yeast starters vs double pitching

[ayoungrad]

I double pitch dry yeast for big beers. Dry yeast is very cheap. And it requires little to no effort to suspend it in sterile water before pitching as opposed to using a starter.

My understanding of dry yeast (based on reading several books, including Briggs, as well as reading various websites (none of which are commerial-owned)) is that they are sold ready to pitch immediately after hydrating. As others have said, this is based on how they are produced, purposefully arresting them at a stage of development so that they are primed for being placed directly in wort. This is proported to give the yeast the advantage of having the entire population primed for multiplying to the correct number of cells for the amount and concentration of wort in which they are pitched.

Having said this, you could definitely do a starter with dry yeast. But you lose the advantage they tried to create for you. And to me, I'd rather spend $4 or $5 for an extra packet of dry yeast than do a starter. But I'm sure you'd get great beer either way.

 

[Yooper]

It works for me works well since,1st of all I got "A's" in the living sciences. 2nd,this isn't rocket science,it's nature. And off flavors more often as not,are produced by high temps,or wide temp variations. Particularly,the fruity esters,various other alcohols,or/dry taste. I experienced thes myself,as I'm sure many of you have. And the average "ale" isn't like a stout or porter. Let alone other high gravity,heavy flavored beers. I seriously doubt that any off flavors will be had from getting the wort to ferment faster than 2 or 3 days. Waiting that long,in my experience,had quite the opposite effect. They say that in many books,articles,etc as well. And just adding dry yeast to water isn't the healthiest thing to do for the yeast. They are also propagating in the starter,so they will produce whatever chemicals they need to be healthy. if it was so bad for them,you'd smell it & see it quite easily. They wouldn't be fruitful & multiply. So this is really quite pointless. It works for so many people,& that's ok,why not me?

I'm glad it works for you. That's awesome.

PS- a stout and a porter ARE ales.

Happy brewing!

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I wanna chime in and ask a dumb question.
I just did 2 double ipas within the past month. One is in the bottle conditioning, the other is in 2dary. The one in the bottle was Pac Man wyeast. We smacked it and threw it in. The other one is Safale 05 . I sprinkled it in the aerated wort like I always do. Both of them ended up 1.089. Both big beers.

If the yeast is not in good health, what happens? Bad beer? Not as good beer? Longer fermentation times? I have never used a starter, but I make a lot of big beers. I did the same thing with my Russian Imperial Stout. Safale 05 pitched straight into the wort foam. All of my big beers turn out better than my mellower beers. I assume its because there is more to mask any off flavors. (big malt bill or big hop bill seems to always cover it)

What happens? You probably still made beer. And also changing the oil in your car every 15,000 miles will still get you to work. The question is, does it still give you the same performance? Probably not. So for maximum performance, you change the oil more often. Same with making beer. For maximum performance you make starters and rehydrate. Thats good brewing practice and one we should promote for all new brewers on here.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm glad it works for you. That's awesome.

PS- a stout and a porter ARE ales.

Happy brewing!

I know they're ales,I was making a point as to their stronger flavors & the like. And by the way,I wasn't trying to pick a fight on the starter/re-hydrate question. I was just stating the facts as I saw them from what I knew/learned up to that point. But I've seen so many instances where those books' writers find that things weren't the way they seemed. Or at least,no absolutely positive evidence to the contrary sort of thing. Anyway,the starter smelled completely normal,no off smells (my 1st batch gave me many of these),so Ill see how it smells,etc when I take an FG Tuesday or so. I'll report on it then,& we'll know I recon...

 

[mike_in_ak]

Does the lack of "recon" mean this failed?

 

[unionrdr]

Holy necro post! I just think we said all there was to be said at the time.
But I will add this. I've since went to re-hydrating,even using multiple packets with higher gravity beers. It works like a big starter,& is quicker. I also found that midwest & NB both caryy the Cooper's ale yeast in 15g packets vs the 7g in the top of the cans. Theirs are fresher too. And they def need a blow off from the start. And I ment recon as in I recon...