Questions about the Dry Yeast FAQ
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So I used dry yeast for the first time last night and fermentation took off vigorously within minutes but now after 20 hours it looks more like day 10 with the krausen having crashed and barely 3 bubbles a minute. What could cause a crash like this, help I'm skered!
Finlandbrews
Well-Known Member
I am reading the yeast book of BA 4 ingredients series and I was just wondering if maintaining rehydration temperature is important in the 15 minutes time? When the volume of liquid is just 10 cl I believe the drop of temperature occurs very rapidly... How do you ensure the temperature to be kept around 100F?
Also what is the difference between sterile tap water and tap water? Is sterile with chlorine and non sterile without chlorine/chloramine?
Also what is the difference between sterile tap water and tap water? Is sterile with chlorine and non sterile without chlorine/chloramine?
I also wondered about the yeast/water cooling off during the 15 minutes standing, but never found anything that really answered the question. So I tried it both ways - several batches just letting it stand while cooling - and several batches keeping it in a warm water bath to maintain temperature. For me, it didn't make any difference in lag time or attenuation.
As far as being sterile, there are different opinions. I boil then cool the water to be on the safe side. I actually use bottled spring water, but I also boiled it when I used tap water.
Puddlethumper
Well-Known Member
The rehydration instructions for most dry yeasts want to see temps in the mid 80's F at the time you pitch the yeast into the water. The water should probably have been boiled to make sure it is sterile but 5 min. at 150F effectively pasteurizes everything. I prefer to use some of the strike water from my hot liquor tank that, due to the high heat is certainly pasteurized. The main thing here is to make certain the water is sterile but has cooled enough to not kill your yeast.
I will sterilize/pasterurize my beaker, add the appropriate amount of water and allow it to cool to 85-90F. Sprinkle in the dry yeast. Allow it to stand 15 minutes or so. Since I have a stir plate I will then place it on the stirplate and allow it to spin slowly for another 15-30 minutes. If you don't have a stirplate you can swirl the yeast occasionally for that period.
When your wort has cooled to pitching temperature add the yeast. Give it a stir or a swirl and off to the fermentation chamber.
The key points here are:
- Rehydrate your yeast at the temperatures recommended by the manufacturer
- Pitch your yeast within 10F of the wort temperature
- It is always better to pitch the yeast and wort a little cooler than fermentation temperature and allow it to rise. Too warm and you risk off-flavors from diacetyl
I use dry yeast a lot and enjoy the convenience and effectiveness of these products. The strains available are, admittedly limited, but dry yeasts do provide the ability to make a wide range of excellent beers without the expense and hassle of dealing with liquid.
Most community water systems contain some amount of chlorine. Chlorine will ruin your beer. But chlorine can be boiled off.
Chloromines will also ruin your beer but they cannot be boiled off. (Bitter experience speaking here.) You can contact your local water department to determine if chloromines are present in your water. You can also add camden tablets to your water which will neutralize chloromines.
I prefer to test my water. https://producers.wardlab.com/brewerskitorder.php But that's what works for me.
Cheers!
Zymomancer
Well-Known Member
I didn't know the best place to share this little bit of data, hopefully it won't get buried here:
An opened packet of dry yeast, properly preserved, will probably be good 6 months later.
6 months ago I opened up a packet of Lalvin 71B-1122 for a 1-gallon batch of wine. About a month later I used it for a melomel, but after that I just folded up the packet very tightly (pushing out as much air as possible and keeping it as sealed as possible) and put it in a ziploc bag in the fridge, also with as much air pushed out as possible.
I just pitched the rest of it (~ 1/2 tsp) directly into a 1-gallon batch of strawberry wine (with 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient), and was a bit worried because it didn't give off the yeasty aroma a fresh pack does. However, less than 24 hours later it's developing a krausen, more or less as quickly as brand new yeast. It's usually suggested you use dry yeast only a few weeks after it's opened, but it turns out at least in this case it wasn't really an issue using it 6 months later! If I were thinking, I would have rehydrated it first, but I've never actually bothered to do that after about a year of brewing.
Dry yeast is cheap so getting a new packet wouldn't have been an issue but I just thought I'd try it out anyways.
An opened packet of dry yeast, properly preserved, will probably be good 6 months later.
6 months ago I opened up a packet of Lalvin 71B-1122 for a 1-gallon batch of wine. About a month later I used it for a melomel, but after that I just folded up the packet very tightly (pushing out as much air as possible and keeping it as sealed as possible) and put it in a ziploc bag in the fridge, also with as much air pushed out as possible.
I just pitched the rest of it (~ 1/2 tsp) directly into a 1-gallon batch of strawberry wine (with 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient), and was a bit worried because it didn't give off the yeasty aroma a fresh pack does. However, less than 24 hours later it's developing a krausen, more or less as quickly as brand new yeast. It's usually suggested you use dry yeast only a few weeks after it's opened, but it turns out at least in this case it wasn't really an issue using it 6 months later! If I were thinking, I would have rehydrated it first, but I've never actually bothered to do that after about a year of brewing.
Dry yeast is cheap so getting a new packet wouldn't have been an issue but I just thought I'd try it out anyways.
orangehero
Well-Known Member
Wine yeast ≠ brewer's yeast
Hi all.
Got a question here on using Fermentis S-33.
Yeaserday i pitched my Witbier with S-33, which i washed some time ago and stored in my frige. This is 2nd generation and i already used one jar of it a week ago to pitch another batch of Wit.
So the question which i wanted to ask...
Previous fermentations had almost no krausen, but bubbled and fermented normaly. Even with 2nd gen yeast i used last week. But not this time. It has big bubbles on the surface of green-yellow colour. More likely it's hops, but i'm not sure. The smell is ok, bready, yeasty. I can also smell some amount of plastic i guess (phenolyc?). Temps and other conditions are same as in previous batches, the only thing i aerated wort better this time before pitching.
What could it be? Normal vigorous fermentation, or maybe contamination?
Photo of carboy is here
Got a question here on using Fermentis S-33.
Yeaserday i pitched my Witbier with S-33, which i washed some time ago and stored in my frige. This is 2nd generation and i already used one jar of it a week ago to pitch another batch of Wit.
So the question which i wanted to ask...
Previous fermentations had almost no krausen, but bubbled and fermented normaly. Even with 2nd gen yeast i used last week. But not this time. It has big bubbles on the surface of green-yellow colour. More likely it's hops, but i'm not sure. The smell is ok, bready, yeasty. I can also smell some amount of plastic i guess (phenolyc?). Temps and other conditions are same as in previous batches, the only thing i aerated wort better this time before pitching.
What could it be? Normal vigorous fermentation, or maybe contamination?
Photo of carboy is here
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