlpool and let it sit for about 15 minutes then transfer it to your fermenter. Airate the wort and add the slurry of yeast to it. I top off the slurry with chilled wort and stir it to make it easier to pour into the fermenter. Give your fermenter a shake, seal it up, and you're done.

 
From Fermentis:

yes, but they also say this:

Safale US-05 Fact Sheet said:
Alternatively, pitch dry yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20C (68F). 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 and then mix the wort e.g. using aeration.
 
yes, but they also say this: (pitching dry into wort as long as it's above 68°)

I don't generally pitch into wort that's above 68°. I like to cool to fermentation temp directly because all I have is a swamp cooler for maintaining the proper temp.
 
This is 1 1/2 packets of S-04 pitched dry into the bottom of a carboy with the wort poured straight on top, no rehydrating and kept at 65*

[youtube]eX_pJksfZ10[/youtube]​
 
I usually stir the US-05 into a couple of cups of cooled wort, to let it dissolve before dumping into the fermenter.

Seems to work, the Better Bottle trys to explode by the next morning.

I have dumped it dry into a fermenter, I had some liquid yeast that was bad. It worked fine that way, too.
 
You are probably better off rehydrating into water than wort - otherwise you may as well sprinkle directly on the main batch. Re-hydrating in water allows the yeast to gently expand cell walls before going into the more harsh environment of a sugary liquid. Doing this is said to increase the viability of yeast cells when pitched.
 
I work hard at pampering the yeasties, so I re-hydrate in 80 to 90 deg. water with GoFerm. Also, my wort usually winds up with a thick layer of foam at pitching time which tends to cause dry yeast to clump.
 
/thread.

Great video Bobby. I knew you were working on it, but don't think I had seen it until now.

Maybe add as a link in your sig so it can be referenced more easily?

That's a pretty old video and I'm not 100% confident in the experiment. Yes, I still contend that "proper" re hydration starts you off with the most viable yeast cells. Even if dry pitching "has always worked fine", it's silly to knowingly kill a good portion of the colony.
 
I'm still a new brewer, but I've gotten full attenuation from just pitching dry packets straight into the fermentor without re-hydrating first, so far. The beers I've made have tasted great, so I probably won't bother changing what works.
 
Yeah, I'm talking about lower gravity beers. I'd never try pitching a single dry packet into a high gravity beer.
 
Quick question on US05. I tried to watch Bobby's video but it's been blocked by youtube in the US because it contains copy written content. So I completed my second batch of all grain beer. For the first batch, I had several issues pre-fermentation and ended up with a fairly low OG, but I pitched one pack of US05 dry around 70F and the fermentation was extreme. I added a blowoff tube about 2 days in. For the second batch my efficiency was better and my OG was 1.056, I chilled the wort down to about 65 before pitching US05 dry. Afterpitching, the temp of my conical dropped to about 63 in the first 24 hours (which was still in the acceptable fermentation temp range of US05). Fermentation was visually active for about 3 days but not anywhere near what I visually saw with the first batch.

I just read on the US05 pack not to pitch dry below 68F. What happens if you pitch too low? Does fermentation take longer or do cells die at the beginning and you just don't get much fermentation activity at all resulting in a higher FG? If the latter, is the beer trashed at that point or can you heat the beer back to 68 and re-pitch another pack to finish fermentation?

Or is what I am experiencing normal (and the first batch was overly aggressive because of the warmer temp and lower OG)?

Thanks for the help...
 
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