Yeast question

[jtrain]

Hello all first time brewer here just a quick question about yeast for my brown ale batch. I made this yesterday from a kit I purchased for A to Z brown ale followed all the directions at the end it told me to just pitch the yeast and then rock the baby seal and let it set a few days before adding the maple syrup. Question is was I supposed to re hydrate the yeast first? The instructions did not mention anything about it and the yeast is safeale-US-05 which is said to be a non re hydrate yeast. Just not sure if this is going to work for my batch or not or if it is just best practice to re hydrate your yeast no matter what. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Also was curious if a pumpkin barley wine would be something that could be brewed. Thank all and happy brewing.

 

[Mozart]

Opinions vary on this one. The few times I've used US-05 I've just sprinkled it atop the wort with good results.

Other brewers like to rehydrate dry yeast.

I don't believe it makes a terribly big difference either way, so I don't think that your brown ale will suffer at all from the lack of rehydrating the yeast.

 

[kontrol]

Your beer will be just fine.

Studies have shown that if you don't re-hydrate dry yeast half the cell will die, which can lead to off flavors, under attenuation etc.

Some people never re-hydrate and say that their beer is perfect. Personally I re-hydrate.

Best practice is to re-hydrate the yeast.

 

[ShaineT]

You'll get some debate here about rehydrating yeast. Supposedly if you don't you lose some small perentage of cells, however IMO most packets account for this loss in their present cell count. So pitching dry should be fine if you "rock" aerate well. Pumpkin Barley Wine sounds really good. Welcome to the forums, btw

 

[flars]

I used SA-05 recently for an Amber Ale. I had aerated the wort in the glass carboy by shaking and swirling. This produced a 4 inch foam layer. 6 hours after sprinkling the dry yeast in I found a mound af rehydrated yeast sitting on top of the foam. I swirled the carboy to drop the yeast. Fermentation began shortly. I will now always rehydrate dry yeast to get it into the wort as fast as possible. Faster fermentation will reduce the possibility of contamination getting a start.
Sprinkling dry yeast over the wort in a bucket may work better than pouring into a carboy since the yeast will be spread over a larger area.

 

[KepowOb]

This is a debate that will never end, because there isn't any definitive answer. Some people swear by rehydrating, others say it's a waste of time. Those who rehydrate will point to studies showing how not doing it will kill off up to 50% of the cells, while those who don't rehydrate will point to other studies which say, if anything, it's best not to bother because there aren't enough cells killed off, and rehydrating opens up more doors for infection.

Both have worked for me, and I haven't really noticed a difference either way. I figure rehydration is recommended for a reason, but I also don't worry about it if I forget to do it. I've pitched US-05 without hydrating it and it was actively fermenting in under 12 hours.

 

[goodsuds]

I've not noticed that my dry yeast (usually prefer US-05) becomes active any faster or is any more vigorous when I rehydrate than when I pitch it dry, but I usually ferment in the low 60's.

The reason I prefer to rehydrate is that I don't have an O2 tank and air stone to oxygenate the wort. You will never achieve more than 8ppm of oxygen in your wort no matter how you aerate it unless you use O2, and yeast prefer at least 10ppm of oxygen. I'd rather pitch as many healthy cells as I can rather than underpitch and underoxygenate. This isn't to spark debate, just explain *why*.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_oxygenation.cfm

 

[jtrain]

Thanks for all the replies checked it a little while ago and the airlock is bobbing up and down so there is some fermentation going on. Going to add the maple syrup in a few days will keep everyone posted how the batch came out in a month or so.

 

[ShaineT]

Thanks for all the replies checked it a little while ago and the airlock is bobbing up and down so there is some fermentation going on. Going to add the maple syrup in a few days will keep everyone posted how the batch came out in a month or so.

Sounds great.