Looking for views please on why you should not over pitch yeast
Looking for views please on why you should not over pitch yeast
My question wasn't to try and achieve anything in particularWhat are you trying to achieve by over-pitching?
If you’re looking to shorten fermentation time for example you might want to consider the yeast you use, the temperature you ferment at, or prepare a starter to reduce lag time and increase cell count.
My question wasn't to try and achieve anything in particular
It's just I have read "don't under or over pitch"
I understand the under pitching consequences but not so sure on over pitching
Thanks, AlanThis article suggests that occurs an increase in diacetyl for high pitch rate. [PDF] Impact of pitching rate on yeast fermentation performance and beer flavour | Semantic Scholar
The threshold should be around 100 ppb, and with 40x10^6 cells/mL in a lager, hit 307 ppb. View attachment 42566
I usually pitch 5x10^6 cells/mL, with dry yeast. That's the minimum suggested by Brewers Friend calculator. For 0.35M cells / mL / °P
Maybe with 1 L slurry for 20 L wort, could get 50x10^6 cells/mL.
Thinking about, I just realized that my last batch, that I used the yeast cake from the previously one, hit that number. I didn't notice anything that seems to be an off flavour. But it's something to care about next time.
I pitch one sachet for all brews, but two if it's a high gravity beer. Whilst there may be perceptible differences in the end product, they are probably tiny, of 5 perceptible at all. Consistency isn't important to me as I rarely repeat a recipe.Thus for the home brewer for whom every brew is a new adventure, it would seem wise to pitch big and not worry too much about exact yeast counts, whereas for the commercial brewer, whose customers expect each batch to taste the same as the previous one, cell counting needs to taken seriously.
I agree. If you are doing standard 20-23 litre batches and not making extra strong beer (eg. Up to 6-7% abv) a single sachet of dried yeast will be fine. No starter required.I pitch one sachet for all brews, but two if it's a high gravity beer. Whilst there may be perceptible differences in the end product, they are probably tiny, of 5 perceptible at all. Consistency isn't important to me as I rarely repeat a recipe.
More yeast will also ferment quicker and how long it takes to ferment is probably also important to commercial breweries. But it doesn't matter a jot if I have to leave mine in the fermenter an extra 1/2 weeks for it to finish due to an underpitch.
All of which suggests that actually, we're not actually underpitching or indeed overpitching, despite some sources suggesting otherwise.I suspect we're all either under-itching or overpitching yeast. The chances that you're hitting the correct amount based on your calculators and assumptions about viable starting yeast populations from your packets and liquid viles that have been sat on several warehouse shelves at unknown temperature, transported between various places exposed to varying temperature conditions etc. The only way to be sure is to set yourself up a small lab area and get a microscope and actually count cells...that is what the larger more serious breweries do.
I suspect the window is quite wide and to get any noticeable negative impacts you have to be either heavily under or over pitching.
For example for 2 years I was being predominately brewing from 19litre all grain kits that always came with one packet of dried yeast or one vile of liquid yeast to make a 2 litre starter with and all the resulting beers were fine with no off flavours anyone could detect and turned out very nice indeed. I've since started using pitch rate calculators that say I have been underpitching all this time so have adjusted and am now over pitching slightly for the convenience of using 2 packets of yeast instead of 1.5 packets, and I cant really say I've noticed a difference. So either my overpitched beers are just as 'flawed' as my previous unerpitched... or it doesn't really matter at least at these small batch volumes.
Yeap. A second pack of yeast will add up to a 15% extra cost of my ingredients in a brew.All of which suggests that actually, we're not actually underpitching or indeed overpitching, despite some sources suggesting otherwise.
It's biology, not everything is exact.
Of course there are some who would love us to use two packets instead of one, "just in case"... Just saying
Would a starter be cheaper?Yeap. A second pack of yeast will add up to a 15% extra cost of my ingredients in a brew.
Seriously starting to think about harvesting but don't think my wife would appreciate it in the fridge
Enter your email address to join: