Water/Yeast Addition

[MSUCatBrewer]

Hi All,

BRAND NEW to this, and super excited. I've wanted to get into home brewing for years but as a broke college kid/grad student/new job recipient/newly wed, I haven't had the time or the $$...until now.

I brewed my first batch on Saturday. Loved it so much, I did another yesterday. I'm curious to see how they turn out. The Saturday batch may be screwed because...

1) It was my first batch
2) I couldn't get my auto-siphon to work consistently (the problem has been fixed), so I had to pump the beer from the boil kettle into the fermenter; I'm afraid I may have introduced too much oxygen. Does anybody have thoughts on this?...

The 2nd part of my question is this: I am using Brewers Best kits for the moment while I get my feet wet. The instructions recommend the following steps (in order)...

1) Add enough clean water to bring the wort up to 5 gallons
2) Siphon wort into fermenter (stir water into wort thoroughly)
3) Sprinkle dry yeast on top of wort and stir yeast into wort thoroughly

This is fine when using a bucket (large opening = easy stirring). However, on a glass carboy with a narrow opening, stirring is difficult. On my batch last night, I used a carboy, followed the directions, and found that stirring the water and yeast in the carboy was difficult (I resorted to picking up the full carboy and sloshing it around). There was no yeast on the top when I was done, so I think it got fully incorporated.

This is a long way to ask...CAN I JUST ADD THE YEAST AND WATER BEFORE I SIPHON INTO THE CARBOY?? It would make life a lot easier, but will that screw anything up?

I'd sure appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

 

[Bradlo]

You want to aerate (introduce oxygen) your wort at this point so the yeast will grow and reproduce.

Many people here rehydrate yeast before pitching it into the wort. Just add it to a cup or so of room temp water a few minutes before.

Normally, I will pour the wort through a funnel into the carboy and then top up, pitch yeast and aerate. No need to siphon at this point, really.

Congrats!! you're a home brewer now.

 

[MSUCatBrewer]

Thanks! Side note, I have a lot of family in Pensacola. Great area!

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

+1 on adding O2 to your wort. Add as much as you want. As for the yeast, rehydration is best but even if you just sprinkle dry yeast on top and don't stir, you will still be fine. I almost always rehydrate but on the few times I just sprinkled dry there was no difference in the finished beer.