When To Pitch More Yeast

[Hoppyland]

I suppose one good thing about rehydrating is that you can see that your yeast is alive and well before you pitch and if it is a little old your giving it more of a helping hand.

I hardly ever use dried yeast, but circumstances have forced me to a couple of times in the last 3 months. When I've done this, I've rehydrated, only because I've read that it gives the yeast maximum viability - so I've gone with it.
How do you tell that your yeast is alive and well? When mine was rehydrated it just went into a sort of yeast soup & didn't seem to be doing anything before I pitched it. :-?
It did ferment promptly & adequately though.

 

[JFB]

I hardly ever use dried yeast, but circumstances have forced me to a couple of times in the last 3 months. When I've done this, I've rehydrated, only because I've read that it gives the yeast maximum viability - so I've gone with it.
How do you tell that your yeast is alive and well? When mine was rehydrated it just went into a sort of yeast soup & didn't seem to be doing anything before I pitched it. :-?
It did ferment promptly & adequately though.

When I rehydrate, I add a packet of yeast to 100ml of water at 30c don't stir or anything for 15 min. The whip the hell out of it with a teaspoon and leave for another 15min. When you come back there's obvious signs of the yeast working, slightly thicker and it looking a bit bulgy.
Ive been a cook for 20+ years and working with yeast is second nature, maybe signs to me so arn't so obvious to all. But if you get that oxygen in you should see something:)

 

[marlon]

ooo! Just checked it an I think it's started to do something - fingers crossed. Will have another check in the morning.

I used a pack of MJ's for my first ever lager about 6 weeks ago (M84). Instructions said use 2 pks, but being a tight git, I used one. Nothing happened...3 days later l added a second packet and within hours it went crazy. Don't know if the first pack was duff or I need to learn more patience.

 

[MyQul]

Krausen is definately coming along nicely now

 

[MyQul]

It's chugging along nicely now. Its at 16C ambients in my brew bag, so probably about 18C in the FV itself. Thanks all for your advice
Should be an interesting beer. It's Steam Beer made with lager and munich malts with Challenger hops as they were the closest to noble hops I had in my freezer

 

[MyQul]

This brew has be quite an odd one. When I tested the gravity when I came back from holiday it was above 20 and had appeared to be stuck so I gave it a rouse which got it going again but it threw another krausen bigger than the first one which refused to drop.Its finally dropped today after a week hanging around and I've just taken anothor gravity reading. It's hit 1.010 (73% attenuation). I was expecting something a lot higher, into the low 80's but I think it's probably finished now. It's fairly clear (compared to some of my other brews), probably due to the flocculant yeast, so I'm going to wrack it to a secondary later and leave it their for a week to drop as much yeast out before packaging

 

[Sandimas]

Mangrove Jack yeasts seem to be REALLY slow starters.

I had the same issue as you with an MJ M15 Empire Ale Yeast this week, nothing after 48hrs just the odd bit of frothing on top of the wort. Finally got going on Day3 and was eventually going like a train on Day5. In comparison to my last brew with Safale US04 that was bubbling the airlock 6 hours after pitching and all over by Day5.