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Hey All,

Brewed up a batch of IPA over the weekend and used us-04 for the first time. I know it is a fast fermenting beer however, it seems to have finished fermenting in about 2 days. Is this normal for a beer with an OG of 1.05? I did not do a starter for this beer (I usually re-hydrate and do a small starter when using dry yeasts) as it was late and I was I also forgot to aerate the batch as well. Why one should not start a 5 gal boil on a glass top stove at 10pm on a Saturday.

Should I re-pitch with more US-04?

2 days is not unheard of depending on the temp. Best thing to do is take a gravity sample. No need to aerate when using dry yeast.

did you measure the FG?

i've used nottingham and 05 without starters at 1.05 OG and they turn out fine.

I think aeration is good for all yeast, but no need to make a starter with the dry yeast.

Excellent. I have not measured the gravity yet, will do that. Thanks X and Jamie.

No starter for dry yeast eh? Why is that? Should I even bother re-hydrating dry yeast or just pitch the dry yeast into the wort and wait for the magic to happen?

Some people re-hydrate, and some don't. I do when possible, but don't bother if I'm in a rush.

TJ Brew wrote:Excellent. I have not measured the gravity yet, will do that. Thanks X and Jamie.

No starter for dry yeast eh? Why is that? Should I even bother re-hydrating dry yeast or just pitch the dry yeast into the wort and wait for the magic to happen?

dry yeast has more yeast cells per pack than liquid around 200 billion i think, which is plenty for a 1.050 OG for a 5 gallon batch.

Regarding rehydration of dry yeast. If you go to sites like Probrewer, you'll see that even in industry some brewers don't bother. However, they over pitch to compensate.

According to Jamil's calculator (http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), you need 80% of the yeast in that pack for an optimum pitch rate at 1.050. That gives a bit of leeway for mistreating yeast, but as Dr. Clayton Cone notes here (http://koehlerbeer.com/2008/06/07/rehyd ... yton-cone/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), failure to rehydrate can kill up to 60% of dry yeast, depending on pitching temp. I have directly pitched tons of times with fine results, and most of the wort-based kits advise it, but it seems that for the best results rehydration is a good idea.

I measured the gravity, came out at 1.03. I was expecting it to be a little lower but, we'll see where it ends up in a couple of weeks.

Yeah I usually straight pitch ~20g (approx 2 pouches) of dry if i have it in bulk. Just in case the straight pitch kills as much yeast as some people speculate.

I've strait pitched and re-hydrated and have never really noticed any issues either way.

And yeah - US-04 goes fast. I did a weird west coast meets UK IPA about a month ago and the yeast finishes up really quickly.

i just did an english (best) bitter with S-04 and it ate through the sugar in 2 days.

I pitched 3 sachets in 13 gallons of an AIPA and it was down from 1.060 to 1.014 in 6 days @ 62F. At that temp, it was still pretty active, but didn't get into the blow-off hose.