High-gravity dry yeast pitching question

[brianpablo]

Hi everyone - I'm getting ready to make a Black IPA that has a relatively high gravity of 1.075 (that's pretty high for a nube like me). Because I live outside the US I don't really have the option of liquid yeast, so I'm planning to do it with Safale 05 which is the default dry yeast option with the kit.

My problem is - how many packs do I use? Mr. Malty says I can get the necessary 270 billion yeast cells from 1.3 packages of Safale 05, which implies 18 billion cells per gram. The manufacturer on the other hand says it only has 6 billion cells per gram. I'm seeing comments on Northern Brewer's site from people saying they did it with just one package, other people talking about using two. I gather from some preliminary Googling that there's ample dispute over how many cells are actually in a gram of dry yeast.

Any advice? Double up for good measure? Or just use a single pack and stop overthinking it?

Thanks!

 

[sptaylor70]

You can use one package or two, as you see fit. You're pretty close to the recommendation either way, so it should be fine.

 

[BigFloyd]

In a 1.075 ale, I'd pitch two 11g packs and call it good.

 

[flatlanderHQ]

I would pitch two packages with that gravity.
You don't want to risk off flavours due to yeast stress.

 

[eastoak]

once fermentation is over the yeast is now liquid yeast for your future beers. you can reuse it many times as long as you keep a clean brew house.

 

[BigFloyd]

once fermentation is over the yeast is now liquid yeast for your future beers. you can reuse it many times as long as you keep a clean brew house.

Yep. US-05 is essentially WLP001 Chico strain yeast.

White Labs recommends that you don't reuse yeast from higher ABV (above 6.5%) batches. The higher levels of alcohol can cause stress the yeast and cause petite cell mutations.

 

[HomebrewHandicapper]

I just finished brewing a Black IPa this morning. Probably the same one it sounds like and I pitched 2 packs of the 05. I asked the same question at the brewshop and he had a good point - it's cheap insurance for a spendy recipe. Maybe he just wanted to sell more but it made sense to me.

 

[yesyves]

Nottingham dry yeast is quite tolerant to high alcool levels, so it could make a good choice too.

I used 2 packs for a 1.102 OG BarleyWine and it worked quite well.