Dead Yeast
After two days of absolutely no signs of fermentation, I decided it was time to pitch some new yeast into the rye beer. It seems like all 4 packets of K-97 that I had were dead on arrival, so I ended up going with US-05. My main concern with doing this is that US-05 tends to attenuate much better than K-97 and has a little different flavor profile. Mostly I just hope it doesn’t end up too dry with the really low mash temperature.
I always rehydrate my dry yeast, and I thought that since there were some bubbles on top after rehydrating that the K-97 would be ok. For reference, here’s a pic of the rehydrated K-97:
And here’s a pic of the happily rehydrated US-05:
I pitched this on Thursday night and the beer is fermenting away now.
I put the Fantome-yeast Saison on tap the other day next to the second keg of Brueday beer and I really enjoy it. It’s hoppy, phenolic and fruity. Yum! I still wish it had finished a little drier, but it’s quite drinkable as-is.