Yeast advice

[RustyV8]

Hi all - I’m planning to attempt a 10ltr DME based NEIPA in a few days. The only yeast I have on hand is a 125ml bag of Wyeast London Ale III.

Would a full bag of yeast be way too much as it’s only a half batch?

 

[Alan_Reginato]

I don't think it's going to be an issue. It's only about 2x the minimum cells needed. I've been working with yeast cake and it had nearly 10x. No signs of over pitching off flavours, like diacetyl.

 

[foxbat]

If the expiry date is close it may not be enough. Enter your numbers into this calculator to check. The initial cell count is 100bn. Wyeast print a 6 month expiry date so work back from that to get the production date:

https://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php
An NEIPA uses a lot of expensive hops so better to be safe than sorry.,

 

[RustyV8]

Wow, that’s good info. The Expiration is June 19th - so based on that calculator you sent I’ve only got about 55bln viable cells left and I need about 133bln.....
..... off to the shop for me so
Thanks guys....

 

[foxbat]

You could make a small starter before brewday. The calculator will tell you how big it needs to be. Pitching a starter means you'll be pitching a lot of new, healthy cells.

 

[RustyV8]

I haven’t done that before, it might be a step too far just for the moment as this is just my 4th brew Anyway my LHBS is only 20mins away so no real issues driving to get more.

another questionwhile I’m at it - can you mix different types of yeasts together or do they not play well together?

 

[foxbat]

I haven’t done that before, it might be a step too far just for the moment as this is just my 4th brew Anyway my LHBS is only 20mins away so no real issues driving to get more.

another questionwhile I’m at it - can you mix different types of yeasts together or do they not play well together?

You can, indeed the Adnams 'strain' is a mix of two but what you'll end up with if you take two random strains is anybody's guess. In the Adnams case one of the strains eventually dominates the other so they have to go back to a fresh blend every so often. It seems like a lot of effort but they do make very good beer so it obviously works for them.

 

[RustyV8]

Good to know think I’ll just stick to one anyway

 

[RustyV8]

Follow up question here folks on the yeast amount needed.

When I put my ingredients into the BrewersFriend site (I.e the recipe builder) it says 52bn cells for a 10ltr batch down in the Yeast section.

Brewunited.com above says about 133bn for 10ltrs.

I have 2 bags of Wyeast ready to go (due to their age, about 130bn cells between then) but now not sure if it’s too much...??

 

[Rochefort]

It won't be too big a pitch if the SG is over 1.060, otherwise yes, a bit too much, you might get fewer esters in the beer. That is about the limit of the worst-case scenario.