Pitching yeast

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Griffster77

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Is it necessary to rehydrate the yeast or is it fine just to chuck it in? I've done that latter in the past and its seemed ok?
 
It’s probably down to choice, rather than a right/wrong decision.
I always like to make a starter bottle up, so when I pitch it, there’s loads of vigorous yeast ready to go, which (just) may help reduce the risk of spoilage as there’s less time for bugs to get going before the yeast takes over.
I just mix up the yeast, nutrient, sugar and a bit of acid with some cooled boiled water and keep it warm. I try and get 24 hrs worth of starting up before I pitch it.
 
Some thoughts (whilst I'm in that frame of mind)
A sachet of yeast is sold as good for 1 to 5 gallons of brew. The argument being that a minimum colony size is required. It's not intuitively obvious but why limit it to 5 gallons (except that few folk have a vessel larger than that)?
So if making up several 1 gallon DJ's the implication is a seperate sachet for each.
Yeast divides about every 100mins in good conditions.. call it 2 hrs to make the sum simple and over 24hrs you would have 2^12-1 times as much yeast (if none died) = 4095 times as much. So if making up a batch of DJ's there is every reason to get a sachet going and then spread it between them.
 
Is it necessary to rehydrate the yeast or is it fine just to chuck it in? I've done that latter in the past and its seemed ok?
I always chuck it in as is so to speak, no rehydration, and not had any issues in any of my brews...I've lost count how many!
 
some of my cider goes the natural way with no yeast added at all, and these takes weeks to get going. I'm therefore entirely relaxed about the 2-3 day wait for fermentation to start when adding yeast.
 
Is it necessary to rehydrate the yeast or is it fine just to chuck it in? I've done that latter in the past and its seemed ok?
If it's an older pack of yeast I'll rehydrate with a little sugar just to check the yeasties are still alive an kicking before pitching.
 
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