Yeast fuel tablets or nutrients vs starters

[jalc6927]

I'm about confused on yeast, do the yeast fuel tablets or nutrient added to boiling wort accomplish they same thing as doing a starter?

I've been using dry yeast since I buy my stuff online and liquid yeast gets too hot during shipping

Also, is one packet of dry yeast usually enough for a typical 5 gallon batch of brew with OG generally at 1.060 or below?

Been reading that about 1/2 of dry is dead already?

I've not had any beer that didn't ferment, though I do get haziness in it, even with Whirlock added at 15

When I did partials didn't have this issue, happens with AG brews

Thanks

 

[bleme]

Yeast nutrients are not the same as doing a starter, but they do have a similar goal: happy, healthy yeast produce less off flavors and are more likely to get to FG before they give up. Yeast starters do this by getting enough active yeast in there at the beginning that they can wipe out any competition. Yeast nutrients help because no matter how big a starter you pitch, the yeast are still going to reproduce. Without enough nutrients, more of those new yeast will be deformed in some way.

One packet of dry yeast is usually plenty to ferment a 1.060 brew as long as you give them enough nutrient and oxygen. As far as 1/2 of dry being dead already, I don't think that is true. However, in their dry state, yeast can't control what passes through their cell walls and all the sugar in the wort is actually toxic to them so if you sprinkle dry yeast of 1.060 wort, up to half of them will die in those first hours. We rehydrate dry yeast in plain water to avoid that. After 30 minutes in plain water, they will be ready to process the sugar at a controlled rate.

 

[cubalz]

They are different. The main reasons to make a starter is to increase yeast cell count which is especially useful for worts with an OG over 1.053 in ales or with any gravity of lagers. The other is to verify yeast viability.