s-189 Dry Lager Yeast

[yellowthere]

I rehydrated. My logic was that if a starter for a lager does not have to be at lager temps, neither does rehydrated dry yeast.

With a lager you need everything you can get out of it. Definitely rehydrate it. That's what I did anyway. It worked well for me.

[Shed Brewer]

Just curious. When people are using dry lager yeast, are you rehydrating the yeast in cold water (55 or so) so that you are not pitching warm rehydrated yeast into a cooled wort. Or are people just pitching on top of the wort, without rehydrating? The only reason I ask is, because a couple years ago I tried S-23 lager yeast rehydrated, and pitched into a cool wort (52 or so). I didn't see fermentation for over 30 hrs. While the beer fermented down to where it was supposed to, I was not super impressed with this strain's results. So much so, that I vowed to never use any dry yeast for my lagers again (and haven't with much better results). I love the US-05 and S-04. I even like to work with the T-58 and have brewed award winning tripels with it! So you dry lager yeast users, how are you dealing with the pitching?

after the boil i transfer to a 25 litre cube and 'no chill' overnite, i then put the cube and the packaged yeast in the brew fridge to bring both to the same temp ( 10*C ), after a few hours i prepare/sanitise ( starsan ) the fermentor and pitch half the yeast ( 12 grams ) straight into the fermentor then pour the wort in on top of the dry yeast whilst aerating then pitch the other 12 grams onto the aerated wort, the lag time has never been 1.5 days as stated above.


Cheers

Shed

[Sent From My iPhone]

[Shed Brewer]

g'day Sheen,

i've never had a problem with that method and if it's not broken i don't try and fix it

cheers

Shed

[brewinhard]

Could one potentially rehydrate in cooler water say high 50's, and then pitch that into your cooled wort at 50 degrees or so? Maybe would minimize shock to the yeast after rehydrating in warmer water as usually done. Still unsure about dry lager yeast as of yet but am willing to give it a shot again. Just looking for the best way to prep the yeast for pitching.

[andy77]

I've never worked with this yeast, but in my experience with dry ale yeast, dry-sprinkling the yeast is workable. Re-hydration is optimal.

As to temperature, I would treat the re-hydrated yeast just like a yeast starter. For my that's pitching room temp yeast into lager temp wort.

[brewinhard]

I feel that when I pitch a warmed starter into lager temp wort (50 degrees) there are longer lag times due to temperature shock the yeast experience. Picture if you will a winter polar plunge into freezing ice water after being bundled up in your parka and sitting in your warm car. Brrrrrrrrr.....

[Shed Brewer]

For my that's pitching room temp yeast into lager temp wort.

i've never heard of this one, i thought it was desirable to bring both the wort and yeast to similar if not the same temp and pitch, i've been wrong before though.

cheers

Shed