I’ve pitched dry yeast S-04 in two 5 gallon batches and T-58 in a third, and I got raging fermentation within a few hours, definitely much less than 8 hours. Much faster than the Wyeast smack packs which have usually taken 12-24 hours to kick off.
So I’m with Denny on this one. I didn’t want to risk infection from boiling, rehydrating, stirring, etc. Lesaffre (manf) says you can pitch dry, or rehydrated, so not sure why I’d be qualified to second-guess them.
That makes at least two posts referencing concern here about lag times and the comparison between lag times for pitching straight dry VS rehydrated. Some lag time before you see airlock activity is desirable. Believe it or not, the yeast are actually doing something during this time. They’re making flavor compounds for your beer. A beer with a 2 hour lag time is not what I’m after. I’d rather have an 8 hour lag time than a 2 or 3 hour one.
Additionally the rehydration and better care of the yeast before pitching will contribute to a better finished fermentation and resulting beer, not necessarily a quicker start or faster fermentation.
And for the record, I’ve rehydrated probably 20+ packets of yeast including a couple of T-58 and not a single contamination from the procedure. I boil tap water in a carefully cleaned, 2cup pyrex vessel in the microwave for ten minutes, cover it with foil, and immerse in an ice bath to cool it. I check the temp with a sanitized, digital thermometer probe. When the water is at the right temp, I pull the pyrex from the ice bath and rehydrate the yeast according to the instructions. The pyrex cup I use is dedicated for this purpose and is free from scratches, nicks, dried food debris, and areas of contamination typical of kitchen use. Actually it’s so pristine that I’ve had issues with the water suddenly bursting to boil and making a huge mess inside the microwave a few times. No sites for bubbles to form on the bottom of the glass creates this problem.
FWIW my last pale and and wheat were fermented with dry yeast added straight to the fermenter. Neither beer tastes all that great to me and the wheat in particular has some funny fermentation flavors. There’s a lot more hops in the pale ale so tasting flaws is more difficult with that one.
For those of you who sprinkle; do you then stir or agitate, or do you just sprinkle and let it go? I’ve always rehydrated, but I think I may try a few sprinkle batches.
[quote=“CliffordBrewing”]For those of you who sprinkle; do you then stir or agitate, or do you just sprinkle and let it go? I’ve always rehydrated, but I think I may try a few sprinkle batches.[/quote]I sprinkle mine in while filling the fermenters and then afterwards, I use a drill and a MixStir to whip it up, mix it in and aerate it.
I’m thinking the satisfactory results people are getting with dry instead of rehydrated are due to the relatively low stress worts and fermentation conditions for the the strain of yeast. While it might be less than ideal pitch rates, the yeast is still able to do the job and clean up after itself as long as you leave it long enough in proper conditions and check FG. I still wouldn’t pitch double dry because you’re going to kill 50% or so, and adding more dead yeast to the fermentation is going to contribute more off flavors than under pitching IMO.
In particular, I think S05 is clean enough and sufficiently high enough attenuation that it’s able to muscle through a 1045 to 1055 wort without much problem when sprinkled dry right into the wort.
If you were fermenting say a 1090 or 1100 OG barley wine or RIS at maybe 60 degrees, I suspect pitching dry would not give such acceptable results like those experienced by brewers using it for more medium gravity worts.
I can’t say from personal experience. My biggest beers are around 1070 typically. I don’t brew them often and I rehydrate so…
[quote=“PortageMIBrewer”]I’m thinking the satisfactory results people are getting with dry instead of rehydrated are due to the relatively low stress worts and fermentation conditions for the the strain of yeast. While it might be less than ideal pitch rates, the yeast is still able to do the job and clean up after itself as long as you leave it long enough in proper conditions and check FG. I still wouldn’t pitch double dry because you’re going to kill 50% or so, and adding more dead yeast to the fermentation is going to contribute more off flavors than under pitching IMO.
In particular, I think S05 is clean enough and sufficiently high enough attenuation that it’s able to muscle through a 1045 to 1055 wort without much problem when sprinkled dry right into the wort.
If you were fermenting say a 1090 or 1100 OG barley wine or RIS at maybe 60 degrees, I suspect pitching dry would not give such acceptable results like those experienced by brewers using it for more medium gravity worts.
I can’t say from personal experience. My biggest beers are around 1070 typically. I don’t brew them often and I rehydrate so…[/quote]
Good theory, but I use dry pitched 05 in beers in the 1.070-80 range. Even a couple times in a 1.085 BVIP. No problems.
[quote=“Denny”]Good theory, but I use dry pitched 05 in beers in the 1.070-80 range. Even a couple times in a 1.085 BVIP. No problems.[/quote]Me too although I pitch 1.5 packets per 5 gallons when doing BVIP.
Being a serial yeast abuser, I only use 1.
Hey Denny, the high osmotic pressure outside the cell will keep them from expanding as fast or as completely, like little raisins. They won’t burst but they supposedly don’t function properly. And like you I don’t rehydrate and have never had problems. I do rehydrate wine yeasts and use the nutrient for those. there you’re going into a really high gravity situation though, closer to 1.100.
Also, some dry yeasts already contain nutrients so I don’t know that you need to use the rehydrating nutrient wth these. Its very important not to leave yeat in the water too long (20min) or they will burst from the low osmotic pressure. Also you don’t want to use distilled water just because its the ultimate in osmotic shock. And finally, you want to acclimate the yeast to the wort temp slowly, by adding a little of the cooled wort to the warm water. Otherwise you risk thermal shock.
FWIW, in my most recent brew, a 1.090 RIS, i pitched two packets of S05 dry at 60F. largest ‘dry pitch’ to date. fermentation took off within 12 hours and it was struggle to keep the temperature down in my swamp cooler
I dry pitched US-05 on Chinook IPA a few weeks back and got ~75% attenuation. Just drank the first one from the batch last night, and under the hops it tasted clean and dry…in fact, I didn’t really know what “clean and dry” truly meant until last night 
.
If you do rehydrate, remember to let the water cool before throwing in the yeast! I killed a whole packet of 04 because I forgot to do that.
[edit]Ooops, this is way late…my bad.
