12 replies to this topic

[chadm75]

For those of you that use dry yeast, do you add it as your filling your fermenter or sprinkle it on top?  Package says to sprinkle on top but yesterday I added US05 as it being pumped into my primary.  

 

Any foreseeable issues with this method?

Edited by chadm75, 08 December 2013 - 08:39 AM.

[ncbeerbrewer]

I have a beer that is finishing up fermentation and I pitched US-05 sprinkled into the wort.  I had to wait till I got my wort down to temp after transferring to primary before I could add in my yeast.  I would say as long as your wort was in the US-05 fermentation temperature range you will be just fine.  It took mine about 24 hours before fermentation really kicked in.  

Edited by ncbeerbrewer, 08 December 2013 - 09:06 AM.

[chadm75]

Thanks for the reassurance.  I've always just sprinkled the wort on top once my worth as come down to pitching temp.  Since the ground water is cold now, my Therminator took my boiling wort down to 63 deg in about 7 mins (that thing makes my brew day about 45 mins shorter) so I was sprinkling the yeast in as it was going into the fermenter.  This was about 5PM yesterday and it's just now starting to show some signs of fermentation.

 

One of the reasons I love pitching good, healthy liquid yeast…fermentation is going within 6-8 hours.  Oye.

[StankDelicious]

I always rehydrate before pitching.

[MakeMeHoppy]

I always rehydrate before pitching.

same here and like the others I like to wait until the carboy is filled and I make sure the wort is in pitching temps.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I don't use much dry yeast, but every time I've just tried sprinkling the yeast on top the beer has come out under attenuated. The couple times I rehydrated the yeast, the beer came out fine. This seems to be along the lines of the recommended usage for dry yeast.

[chadm75]

I've never had any attenuation issues using dry. My concern is it takes 24+ hours for fermentation to start. From everything I've read, rehydrating is a yeast starter for dry yeast so maybe that would get it going quicker?

[SchwanzBrewer]

I've never had any attenuation issues using dry. My concern is it takes 24+ hours for fermentation to start. From everything I've read, rehydrating is a yeast starter for dry yeast so maybe that would get it going quicker?

 

A longer lag time means more growth usually. You don't want instant starts and you don't want super long starts. You want goldilocks starts, which means you want the yeast to be just right (healthiest they can be) for fermentation which might be on their own schedule. Temperature and overall yeast health has a lot to do with that.

 

Echo chamber and evidence suggests that half your dry yeast dies when you don't rehydrate it. This is because of the osmotic pressure on the cell walls from the higher gravity (than water) wort. It bursts the cells and they die. The remaining yeast have to use up the available oxygen and nutrients to multiply and get to the point that anaerobic fermentation can take place. That's your lag. The dry yeast may not be that healthy to start off with, of the remaining that didn't die, some will be damaged, and that usually isn't good for attenuation, flavor, or lag time. 

 

I know it's easy to just throw the yeast in the beer, but it's not that hard to rehydrate.

 

So - don't worry too much about lag time. The yeast will do their things depending on conditions. Your job is to give them optimal conditions and health. 

[HVB]

I've never had any attenuation issues using dry. My concern is it takes 24+ hours for fermentation to start. From everything I've read, rehydrating is a yeast starter for dry yeast so maybe that would get it going quicker?

I have never had dry take more than 12 hours to show positive pressure, and that includes just dumping the pack in.

[chadm75]

A longer lag time means more growth usually. You don't want instant starts and you don't want super long starts. You want goldilocks starts, which means you want the yeast to be just right (healthiest they can be) for fermentation which might be on their own schedule. Temperature and overall yeast health has a lot to do with that.Echo chamber and evidence suggests that half your dry yeast dies when you don't rehydrate it. This is because of the osmotic pressure on the cell walls from the higher gravity (than water) wort. It bursts the cells and they die. The remaining yeast have to use up the available oxygen and nutrients to multiply and get to the point that anaerobic fermentation can take place. That's your lag. The dry yeast may not be that healthy to start off with, of the remaining that didn't die, some will be damaged, and that usually isn't good for attenuation, flavor, or lag time. I know it's easy to just throw the yeast in the beer, but it's not that hard to rehydrate.So - don't worry too much about lag time. The yeast will do their things depending on conditions. Your job is to give them optimal conditions and health.

Very informative....thanks Rich! I will rehydrate next time and note my experiences here.

I have never had dry take more than 12 hours to show positive pressure, and that includes just dumping the pack in.

I ferment in Better Bottles so I was able to see action in the wort after about 12 hours. But it was 24 hours before there was good krausen and Co2 off the blow off tube.

Edited by chadm75, 09 December 2013 - 12:04 PM.

[HVB]

I ferment in Better Bottles so I was able to see action in the wort after about 12 hours. But it was 24 hours before there was good krausen and Co2 off the blow off tube.

I guess I am lucky.  I typically have active fermentation with dry yeast faster than I do when I use liquid and a starter.  I also ferment in a BB or glass carboy so I can see what is going on in there.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Very informative....thanks Rich! I will rehydrate next time and note my experiences here.I ferment in Better Bottles so I was able to see action in the wort after about 12 hours. But it was 24 hours before there was good krausen and Co2 off the blow off tube.

This is my experience with rehydrated US-05. After about 12 hours if I shake the carboy I'll see bubbles by about 24 hours after pitch it's vigorously fermenting.  The only times I've seen quick krausen (less than 8 hours) is when I pitch an entire yeast cake from a just kegged batch.

[ncbeerbrewer]

I just checked gravity and FG came in at 1.010 with a direct pitch into my wort 6 days ago. SG was 1.044 and fermentation temp held at 67 degrees. My lag was 24 hrs for krausen and fully active fermentation. I am going to brew again on Wed an IPA or Java Porter and I am repitching this yeast slurry. For a first pitch my lag is about on par with my liquid yeast ferments.