Should I Re-hydrate Dried Yeast?

[Benn]

Don't know what happens at brew clubs, I'm too far away from the action to be involved in one. I've kind of got my own one going but it's just me and mum & dad and they hate my beer so it's a pretty shit time when club night rolls around.

 

[danestead]

Some people like to hate brulosophy, however Im pretty sure he did a dry vs rehydrated experiment for those interested.

 

[danestead]

http://brulosophy.com/2014/09/15/sprinkled-vs-rehydrated-dry-yeast-exbeeriment-results/

There it is.

 

[Wall]

Maybe something else to consider is the situation you're brewing in.
If I'm aiming to pitch with dry yeast then rehydrate, when wort is almost ready so I can keep an eye on the clock, treat with kid gloves etc etc.

If I'm brewing a high grav beer, however, I'll often take the second runnings and do another batch with it if it's still early enough in the day, if there's a free fermenter, how lazy I feel and all the other million things to consider.
The first batch gets the starter I've prepped.

Then I grab a dry yeast from the fridge and pitch onto the wort last thing before I clean my kettle.

At that point the optimum pitch is dry yeast tipped onto wort.
Could be a lot better to treat the yeast with a little respect but I've never been bowled over by how bad the beer turned out.

Off track a little I know and I apologise but I kind of feel that dry yeast has a pretty important role in brewing where convenience can out weigh the perfect scenario.

Guess what I'm saying is let's not go putting dry yeast in a bad light with this. It's good stuff.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I cant be fucked reading all the ramblings so im just going to pipe up with something i heard a septic say.

Rehydrate dry yeast isnt the question you need to ask.
The question is how many soldiers do i need to make my beautiful maltose into the best tasting beer it can be.

Yes yes the style and attenuatuon matter as well although something very overlooked by many is numbers.

Were scared of pitching to low....

If you dont use liquid and dont ise starters with liquid then no problem.

If using dry with 1.040 wort or lower then big problem.

Yeast will strip aroma out of hops and flavour out of malt.

Piont is should you rehydrate yeast. **** YES! But depending on the gravity and type of beer or what esters you want you may only want to pitch half of that healthy hydrated yeast.

OR you could just chuck it in dry....it still works ay. Saves heaps of time. (Sarcasm)

 

[MHB]

Looking at the data in two of the "studies" above there is a lot of room for concern
The one with the pretty graph (bkyeast.files) shows rehydrating in water at ~18oC giving something like 25% viability
The other shows (Dry Yeast Viability) 79%
Now in any experiment I would expect some variation but 316%?

I suppose that on the world wide wobbly you can find very convincing data to support any opinion you have. If you want a sensible answer do some very critical reading because there is a seriously large amount of BS out there that needs filtering!
Mark

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

http://brulosophy.com/2014/09/15/sprinkled-vs-rehydrated-dry-yeast-exbeeriment-results/

There it is.

Interesting reading

Will I continue to rehydrate dry yeast before pitching? Yeah, I think so, despite the fact less than half of the experienced beer drinkers (BJCP judges and Cicerone beer servers included) who participated in the triangle test were unable to accurately choose the beer that was different. Do I think sprinkling dry yeast directly onto wort is poor practice? Not anymore! Some people even seem to prefer whatever character they detected from the beer fermented in this manner. I do believe, though, that with higher OG comes increased risk of yeast off-flavor and that the insurance provided by rehydration may be of benefit. Or maybe not, who knows… I smell another exBEERiment in the works!

 

[tavas]

Why is it so hard for people to just try stuff instead of asking for 1000 opinions? How much does a pack of dry yeast cost? $5? Split batch, rehydrate into 1, dry pitch in the other. See what works for you.

If people are really worried about 50% vitality then pitch 2 packs.

 

[GalBrew]

And so concludes another epic debate. Truly one for the ages. I guess we can start up again in another couple of months when the next noob starts a new thread rather than use the search function and trawl through the other 500 of these.........

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Why is it so hard for people to just try stuff instead of asking for 1000 opinions?

....um....well.........because this is the internet...?

 

[danestead]

And so concludes another epic debate. Truly one for the ages. I guess we can start up again in another couple of months when the next noob starts a new thread rather than use the search function and trawl through the other 500 of these.........

Hey, who said we're done?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well.... we are getting good at re-hydrading old topics..


Not sure how viable it is but....

 

[Seaquebrew]

I'm not sure if this is meant to be a joke or not, however if it is, it's probably not really welcomed as it will only confuse a new home brewer.

I'm just glad I stopped misleading new brewers, otherwise this could have become a real confusing shit fight

Cheers

 

[Goose]

Well.... we are getting good at re-hydrading old topics..


Not sure how viable it is but....

You love it

 

[Goose]

I'm just glad I stopped misleading new brewers, otherwise this could have become a real confusing shit fight

Cheers

It is no shit fight, its a matter of choice.

If I may quote a post that I liked from a contributor here :

The biggest problem I have is with the notion that a variable can be considered in isolation. Take the idea that you can mash for 30 minutes, you can but that will change the nature of your wort, Beer is a natural process that almost wants to happen so that one change may not have a big impact. Do a 30 minute boil again in isolation it might not have a big impact on a well mashed wort.
BUT - do both together and the "Minor" changes accumulate, the beer will be noticeably different - the old how many corners can you cut off a square before it looks more like a circle.
Same applies to every step in the brewing process, they are all interdependent the finished beer is the culmination of all the ingredients and processes used during its production. Or as I have said before - everything you do ends up in the glass.

of course you can make great beer by not rehydrating dried yeast, but it seems to me that if you don't then it is another corner that is cut and how many you decide to cut is up to you.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It is no shit fight, its a matter of choice.

If I may quote a post that I liked from a contributor here :


of course you can make great beer by not rehydrating dried yeast, but it seems to me that if you don't then it is another corner that is cut and how many you decide to cut is up to you.

Its not cutting corners of it makes no difference at the end of the day.

Its just a matter of which 2 methods you want to use

 

[Matplat]

Everyone loves to hate this topic.... but you can't deny it get's everyone going every time!

3 and a half pages in 2 days,

 

[kaiserben]

Sprinkling: 60% of the time, it works every time.

 

[danestead]

Sprinkling: 60% of the time, it works every time.

Sprinkling: 60% of the time it kills the yeast every time!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Sprinkling: 60% of the time it kills the yeast every time!

um.... no...well maybe some of the yeast some of the time, not all the yeast 60% of the time