About Dry FRESH™ Chico
Clean, reliable, fermentation. The ultimate ultra-low diacetyl house strain. Ready when you are.
Receiving and Storage
Open the shipping box to verify that all yeast packages are present, undamaged, and vacuum-sealed.
While rare, punctures can occur during transit. Do not use damaged or unsealed packs.
Store yeast in a cool, dry location until use. Refrigeration is ideal but not required for short-term storage.
Preparing to Pitch
When ready to use, sanitize the exterior of the package by spraying or dunking in sanitizer.
Use a clean, sanitized blade to open the package.
Wear sanitized gloves during handling.
Use the full package whenever possible.
If partial use is necessary:
Reseal immediately after opening.
Ensure the package is completely dry.
Transfer the sealed package into a clean, sanitized, airtight container.
Store cool and use as soon as possible.
Rehydration
Rehydration is not recommended.
Pitch the dry yeast directly into the fermentor.
Any potential benefit from rehydration is negligible compared to the risk of contamination.
Pitch Rate Guidelines
Recommended pitch rate: 59–176 g/BBL (50–150 g/hL). See the calculator on the Dry FRESH™ Chico product page and the table below. For first-time use, target the higher end of the range; adjust downward in future brews if performance allows.
|
°Plato |
Approx. SG |
Pitch Rate (g/hL) |
Pitch Rate (g/BBL) |
|
10 |
1.040 |
50 |
59 |
|
15 |
1.061 |
67 |
79 |
|
18 |
1.074 |
78 |
91 |
|
24 |
1.101 |
99 |
116 |
Nutrients
No specific nutrient additions are required.
Follow standard brewery nutrition practices based on wort composition and fermentation goals.
Fermentation Guidelines
Temperature: 64–68 °F
Aeration: Aeration is not required for standard-gravity fermentations and may cause haze, off-flavors, or excessive yeast growth.
If brewing at very high gravity (>1.085 / 21 °P), use sterile compressed air, not pure oxygen, and add it 12–24 hours after pitching. Using sterile air will give you a controlled increase in dissolved oxygen. Pure oxygen can excessively aerate the wort.
Lag time: Typically 12–18 hours. Expect visible fermentation activity within the first day.
If no activity after 24 hours, gently rouse the fermentor to resuspend yeast.
After 36 hours with no signs of fermentation, add additional bricks of yeast (25% of starting pitch).
Harvesting and Repitching
Dry FRESH™ Chico can be harvested and repitched. Please see our Yeast Harvest Best Practices Guide. Note that wort should be aerated when repitching.
Diacetyl
FRESH™ strains produce ALDC within the cell eliminating the need for a diacetyl rest or adding exogenous ALDC enzyme.
General Recommendations on Repitching
Knockout Temperature: Chill your wort to 63-65°F.
Aeration (repitching only): Target an oxygen level of 1 ppm per degree plato. If stacking beers over a couple of days, or double batching, aerate the second turn. For beers above 18 Plato, target 1.5 ppm per degree plato.
Fermentation Temp: 64-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: 12%
Drauflassen/Multiple Turns: If brewing multiple batches in succession into one tank, aerate each wort batch. The yeast appreciates more oxygen for growth, especially if there’s a double or triple batch going on top of it.
Soft Crashing and Yeast Harvest: You can expect to get out of primary fermentation/reach terminal in 5-7 days. We recommend a soft crash into the low 60s for 24 hours to harvest. Read our Harvesting Best Practices for more tips on maximizing the quantity and quality of the yeast. We recommend removing the flocculated FRESH™ Chico from the fermentor as soon as possible. This will help prevent beer pH rise and yeast autolysis as well as provide you with high viability yeast for repitching.
Dry Hopping: If dry hopping, set the jackets to the low 70s°F to allow the temperature to free-rise naturally to promote attenuation, and ensure a complete fermentation. Allow for two consecutive days at terminal gravity. You can then check VDK if you’d like, and enter cold crash.
Clarification: If using silica or gelatin finings, we suggest performing a bench top trial in order to find a ballpark usage rate for the full batch. FRESH™ Chico fermented beers sometimes require higher fining rates for achieving high clarity. We recommend a range of 100-200 mL/barrel of Biofine.
Genetic Drift of ALDC: ALDC production does not change over time. The yeast will continue to effectively reduce alpha acetolactate for many generations. FRESH™ strains are genetically stable.
