Starting Dry?

[Sea]

So, I'm new to the yeast starter business, and I have a question:

All of the material i have found (including th Wiki) talks about making starters only with liquid yeast. Does this mean I shouldn't make one with dry yeast? If I should, do I use the same amount of DME as with liquid?

Thanks!

 

[Foreigner]

rehydrate the dry yeast according to instructions on the pack. No starter Some people don't even bother ot rehydrate even

 

[bradsul]

The cell count in dry yeast is so high that starters aren't necessary. As mentioned, I personally don't even bother hydrating them, just pitch.

 

[david_42]

Not that you shouldn't, just that you don't need to. Properly re-hydrated, they will do the job. Even if you just pitch the packet into your wort, they'll work. If you do make one, make it the same way you would for liquid, but re-hydrate it in straight water then combine.

 

[boo boo]

Because of the amount of yeast contained in a dry packet is so much you will need a large starter to do it justice. Say about 3 to 5 gallons worth. Anything less and you aren't increasing the yeast count by much as it is generally accepted that you bump up your starter by 10 times each time you bump and you are starting with such a large amount already.

 

[malkore]

yep, dry = more than enough yeast for a 5gallon batch.

i like to rehydrate since it helps most yeast get going by hydrating the cell walls with a low gravity. always hydrate if you have a high OG, as the yeast can have more lag time because higher gravity makes it harder for them to rehydrate and 'awaken'.

i like to rehydrate because the foam tells me the yeast are still viable.

 

[Got Trub?]

Not only don't need to for the reasons listed above you shouldn't. Dried yeast was propogated in such a way to maximize its ability to reproduce when you pitch it. Using a starter wastes that preparation.

 

[jowens]

If dry is so much easier, why use wet? I was getting all set to do a starter for my next batch because the FG on my last (and first) batch was 1.015 (should have been around 1.009 according to the kit, only change I made use to substitute Muntons pre-hopped DME for corn sugar). LHBS said that if everything was set up correctly, they didn't really know why it didn't finish fermenting. I had read so much about starters on this forum, I figured that was what I did wrong... guess not... hopefully won't get any bottle bombs, bottled about 6 days ago.

Thanks for asking this question, I was making some incorrect assumptions.

So if dry is so much easier and cheaper, why use wet yeast?

 

[bradsul]

If the dry yeast offers the characteristics you desire, there really is no reason to use a liquid yeast. However there are far more strains of liquid yeast available over dry. So if you are looking for something specific chances are you will need to use a liquid yeast.

 

[brewerdave]

To answer your question about liquid yeast, there are many styles of beer that require a certain strain of yeast to give them their unique characteristics, like hefeweizen, belgian wit, trappist styles, etc. Dry yeast is great, and I use it a lot, but as noted, there are certain styles that are only achievable with the use of a liquid yeast strain. I did recently try a new wheat beer dry yeast on a batch of hefeweizen that came out OK, but not as good as it would have if I had used a liquid strain.