Overpitching yeast

[sictransit701]

I did a 10 gallon 1.068 og beer. Pitched 4 us05 packs. Did I over pitch? Consequences?

 

[Broken Crow]

It might depend on what you brewed.. My own experiments with over/under-pitching are limited to English styles; Stout, Brown, Amber, Mild and ESB. Using Lallemand's Nottingham, Windsor, London or Safale S-04, the only easily discernable and describable difference was with the ESB: My usual ESB would announce itself first to my nose as I raised the glass, then immediately following, to my tongue, with the declaration of "East Kent Goldings!".... The overpitched version had lost the definition or detail that made that taste declaration, and it was indistinguishable from any of the immediate Golding relatives (Styrian, BC, US...etc.) It was still enjoyable, though perhaps somewhat less so for psychological reasons of 'expectations'.
Tell us what type of beer you made.

 

[Miraculix]

I did a 10 gallon 1.068 og beer. Pitched 4 us05 packs. Did I over pitch? Consequences?

No, you're fine.

 

[sictransit701]

It might depend on what you brewed.. My own experiments with over/under-pitching are limited to English styles; Stout, Brown, Amber, Mild and ESB. Using Lallemand's Nottingham, Windsor, London or Safale S-04, the only easily discernable and describable difference was with the ESB: My usual ESB would announce itself first to my nose as I raised the glass, then immediately following, to my tongue, with the declaration of "East Kent Goldings!".... The overpitched version had lost the definition or detail that made that taste declaration, and it was indistinguishable from any of the immediate Golding relatives (Styrian, BC, US...etc.) It was still enjoyable, though perhaps somewhat less so for psychological reasons of 'expectations'.
Tell us what type of beer you made.

It was a Porter with ekg hops!

 

[Broken Crow]

Being a Porter, you're probably gonna let it ferment a longer time than I do with my ESB... nice looking recipe.. My personal 'feeling' based on your ingredients, particularly the chocolate and black malt, is that you'll have something awesome and overpitching won't make a difference.

 

[IslandLizard]

It was a Porter with ekg hops!

I think it's fine, and seriously doubt you'd notice any difference compared with a 2 or 3 pack pitch for that batch of beer.
Your ferm temp will have more impact on the flavor than the pitch.

2 packs would have been a slight underpitch, 2-1/2 - 3 packs about right, going by pitch calculators.

 

[sictransit701]

By the way, it was a direct pitch. I did not rehydrate.

 

[brewbama]

I imagine you overpitched by ~1 pack. I wouldn’t stress over it. What’s done is done.

 

[balrog]

It is very difficult to overpitch to the point where you strip flavor. Some of the esters are created when the yeast are propogating to the population point they "like" for a given wort. If you overpitch, you risk not getting some of those esters if you're after them. Other than that, there's not really much problem at the homebrew level and hard to overpitch to a detrimental point.

 

[hotbeer]

By the way, it was a direct pitch. I did not rehydrate.

I've always direct pitched. Don't aerate any more either.