Hydrate Yeast

Wow, you dehydrate your yeast? Is that some new, cutting-edge technique?

 

My 3rd and 4th batches are presently fermenting. Brewed on Sunday. We rehydrated the yeast, since we did so on our second batch and the beer turned out great. Maybe it would have turned out great regardless, I may never know.

But to get to your question, we have used bottled water. Whether it was 'spring water' or 'purified water', I don't know. Even if it is R.O. water, I believe minerals have been added back in. Regardless, I can tell you with certainty it wasn't distilled water.

This is the water we brew with. Maybe it's not the best, but I'm still a noob and I don't care if I'm not producing world class competition winning beer.

Edit: But I want to emphasize to you @mfowler314, that the last batch I brewed, wherein we used yeast rehydrated with bottled water, turned out great. Really, really damn good. It was a an El Dorado IPA. One of the two batches currently fermenting in the laundry room is another batch of the same.

 

No minerals are added back into RO water. RO water is not totally devoid of minerals like distilled water but it should be very low in minerals.

Cheers!

 

Thanks @Hop-Droppen-Roll. On my first batch I brewed using "spring water" from the store and my second batch I used distilled water. But my store also sells "purified water". I've not used my tap water because of the water softener it runs through. Good to know though that things worked for you re-hydrating with spring/purified!

But I think I'm going to move to using liquid yeast on my next batch because it seems you have more selection of type of yeast and people seem to say it gives better beer in general. And... as I now seem to understand... for my 2 gallon batches I won't need to use a starter at all so it seems pretty simple - even simpler in that case than re--hydrating!

 

This is true. I neglected to mention that I was referring to store-bought bottled RO water (though I may still be wrong).

You can do that?

 

Yes... if you are doing extract, which is what I do.

 

The RO water you purchase at the supermarket (or Walmart or...) should be very low in minerals. As part of the Reverse Osmosis process the minerals in the water are removed.

Cheers!

 

Same here. I suppose the other ingredients add minerals.

 

Yup! When they make the LME or DME they started with grain and water... the minerals in their water end up in the LME/DME that you buy!

 

During the production of malt extract the minerals of the water used to produce the extract are retained. It is perfectly acceptable to use Distilled Water or RO water when extract brewing. Having stated that information, IMO it is not a requirement when brewing with extract to use Distilled/RO water.

Cheers!

 

Listen to this podcast with Kevin Lane of Fermentis. What struck me was his claim that dry pitching only decreases viability by 5%. I had always heard more like 50%.
http://www.txbrewing.com/storeblog/...11-yeast-talk-with-kevin-lane-from-fermentis/

Interesting. Sorry if link is broken. Just right click and follow.

 

Below is something I posted previously (a re-post from another poster). The topic of 50% die off is mentioned.

Cheers!

Why shouldn’t you pitch dry yeast? It's called osmosis. Wort has a high concentration of sugars and the dry cells have a hard time taking in the water. Also the wort will be under the optimal temperature range. So what happens is the yeast die. “Skipping hydration kills about half the cells pitched” (1). They are killed because there cell walls are damaged to the point where they rupture spilling their guts into the beer “Besides only having half as much yeast needed, the dead cells immediately begin to break down and affect the beer flavor” (1) . That statement is what tells me that while GreenKrusty’s observation (dead yeast as food) has merit, there are extenuating factors that trumps it. Yes, there are viable cells left. Cells that have weak cell walls. Healthy cells walls are important to regulating what passes in and out of the cell. Low viability can cause “Slow/stuck /incomplete fermentations””Declining/low viability” “Sulfur””autolysis” (2). A study made also suggested that dry yeast rehydrated in wort can cause a high degree of esters, acetaldehyde and “hot” alcohol character. (3)


(1)p.146 “Yeast, The practical guide to fermenting beer”
(2) p.279,281,273 “Yeast, The practical guide to fermenting beer”
(3) http://seanterrill.com/2011/07/29/dry-yeast-viability-take-two/

 

Yep, that's what I had always heard. Maybe it's just marketing.

 

Diminished sensory perception is a blessing in disguise for the staunch advocates of pitching without dehydrating. Can't really blame them. If I couldn't tell the difference, I wouldn't bother rehydrating either.

 

LOL!

 

That's U S-05, buddy! ...US-05 ... almost as controversial as "the rehydrating yeast controversy"