How to transform good wort into shit beer. Rehydrate pitch dried yeast

[Coodgee]

It might be that the lag time that is generally experienced with a dry yeast may be enough time for an infection to set in, whereas when you are making a big starter the lag time is very small so the yeast immediately dominates. you might have an underlying sanitation issue. what sort of sanitiser are you using?

 

[Nizmoose]

I'm leaning more toward infections rather than underpitching. I say this because I'd say Leffe is known more for its phenolic character rather than esters. Phenols can come from wild yeast etc. So, if the beers are Leffe-like, then phenolics (possibly infection) are the problem.

Of course if it really is esters, rather than phenols, then underpitching is a likely suspect.

Happy brewing.

Surely infection and underpitching may possibly be one and the same thing, rather a cause (underpitching) and effect (infection, be it mild or severe)

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Surely infection and underpitching may possibly be one and the same thing, rather a cause (underpitching) and effect (infection, be it mild or severe)

Ahh...No

You can underpitch and not have an infection

The two are most definitely not one and the same. You could throw a ton of yeast at a ferment and if it has an underlying infection the yeast wont make any difference to the beer becoming infected

 

[TheWiggman]

I unfortunately share rockeye84's bad luck in that every time I've had an infection in the fermenter (twice) I've used rehydrated dry yeast. I've only used US-05 once and that was one of the brews. I have however had luck with rehydrated yeast and can't report of the phase of the moon, alignment between Jupiter and Saturn nor operational status of HAARP at the time.

 

[Ross]

Absolutely nothing wrong with dried yeast, definitely sounds like a process problem & most likely contamination. Can probably sort it over a phone call, so feel free to give me a call at CraftBrewer on 07 3823 5252

Cheers Ross

 

[danestead]

I unfortunately share rockeye84's bad luck in that every time I've had an infection in the fermenter (twice) I've used rehydrated dry yeast. I've only used US-05 once and that was one of the brews. I have however had luck with rehydrated yeast and can't report of the phase of the moon, alignment between Jupiter and Saturn nor operational status of HAARP at the time.

You had an infection with rehydrated yeast and also had luck with rehydrated yeast? Was 1 of them meant to be not hydrated?

 

[rockeye84]

Use pink Neo, plus starsan round the rim of the fermenter whilst draining the kettle, go reasonably hard with it. Both brews had the yeast rehydrated & and pitched in the same fashion. Must have been something lurking in my fermenter. Can starsan go bad sitting round in a spray bottle between brews?

 

[Rocker1986]

Yes, another satisfied US-05 user here too, never had any issues with it. These days I make starters with the fresh packs (more due to my harvesting and re-using method than anything else), but I have simply re-hydrated and pitched into the wort, or before that, pitched it dry into the wort, and all batches turned out fine.

I would be looking at other factors than the yeast itself. You say the smaller batch with 1.5 packs turned out quite well with no problems? Maybe the bigger batch was underpitched.

 

[TheWiggman]

Nah, meant to hydrate both because

Spoiler

rehydrating is the recommended method by yeast manufacturers, scientists and professional brewers alike

 

[bradsbrew]

Use pink Neo, plus starsan round the rim of the fermenter whilst draining the kettle, go reasonably hard with it. Both brews had the yeast rehydrated & and pitched in the same fashion. Must have been something lurking in my fermenter. Can starsan go bad sitting round in a spray bottle between brews?

Isn't pink neo Trisodium phosphate and chlorine plus your not rinsing it?. Perhaps the esters you getting are actually phenols and chloramines?

 

[rockeye84]

Nah, rinse probably 3-4 times or until I can't smell the chorine smell.

 

[danestead]

Use pink Neo, plus starsan round the rim of the fermenter whilst draining the kettle, go reasonably hard with it. Both brews had the yeast rehydrated & and pitched in the same fashion. Must have been something lurking in my fermenter. Can starsan go bad sitting round in a spray bottle between brews?

Yes, starsan is only effective if it's PH is less than I believe 3.5. Its PH will rise over time, especially if you have mixed it with untreated tap water. As a personal rule of thumb, I don't use any starsan on brew day if it hasn't been mixed that day.

 

[bradsbrew]

Ok. I read it as you were spraying it with starsan and pink neo as it was transferring.

 

[rockeye84]

Nah jus a small amount of starsan ends up in the wort. No pink Neo in wort. Will be making fresh starsan on brew day from now on.

 

[danestead]

Nah, meant to hydrate both because

Spoiler

rehydrating is the recommended method by yeast manufacturers, scientists and professional brewers alike

Still confused by your post.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Nah, meant to hydrate both because

Spoiler

rehydrating is the recommended method by yeast manufacturers, scientists and professional brewers alike

Excpet for those manufactures, scientists and pro brewers that say its Ok not to re-hydrate dry yeast

 

[Nizmoose]

Ahh...No

You can underpitch and not have an infection

The two are most definitely not one and the same. You could throw a ton of yeast at a ferment and if it has an underlying infection the yeast wont make any difference to the beer becoming infected

Sorry stu I certainly didn't mean they were the same thing and completely agree with you, more that one can potentially be the product of the other obviously a well sanitised underpitched wort will likely be fine, and similarly an over pitched not well sanitised wort may also be relatively fine. But there's no doubt that pitching correctly goes some way to inhibiting potential bug related off flavours

 

[CmdrRyekr]

Excpet for those manufactures, scientists and pro brewers that say its Ok not to re-hydrate dry yeast

Sources?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Sources?

The internet

........and some yeast manufacturers packaging ( as I am lead to believe )

 

[Adr_0]

I unfortunately share rockeye84's bad luck in that every time I've had an infection in the fermenter (twice) I've used rehydrated dry yeast. I've only used US-05 once and that was one of the brews. I have however had luck with rehydrated yeast and can't report of the phase of the moon, alignment between Jupiter and Saturn nor operational status of HAARP at the time.

The moon should also be at its apogee when pitching. Surely you know how critical this is?

Excpet for those manufactures, scientists and pro brewers that say its Ok not to re-hydrate dry yeast

I think we should start a thread that discusses this. I would expect it would get to about 680 pages...

Meanwhile rokeye, my system is to soak the fermenter with sodium percarbonate overnight (after pulling the previous beer out) and put about 5-10L of starsan solution in with hoses, grommets, etc., make sure air is out of everything and shake and sit a couple of times, drain through the tap and try to get rid of a bit of the foam. Seems to have worked so far... will not save you from chlorophenols though.