Rehydrate Your Yeast Or Not?

[shadow47]

On the packs of Lalvin, it tells you to rehydrate the yeast at 40c, is this really necessary?

When I used it I never, I just stuck half the pack straight in the must and froze the rest for use on another batch as it's expensive and difficult to get hold of. (Not many HB shops sell it here). Oh and I was making a 5gal WOW, it's nearly finished fermenting now. (I used EC-1118).

Will pitching this stuff dry ever cause any problems or should you always rehydrate if it tells you too?

 

[phettebs]

I've done it both ways. The one thing I've noticed about adding it dry is that after aerating, there is a lot of foam on the wort. When I sprinkle the dry yeast on, it gets hung up on the foam and there's a longer lag time then when I hydrate and dump right into the beer. I've also stirred it up after adding it dry and that helps too. Rehydrated just works better for me. I don't think it's mandatory by any means though.

-baz

 

[Sean_Mc]

With beer I do as Baz says, as I aerate through a sieve.

With Wine yeast though I just dry pitch with the fruit juice around 20c

 

[Tony]

I dry pitch, but I bung in the whole packet