I am planning on a clone of a local brew this weekend(or at least my first attempt at it.) The brewery calls for American Ale yeast so I would normally choose WLP001, but I dont have time for a starter (due to late start/poor planning) so I want to go with a re-hydrated dry yeast. The OG is expected to be 1.100 for 3.5 gallons of a double hazelnut brown. What are your suggestions for yeast choice in dry and how many packs? Any ideas are welcome and helpful.
Edit: Mr Malty calls for 1.1 dry packs and Beersmith says 2. Both sites say I need about 234B cells, and Beersmith shows 178B with 2 packs of dry US05 just a couple weeks old, which is significantly less than the necessary 234B. A follow up question in regards to dry yeast viability: what is the expected viability, and are the packs actually dated?
I would pitch 2 packs of yeast and not worry about it. With a batch size of 3.5 gallons it’s an overpitch but I would err on the side of the overpitch vs an underpitch.
Is US05 the right choice though, as I have not yet purchased my yeast?
To my knowledge, yes. You can use US-05 (I think they now call it S-05), 1056 and 001 interchangeably.
There are subtle differences, but they all came from the same source.
Since you don’t have time for a starter, yes…US-05 is the right yeast if it is asking for American Ale yeast. I always have a copy packets of that handy in the fridge.
US-05 is fine.
I think beersmith might be talking about 5 gram packets rather than 11.5 gram packets. 1 should be plenty you could use 1.5 I don’t know that I’d use 2 though. I find that too high a pitch rate can cause as many problems, and similar ones, to underpitching. Undesirable off flavors/esters and poor attenuation.
Me, too. Grabbed a couple fresh packs for some brewing I have planned this weekend and realized I already have four packs in the fridge. And a starter of 1056 going.
One batch will get the 1056, one the 05. I’ll see if I can taste a difference.
US-05 seems like the right choice, but a starting gravity of 1.100 is pretty high. Anyone know what the alcohol tolerance is for US-05? I know the 1056 is stated as 11% which is right around the 1.100 target gravity, and since they are similar strains, I would assume they have similar tolerance, but dont know for sure.
+1
I would rehydrate the yeast using and use Go-Ferm (Go-Ferm Rehydration Nutrient 10 grams).
This is my standard practice as well when using dry yeast. Rather it be for mead, beer, or whatever.
I’ve used US05 up to 12% ABV.
Fun Fact. Safale says their US-05 has 7B cells per gram of yeast, so a packet should have about 70b cells. Other well respected authorities on yeast say that an 11.5G package of US-05 have 200B cells.
Beersmith is quoting the safale info
Mrmalty uses Jamil Z’s info
Which is right? I had this discussion with a customer a few days ago, i trust Jamil Z over some unknown frenchman. Where do you guys weigh in?
Safale factoid Page for us-05http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_US05.pdf
Jamil Z’s info (cant find the reference atm, but MRmalty suggests 1G of dry yeast has about 18B cells in it)
And beersmith says the sachets start at 100B cells less degradation. The packs have a best by date, is that 2 years out from packaging, does anyone know? If so, I just bought 2 packs tonight that are 6 months old. I don’t want to see what that looks like in beersmith
+1…no worries, it can handle high gravity brews just fine.
I’ve even repitched the slurry into subsequent brews and never had any flavor or performance issues.
Dry yeast has sure come a LONG way quality wise.
Thanks to everyone who put in their thoughts. I bought 2 packs if S05 and am planning on going with 1.5 or 2 packs. Still not sure, please convince me…
go for both. if the packets are older you’re not overpitching that much. (or maybe not at all. Apparently depending on the source of info ;))
Unless Jamil and other have actually done a real cell count, I trust the manufacturer.
The Fermentis data sheet says “>” 6B/g. I am guessing that is a minimum based the stated product shelf life.
However, without some study there is no way to know how much more you might find in a sachet based on manufacture date.
I agree Denny, but i know i read something with Jamil stating he did multiple cell counts, I just cant find it.
Edit:Found it.
Quote
"Some exciting work has been done on dry yeast lately. Reports are coming in of better quality, cleaner dry yeast. Personally, I really prefer the liquid yeasts, but the lure of dry yeast is strong. The biggest benefit is that it is cheap and does not require a starter. In fact, with most dry yeasts, placing them in a starter would just deplete the reserves that the yeast manufacturer worked so hard to build into the yeast. Most dry yeast has an average cell density of 20 billion cells per gram. You would need about 9.5 grams of dry yeast if you were pitching into 5.5 gallons of 1.048 wort to get the proper cell counts. (Recently there have been other numbers mentioned for cells/gram of dry yeast and folks have asked me why I believe there are 20 billion cells. I’ve actually done cell counts on dry yeast and they’re always 20 billion per gram +/- less than a billion. Dr. Clayton Cone has also stated that there are 20 billion per gram, and other folks I trust tell me that 20 billion is correct. Until I see something different, practical experience tells me this number is correct.) For dry yeasts, just do a proper rehydration in tap water, do not do a starter. "