[69franx]

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?

[dkfick]

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.

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.

[69franx]

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.

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?

[Joe Sr.]

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.

[theDarkSide]

Is US05 the right choice though, as I have not yet purchased my yeast?

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.

[morticaixavier]

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.

[Joe Sr.]

I always have a copy packets of that handy in the fridge.

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.

[bbesser]

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.

[HoosierBrew]

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.

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.

+1

[josephbauer]

I would rehydrate the yeast using and use Go-Ferm (http://www.homebrewing.org/Go-Ferm-Half-pound_p_1544.html).

[dkfick]

I would rehydrate the yeast using and use Go-Ferm (http://www.homebrewing.org/Go-Ferm-Half-pound_p_1544.html).

This is my standard practice as well when using dry yeast.  Rather it be for mead, beer, or whatever. 

[denny]

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.

I've used US05 up to 12% ABV.

[Jeff M]

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)

[69franx]

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


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[The Professor]

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.

I've used US05 up to 12% ABV.

+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.