Yeast - Are You A Stirrer Or A Sprinkler?

[Bada Bing Brewery]

When I use dry yeast, I follow manufacturers instructions. If it says sprinkle on top thats what I do.

:icon_offtopic: That's just un-Australian on two levels. 1 - you actually read the instuctions. 2 - you actually follow them. I suppose you do that with flat pack furniture as well ....

I thow it in and shake the shit out of it.
Cheers
BBB

 

[mje1980]

Yeah, but which leg do you hold in the air?, that's surely the most important thing. Left leg in the air encourages more esters, and the right leg in the air while pitching encourages a drier, cleaner beer. I read it on wiki

 

[thylacine]

URL below is PDF report on an experiment run by BYO magazine & the internet based "Basic Brewing Radio".

"...In the Basic Brewing podcast of April 14th 2011 a request was made to participate in a brewing experiment. The
experiment aimed to determine the effect of hydration of dry yeast and the way of adding yeast to wort on lag-
time before fermentation starts, krausening, apparent degree of fermentation, the final taste of the beer and other
characteristics..."


"...Discussion / conclusion

For quite some years there is a debate amongst home brewers whether or not dry yeast should be hydrated before
pitching. Some even state that sprinkling dry yeast on wort would lead to a decrease in cell viability by 60 to
70%.
Based on the historic data desktop research and the experiments that were performed using different yeasts I
conclude that hydration of yeast is not needed to make a good beer. It does not lead to higher degrees of
fermentation. On the contrary, the historic data research showed that the average brewer obtained lower degrees
of fermentation upon hydration of dry yeast. The historic data research showed that for 9 out of 12 yeast
hydration lead to significant lower degrees of fermentation..."


http://ec.libsyn.com/p/1/a/e/1aeeb08f8db63...mp;c_id=3529671

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

Yeah, but which leg do you hold in the air?, that's surely the most important thing. Left leg in the air encourages more esters, and the right leg in the air while pitching encourages a drier, cleaner beer. I read it on wiki

And so many brewers miss these sorts of important factors. Leg height and orientation, speed of sachet pouring etc etc. It is the little things that make award winning beer.
What do one legged brewers do ??? they use wyeast.......
cheers
BBB

 

[SJW]

:icon_offtopic: That's just un-Australian on two levels. 1 - you actually read the instuctions. 2 - you actually follow them. I suppose you do that with flat pack furniture as well ....
BBB

 

[pcmfisher]

An interesting experiment.

 

[bignath]

Just to throw another cat amongst the pigeons, i'm a splasher.

Probably more specifically geared toward the no chill brewer though, but it works bloody well.

I take the gladwrap off of a sanitised fermenter just before i pour in the no chilled cube. I sprinkle the yeast on the bottom of the empty fermenter, and then dump the cube onto the dry yeast.

I've experimented with different pouring in rates, as it effects the amount of foam i get when it's all in there after pouring, which makes me assume that its due to different levels of aeration.

I get best results from pouring in quite slowly but steadily (seems to be an important factor in this technique), from as high up as i can hold the cube on any given day.

Very rare for a fermentation not to have started within 12hrs doing this for me. Often, i can see yeast activity within 6-8hrs.

However, if you're not a no chiller, then this method won't really apply (unless you want to transfer the wort to another vessel, just so that you can pour it into the vessel you'll be fermenting in, and that raises more risks than it is probably worth).

 

[Yob]

back into the fray... sigh..

Dry Yeast have no ability to control what passes through their cell wall within the first few minutes of rehydration, this is why water is recommended..

The Osmotic pressures of wort is not the most ideal solution to be rehydrating and it's these pressures that are attributed with the negative effects(on Yeast) with that process.

Can you make beer without rehydrating correctly? Sure you can

Will it be as good as it 'could' have been with the correct Yeast Care?

Jury is out on this side.

Personally, I do all I can, within Reason to ensure good yeast health and Vitality.

YMMV

 

[manticle]

Wouldn't you already have a sanitised spoon from stirring in the wort/water anyway?

How does that work?

 

[wbosher]

But best to rehydrate.

I'm coming to this realisation.

The online edition of how to brew is quite out of date compared to the hard copy. Palmer himself has said proofing is no longer necessary and is detrimental to yeast performance. Dehydrated yeast are at full capacity in terms of their energy reserves and if you proof them you are just using that energy up for no reason. Just rehydrate......and buy a copy of How to Brew (my copy is the 3rd ed).

I might just do that. There is a lot of really good stuff in the online version, I can only imagine how good the hard copy is. Although there is a lot of information in there that I can never really see myself caring too much about...all the chemistry stuff etc...

I just want to be able to make a pretty good beer, don't need to be a pro. My sense of smell is pretty much buggered, so unless other people are drinking my beer I don't need to be too fussy. :lol:

 

[Edak]

How does that work?

If he is an extract brewer then he will have a sanitised spoon for mixing his extract into the water.

Personally, this week I tried rehydrating US05 instead of just sprinkling it as per usual. There was A LOT more activity this time around and have the 4 inches of krausen/foam on top during the fermentation. This may also be attributed to having also aerated with a pump and stone instead of shaking the bejesus out of it. Which ever it was, I am happy to see this type of action.

I will rehydrate from now on as it is not really all that difficult if you have a thermometer and a proper flask.

I boiled and put 115ml water into the sanitised flask, let it cool.
Before I put the yeast in there I let it cool down (covered of course) then heated to 27deg over stove top.
After verifying temperature, I emptied the pack into the flask and let sit for 10-15 mins until the yeast dropped off the top.
After this I swirled for 5-10 mins, which mixes and cools it (somewhat) before dumping into fermenter at 19 deg. It is now fermenting at 18deg nicely.

 

[benno1973]

Wouldn't you already have a sanitised spoon from stirring in the wort/water anyway?

The time between me stirring my wort for whirlpool and pitching my yeast is anywhere from an hour to a few hours (depending on how well my chiller is working). That's plenty of time for my spoon to become 'un'sanitised. But I can see that if you're stirring water intio a kit beer with a sanitised spoon, you could use that for stirring yeast too. Doesn't apply in my case though.

 

[wbosher]

The time between me stirring my wort for whirlpool and pitching my yeast is anywhere from an hour to a few hours (depending on how well my chiller is working). That's plenty of time for my spoon to become 'un'sanitised. But I can see that if you're stirring water intio a kit beer with a sanitised spoon, you could use that for stirring yeast too. Doesn't apply in my case though.

Looks like you've been around the traps for a while, probably should have guessed you weren't a kit brewer. :lol:

 

[manticle]

If he is an extract brewer then he will have a sanitised spoon for mixing his extract into the water.

Makes a bit more sense. It read to me as if the suggestion was that water or wort would somehow sanitise the spoon.

As you were.