# CellarScience™ CALI Dry Yeast - anybody use it **URL:** \ **Category:** Ingredients\ **Created:** [September 4, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293 "2020-09-04T22:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e79b87/32.png) [@wst](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/wst)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/1 "2020-09-04T22:46:58Z")
This yeast claims to have 120 billion cells (10B per gram)…is this the amount of cells that are generated after it is pitched and had gorged on all the oxygen?  And, has anyone used this yeast for high OG (1.085-1.089) stouts. I think I would need 5 pkgs of US-05 (about 80B cells per pkg) vs 4 of the CALI Dry yeast. Thoughts? PS.  want to use dry yeast and not mess with liquid/starters ---
**Author:** ![wbaar2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@wbaar2](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/wbaar2)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/2 "2020-09-04T22:57:20Z")
[https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.homebrewersassociation.org%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D34923.msg439910.msg%23439910&share\_tid=34923&share\_pid=439910&share\_fid=40079&share\_type=t&link\_source=app](https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ehomebrewersassociation%2Eorg%2Fforum%2Findex%2Ephp%3Ftopic%3D34923%2Emsg439910%2Emsg%23439910&share_tid=34923&share_pid=439910&share_fid=40079&share_type=t&link_source=app) I saw it the other day when paroosing the MoreBeer site.  It appears they’ve expanded their current business model of buying bulk material and repackaging it.  They do this with grain under the Brewmaster name and hops under the Artisan name as well as other product lines. The good news is it’s cheaper: 12 grams of Cali for $3.99 vs 11.5 grams of US-05 for $4.49.  Of course, I don’t know if it’s repacked -05 or not. Just a comparison they make on the description page. The real savings comes in the 500g package. The price of their German yeast is ~half that of W34/70 in the larger package. Save ~$40 for the Cali vs -05. Buy in bulk, repackage and brand, pass the savings to the consumer. From the Brewmaster site: “Cellar Science takes the best winemaking and brewing products from across the world, and packages them in convenient sizes for you. Our yeast is packaged in a dedicated, state of the art room with HEPA filtration.  Chemicals and additives are packed in convenient sizes for 6 gallon or 60 gallon batches of wine, or efficient bulk sizes. We use custom designed oxygen, light, and moisture barrier bags for the best quality and shelf life.” I believe Mangrove Jacks uses the same business model. ---
**Author:** ![wbaar2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@wbaar2](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/wbaar2)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/3 "2020-09-04T23:10:49Z")
99% of my previous post was something Brewbama found, tapatalk kind of formatted it oddly. ---
**Author:** ![wst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e79b87/32.png) [@wst](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/wst)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/4 "2020-09-05T01:32:50Z")
how does that explain the advertising of 120B cells, it is all just smoke and mirrors? I read in a couple of places that safale 05 has like 70B cells, unless I misunderstand their specs: “Viable cells at packaging: \> 6 x 10B /g” so even at 12 grams safale falls far short as the 120B claimed by CALI Dry Yeast.  If it is just repackaging, seems rather dishonest.  Of course, am not aware of any independent consumer testing on any of these claims… ---
**Author:** ![alestateyall](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/brewersassociation/user_avatar/forum.homebrewersassociation.org/alestateyall/32/21186_2.png) [@alestateyall](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/alestateyall)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/5 "2020-09-05T02:45:59Z")
I used a pack. The pack has 12g of yeast instead of 11g. I fermented at 68-69F and the American Pale Ale (SNPA recipe from the Sierra Nevada website) turned out great. No off flavors.  I was very careful to keep the temp fairly high to avoid peach flavors. It worked this time at least. Lag was minimal, but I pitched the whole pack into 2.5 gallons of wort. I am pretty sure it is Chico yeast but I didn’t do a side by side comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Saccharomyces](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Saccharomyces](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/u/Saccharomyces)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://forum.homebrewersassociation.org/t/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast-anybody-use-it/30293/6 "2020-09-05T14:19:18Z")
First off, if you have not read my blog entry entitled “Yeast Culture Are Like Nuclear Weapons” ([Yeast Cultures are Like Nuclear Weapons | Experimental Brewing](https://www.experimentalbrew.com/blogs/saccharomyces/yeast-cultures-are-nuclear-weapons)), it will make clear that many amateur brewers sweat pitching rates a little too much. With that said, what is the volume of the wort to be pitched?  If you pitch anywhere between 2.5 and 10m viable cells per milliliter into normal gravity wort, you should be okay.  We pitch higher cell counts into high-gravity beer because of the osmotic pressure experienced with higher gravity wort. However, 10m cells per milliliter should get the job done with proper aeration.  Aeration is the key with high-gravity wort because it is harder to dissolve O2 in high-gravity wort.  Low O2 means poorer cell wall health after the yeast biomass exits the lag phase and begins replicating in the exponential phase.  High osmotic pressure is tough on yeast cell walls.  Yeast cells become “hypertonic” (shrivel) due the movement of the solvent inside of the yeast cell to the outside of the cell which has a higher solute content (i.e., the high concentration of sugar in the wort draws fluid out of the yeast cells).  Yeast cells in a hypertonic state can literally implode.  Strong cell walls translate to higher cell survival rates.  It is the reason why pitching a starter at high krausen works so well. Dry yeast is propagated aerobically in a bioreactor below the Crabtree threshold; therefore, it is ready to go ergosterol and unsaturated fatty acid-wise when pitched.  However, that does not mean that a dry yeast culture will not benefit from wort aeration.  It just means that it does not benefit as much as a liquid culture or repitched slurry.