Am I over pitching

[Brewslikeaking]

I regularly brew 1 gallon batches and I usually use half of a yeast packet, dry or otherwise but usually dry. In all my bottles there is a yeast cake. Am I overpitching? Alot of the beers has an overpowering smell and taste of yeasst. Howw can i combat this? Any suggestions are welcomed.

 

[masskrug]

Every bottle will have a yeast cake. That is bottle conditioning. Now, how big is your bottle and how thick is the cake?

Also, pour your beer gently from the bottle into a glass. Leave the last 1/2" of beer and yeast in the bottle.

 

[Calder]

Leave it longer before bottling. More yeast will drop out of suspension.

 

[heckler73]

1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary (in absence of yeast cake), 3 weeks in bottles.

 

[BreezyBrew]

I regularly brew 1 gallon batches and I usually use half of a yeast packet, dry or otherwise but usually dry. In all my bottles there is a yeast cake. Am I overpitching? Alot of the beers has an overpowering smell and taste of yeasst. Howw can i combat this? Any suggestions are welcomed.

I realized I was overpitching when the beer turned out with an extremely thin malt profile - when I mashed high, and had an astringent quality that was off putting.

 

[Brewslikeaking]

Every bottle will have a yeast cake. That is bottle conditioning. Now, how big is your bottle and how thick is the cake?

Also, pour your beer gently from the bottle into a glass. Leave the last 1/2" of beer and yeast in the bottle.

The bottles are regular 12oz and the yeast cake is about 1 cm or 1/2inch

 

[TeeJo]

Not so much a problem with the amount of yeast pitched, but with getting it into the bottle before it settles out enough.

That's what it seems to me.

Cold crash or otherwise let the yeast settle before bottling.

TeeJo

 

[Frilock]

Does the beer taste good?

 

[brewmadness]

1/2" of yeast cake in your bottles sounds like a lot. And if the packs of dry yeast are sufficient for a 5 gallon batch of average gravity beer, 1/2 a pack of yeast in a one gallon batch also sounds like a lot. If you have 1/5 of a standard 5 gallon batch, I would try cutting back your yeast pitch to around 1/4 of a packet of dry yeast. Of course that is assuming you are pitching to a 1.050 or so wort.

 

[Talgrath]

Long story short, yes.

Longer explanation, it depends on the gravity of the beer. Assuming a 1.060 gravity beer you are pitching somewhere around 3 times more yeast than necessary, (there's approximately 20 billion cells per gram of yeast, half a packet is 5.75 grams or about 115 billion cells) and that can make for a beer that, while it isn't bad, could have been better with fuller flavor. For a 1 gallon 1.060 beer you should be pitching roughly 2.1 grams of dry yeast, less if it's a lower gravity and more if it's a higher gravity. I highly suggest using a yeast calculator to determine how much yeast you need to pitch, not only will it make for better beer it will save you money on yeast too.

 

[BigFloyd]

It's not the amount to yeast you're pitching that's the issue. 1/2 packet sprinkled dry into a gallon of typical grav wort isn't that severe of an overpitch.

Since you're doing one-gallon batches, the solution is pretty easy. Give it a few weeks to ferment then put the fermenter in the fridge for a week to "cold crash" the excess yeast to the bottom. This will also make the yeast cake more firm and less likely to be sucked out when you transfer the cold beer to a bottling bucket. Don't worry, there will still be enough yeast to carbonate.

Do this and you'll see much less yeast trub in the bottom of each bottle.

 

[Talgrath]

It's not the amount to yeast you're pitching that's the issue. 1/2 packet sprinkled dry into a gallon of typical grav wort isn't that severe of an overpitch.

Since you're doing one-gallon batches, the solution is pretty easy. Give it a few weeks to ferment then put the fermenter in the fridge for a week to "cold crash" the excess yeast to the bottom. This will also make the yeast cake more firm and less likely to be sucked out when you transfer the cold beer to a bottling bucket. Don't worry, there will still be enough yeast to carbonate.

Do this and you'll see much less yeast trub in the bottom of each bottle.

3 times the amount necessary is definitely a big overpitch. Why not just use the correct amount and save money? All you need is a scale capable of measuring in grams. 2.1 grams per gallon of standard gravity wort means you can get 5 batches of 1 gallon beer out of one yeast packet. Even if you believe that big of an overpitch won't have an affect on flavor (which I would disagree with) you're literally wasting money by overpitching that severely.

 

[Brewslikeaking]

3 times the amount necessary is definitely a big overpitch. Why not just use the correct amount and save money? All you need is a scale capable of measuring in grams. 2.1 grams per gallon of standard gravity wort means you can get 5 batches of 1 gallon beer out of one yeast packet. Even if you believe that big of an overpitch won't have an affect on flavor (which I would disagree with) you're literally wasting money by overpitching that severely.

How can you store dry yeast after opening it. Their website says it can only last a week after opening. I don't brew more than once a week so I don't know how I can save money on yeast like you say

 

[Brewslikeaking]

3 times the amount necessary is definitely a big overpitch. Why not just use the correct amount and save money? All you need is a scale capable of measuring in grams. 2.1 grams per gallon of standard gravity wort means you can get 5 batches of 1 gallon beer out of one yeast packet. Even if you believe that big of an overpitch won't have an affect on flavor (which I would disagree with) you're literally wasting money by overpitching that severely.

How can you store dry yeast after opening it. Their website says it can only last a week after opening. I don't brew more than once a week so I don't know how I can save money on yeast like you say

 

[Talgrath]

How can you store dry yeast after opening it. Their website says it can only last a week after opening. I don't brew more than once a week so I don't know how I can save money on yeast like you say

Admittedly, if you aren't brewing that frequently, you do have some issues as far as saving money. I'd suggest, though I don't have proof that this would work, but if you were to vacuum seal the yeast then that would probably preserve it, but I'm not sure that you're saving money then. Alternatively, since you'd be wasting it anyway by overpitching, just pitch the amount you need. The ideal option, I think, given that you're doing very small batches, is yeast ranching; that way you can pull off only the amount of yeast you need and you're not wasting anything. BYO has a fairly good beginner's guide to yeast ranching http://byo.com/hops/item/1662-yeast-ranching-advanced-homebrewing. Out of curiosity, why are you doing such small batches?

 

[RM-MN]

How can you store dry yeast after opening it. Their website says it can only last a week after opening. I don't brew more than once a week so I don't know how I can save money on yeast like you say

Dry yeast is way more hardy than that. I've used half a package for a beer and a year later used the other half. Both beers turned out good. The manufacturer won't tell you that because that would be a sort of warranty and not everyone will store it properly to get that good shelf life and besides, they are in the business to sell yeast. I'm not.

I typically use half a packet at a time since I usually do half a batch but I try to use the other half within a couple months. I close the package by folding it over twice and use a clothes pin to keep it closed and put it in the refrigerator. Haven't had one fail yet.