I typically use 1 pack, sprinkled in, up to 1.060. And 2 packs sprinkled in 1.060 and up. I don’t typically brew super high gravity beers, so I usually only need 2 packs at the most, and the beers turn out fine. But maybe I’m being too careful…who knows. US-05 is pretty cheap and a good clean strain, which I like. It lets the hops and malt do the talkin’, not the yeast.
Unless you’re doing something like a Hefe where it’s all about the yeast doing to talkin’, right? 
I hear WB-06 is a pretty decent dry yeast for a hefe.
Meh … not in my opinion.
Tubercle is going to start hydrating 1/2 pack and sprinkling the other 1/2 directly. Just covering all the bases here.
Unless it is time to let Herman out to play for a while 8) Then a couple of big spoonfuls gets schlopped in…party’s over.
Like we used to say back in my days on the SWAT team…when the tail gate drops…the bull$h(t stops.
I’ll second Keith’s “meh”. WB-06 makes an OK, but not great, American wheat. It isn’t a hefeweizen yeast at all IME.
I have to agree. WLP380 is the bomb for Hefe’s IMO. Cheers!!!
I wasn’t going to say anything in this thread because I disagree with a lot of what gets said and is taken for gospel in the homebrewing world. Here is yet another example of more information leading to yet another twist to pitching rates etc. In NB catalog it states that when making a beer you would normally need a 2 liter starter… you can cut that to 1/2 a liter if you use a stir plate. ::) Just more disinformation imo. I haven’t gone to JZ’s website and used the calculater in quite a while because it too is making assumptions rather than imperical fact… jmo. And the site sure loads slower than molasses in January which is unusual for a site not loaded with tons of graphics so it makes me wonder abouts safety.
I’m with Denny and Fred, until I pitch something and it fails I guess. Jmo…
That’s good to hear, since I haven’t personally tried it.
Well, that goes without saying. A hefe, you obviously want the yeast character to dominate. For me, however, I don’t brew that many, if any, yeast dominate beers. So US-05 is a great yeast to feature more of the hops/malt balances.
Dean, I get what you’re saying. But what does JZ have to gain by telling you to pitch a certain amount of yeast? It’s not like he’s selling a product and wants you to give him money. He’s trying to tell you that that is the amount of yeast you need to pitch to get a “proper” fermentation and make great beer versus good beer. But, that’s just his opinion based on his experience (I guess…). You do what you like, it’s your beer. I don’t follow his pitch rates either, but I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.
Oh, I know what you mean, I’m not complaing about JZ or his calculation… just saying it is yet another opinion that many homebrewers will swear by whether its actually right or wrong doesn’t matter. It has been written therefore It Must Be So… ;) ;D Look how many people balk on no-chill method etc. I almost shudder when I read or hear people say “the beer gods”… its like religion… you believe or you don’t and the reasons why aren’t necessarily important so long as you believe and follow one or the other. 
I would probably still use his calculator to a point if the site wasn’t so slow in loading… and the loading speed is what concerns me, but then I’m no computer guru either so. :
Well, it’s Flash, so mystery solved on that one.
I hear ya Dean. I don’t always accept the party line or convention. In fact some of my methods might seem unconventional but they work for me. Had to learn through experience some things have a wide latitude and others don’t. I try to work within the boundaries I’ve set for myself.
Agree with Euge and Dean. Part of the joy of homebrewing is testing the bounds of the party line or convention. I have twice successfully used a starter method suggested by one homebrewer at the LHBS (someone whose advice generally makes sense) where I make a starter in the carboy and pitch the wort on top of it. I was skeptical, and I had arguments against it (not enough depth for the starter, layer of oxygenated beer you can’t really pour off easily, etc.), but the ease of it was tempting so I tried it, and the two times I used that method, the fermentation took off like a rocket and the beer turned out great.
But mostly I pitch an unhydrated packet of US-05 into wort at or just under 70 degrees f, and it works out fine, and if there are millions of tiny screams as yeast cells die, I don’t hear them. Especially for my 3-gallon batches of ale or stout, there’s no reason one packet of dry yeast isn’t plenty. The next time I do a “repeater” I may reconstitute the yeast in 90-degree water and time the fermentation to see if it is all that faster/heartier. That said, a few dead cells seem a reasonable tradeoff for eliminating a possible contamination opportunity at a vulnerable point in the brewing process, post-brew and pre-fermentation.
I think the problem is nobody does anything the exact same. :D Sean (a10T2) did a yeast pitching test with a number of volunteers and shared the results they found but did anyone actually do everthing the exact same or not? You can follow a procedure but it doesn’t mean that you’ve every situation, circumstance or event etc during the procedure were equal… maybe it could be done in high profile laboratory setting but even then there could be some variance attributed I would guess. Since none of us have that tight of a quality control lab setting I don’t see how a conclusion could be reached for the general brewing public?
I mean come on… things are getting so superstitious that people are probably monitoring the temperature of their starsan solution now. ::) :D RDWHAHB…
You lost me there. Are you maybe thinking of the BBR/BYO experiment where everyone who participated brewed on their own?
Yeh… wasn’t that you?
Ok, I am a bit confused here… Back on page 1 of this thread, The quotation by clayton cone states that each gram of the dried yeast contains 20 billion live yeast cells. But on their own web site they quote different quantities. See here for the spec sheet on their Nottingham yeast: http://www.danstaryeast.com/sites/default/files/nottingham_datasheet.pdf
Item 2 states they have more than 5 Billion cells (5 x 109 =5 billion right) per gram but
Item 4 of that pdf file states 100 grams in 100 hectoliters gives you a density of only 5 - 10 million cells per milliliter. This could be equivalently scaled to 10 grams at 10 liters or only 2.64 gallons. Which would mean I would need 20 grams for 5 gallons just to give me a max of 10 million cells per milliliter. Furthermore, if you look up SafeAles S-05 pdf sheet, you will find only 6 billiion yeast cells per gram. Meaning a 11 gram sachet would only have a maximum of 66 billion yeast cells!! Or am I computing wrongly here… ??? Is not 6 x 109 not equal to 6 billion??
In Sean’s experiment, he brewed all the beer and sent it out to people.
It also says "Nottingham British Ale yeast has been conditioned to survive rehydration. The yeast contains an
adequate reservoir of carbohydrates and unsaturated fatty acids to achieve active growth. It is
unnecessary to aerate wort." (emphasis mine)