I rarely disagree with PP, and when I do, he typically explains in a convincing fashion why I am wrong. Here I have to disagree with him.PistolPatch wrote:5. Just sprinkle dried yeast - If you aerate your wort, which you should be doing, then just sprinkle the dried yeast. This allows it to settle on the bubbles where it can slowly acclimatise to temp, humidity and gravity. When you think about it, it is much easier to shock and damage yeast by rehydrating it especially on a small scale.
I believe in reydrating dry yeast, based on this explanation by Dr. Clayton Cone of Lallemand (Lalvin) yeast. The science points to rehydration of dry yeast. Many people say that they get fine results without rehydration, but this seems to be because the sheer number of yeast cells in a dry yeast packet allows for success in spite of the yeast damage/die-off from lack of rehydration. I find it odd that some people will go to great lengths to make a starter with liquid yeast to ensure a high starting cell count, while ohers use a practice that will damage or kill a large number of dry yeast cells (again referring to statements by Dr. Cone.)
And, just to show you that I can be inconsistent, as well, I always aerate my wort, even when using dry yeast. But here, Lallemand says that you don't need to aerate the wort when using dry yeast.
I don't claim to be an expert and I only know what I read (in this case), but I am reluctant to disagree on hydration with an expert scientist in the field. This may be one of those in theory/in practice arguments, though, because many people say they do just fine without rehydrating.
I've gotten flamed for this position in other forums, so I thoroughly expect to get flamed again here. C'est la vie.
. If you create a new topic, I'll make sure I try and explain the practical pros and cons better there.
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Another excuse to brew! 
The simpler it gets the more complicated it becomes. 
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