Just to comment on the original post, and some of the comments about rehydrating, or making a starter with dry yeast.
I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but...
Dry yeast is a far superior product than it was many years ago.
We had the North American Rep for Fermentis do a presentation at our home brew club about 3 years ago.
Here is what I learned.
In the presentation he explained, among many other things, the advancements in producing dry yeast, and the benefits of those enhancements to the brewer.
There is absolutely no need to rehydrate, or do a starter with dry yeast today.
Will your fermentation start a few, or a dozen hours sooner? Yes, but the end result, and only benefit is that you could conceivably package it a few or 12 hours sooner. There is no other benefit.
There is also absolutely no need whatsoever to aerate your wort in any way if your wort is 1060 or less as well.
The yeast just doesn't need it, and there will be no benefit from it whatsoever.
After the presentation I had a chance to talk with this gentleman.
At the time I was producing wort at about 1063 for a number of my brews, he said, you're fine, you really don't need to aerate, 1060 is just a safe number he was quoting. I brewed many batches at 1063 without aerating, rehydrating, or doing a starter, and never had any off flavors, or fermentation issues.
Yes, they left the rehydration instructions on the yeast packets, but is truly not necessary, especially at our level.
In my first few years of homebrewing I tried to find more things to do in the process to be more of a "brewer", including trying liquid yeast like the real brewers use. Rehydrating dry yeast, doing starters for liquid yeast, harvesting yeast, were some of the tasks I added. None of this improved my beer, it just made more work, and more things to clean, and store...
You do what works for you, I just thought I would share what I have learned.
Cheers!
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