If I start a Autumn ale is the regular Safale US-05 with 11.5 g enough for 5 gallons? Do I need to start it? If so, how to with a dry yeast.
That seems to be the rule from what I read, 1.05 and below you don't need a starter. Just that I also read you should always do a starter to proof the yeast. Just t&t&at they where always talking about liquid yeast not dry. If I did need to do a starter with dry, how.
Starters are usually not required with dry yeast, because of the high cell counts of dry yeast packs. And most people will use two packs of dry yeast rather than making a starter, because dry yeast is pretty cheap. But if you do want to make a starter from dry yeast, you do it the same way as with liquid yeast.... figure out how big a starter you need. (Calculators help.) Then rehydrate the yeast and pitch it into the starter wort. If you're really asking how to make a starter in general, read this... http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php
I always hit up http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html when I have a question about how much yeast I need for a given recipe. There are a lot of variables (ale/lager, size of batch, OG, viability of yeast, etc.), so "rules of thumb" don't always work when it comes to yeast. With a 11.5g packet of ale yeast, you should be fine for a 5 gallon batch up to 1.060 OG. I usually like to at least reconstituting it in lukewarm water (maybe with a bit of sugar). This isn't to increase the cell count, I'm just trying to get the yeast active before pitching.
I do think most people would recommend re-hydrating dry yeast before pitching. You do that with warm water as mentioned above. But you want your yeast to be the same temp as the wort you will pitch to (or close to it). I like to take some wort and add it to the yeast a little at a time. Not only does it bring the re hydrated yeast down to the wort temp, it gets them ready so they won't be as shocked by the concentrated sugars in the wort you are about to throw them into.
