New To HomeBrewing

[laurence]

Hi everyone,

I have just started my first home brew. I have gone for Muntons Smugglers Special Premium Ale. I have followed the instructions on the box. But I did not rehydrate the yeast. Will this cause problems ?

Cheers

[bitter_dave]

Hi Laurence - welcome

Rehydrating your yeast is preferable - it gets it started more quickly and therefore reduces the risk of bacterias etc taking hold.

Having said that, I've brewed and not rehydrated the yeast in the past and not experienced any problems, so I would say don't worry this time, but you might want to consider it for next time - it doesn't take long and the benefits outway the costs in terms of effort involved.

Hope this helps.

[laurence]

Many thanks for the advice , I will try rehydrating next time. I just need another keg or bottles now for the next brew.

Cheers

Laurence

[bitter_dave]

Laurence, others are bound to be along in a little while with further info, so make sure you check back for other advice I've neglected to mention

[Vossy1]

Most of my early kits were made without rehydrating with no probs

Ditto BD......It's worth getting to grips with starters for future ales, as it reduces the time during which your wort is at risk to bacterial nasties

[noby]

Rehydrating and starters two different things, in my book.
I would defenitley recommend rehydrating, although I also have poured in the yeast straight from the pack and lived to tell the tale.

Starters are also recommended, but for the complete novice, with only a kit and no spare malt extract lying about, it can be a little tricky.

[Vossy1]

Cheers Noby, don't know why I slipped starters in there

However, I boil most of my kit contents. When I've got rid of most of the extract from one of the cans I use the last little dregs of extract disolved in warm water to form a starter in the can itself.

This usually gives the yeast a good hour to reactivate whilst the rest is cooling to below 25 deg c

I'll edit the other post