Dry or Wet

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Permalink Reply by jt on August 21, 2010 at 1:30pm

You usually find that we're split on the issue of rehydrate or sprinkle dry and both work perfectly well.

I do rehydrate and use this method, from http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/Tips-Tricks.pdf

Yeasts are living organisms and rehydration temperature is critical for
good yeast performance. Fermentis recommends that top fermenting/ale
yeasts are rehydrated at a temperature between 25-29°C (77-84°F) and
that bottom fermenting/lager yeasts are rehydrated at a temperature
range between 21-25°C (69-77°F).

Rehydrate the dry yeast into yeast cream by sprinkling it in 10 times its
own weight of sterile water or wort. Gently stir and leave for 30 minutes.
Finally, pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel.

That said, the straight sprinkle method is a shitload simpler and leaves fewer steps to f* it up or infect from !

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Permalink Reply by studio1 on August 21, 2010 at 3:19pm

I heard on Brew Strong that viability can be as low as 50% if you sprinkle, but I usually have done.

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Permalink Reply by jt on August 21, 2010 at 3:42pm

I've rehydrated ales for years, just kept going because it works for me, not to say that sprinkling wouldn't be as effective. I think you'll find most would reply 'sprinkle'

Recently sprinkled the 34/70 I bought - results seemingly no different to rehydrating or repitching slurry

I think there's some discussion out there on whether you oxegenate or stir too

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