How much to underpitch?

[Hayden512]

Doing a 1.05 hefeweizen on Friday and was looking for a good amount of banana flavor. Using wyeast 3068. I was planning on fermenting at the lower end however I wanted to underpitch a bit. Looks like the recommended amount is 200 billion cells. Where should I aim to stress the yeast a bit but not end up with super overpowering esters?

Was originally planning on pitching 2 packs w/o a starter

 

[meatcleaver]

just pitch one smack pack & ferment @ 72 for banana, 66-70 for balance, cooler for cloves.

 

[JonM]

Lots of very good info here. One of the highlights is the author (a Ninkasi Award winner) dismissing the under pitching thing and pointing out how lots of banana esters can be TOO much.

http://byo.com/body/item/2265-german-hefeweizen-style-profile

 

[Hayden512]

Lots of good info. I do not want a banana bomb but I definitely want the esters to lean on the banana side over the clove. On wyeasts website it states that overpitching could completely lose the banana flavor. I'll probably wait to come to a final decision until I pick up my ingredients and see the date on the yeast.

 

[jmcquesten]

Doing a 1.05 hefeweizen on Friday and was looking for a good amount of banana flavor. Using wyeast 3068. I was planning on fermenting at the lower end however I wanted to underpitch a bit. Looks like the recommended amount is 200 billion cells. Where should I aim to stress the yeast a bit but not end up with super overpowering esters?

Was originally planning on pitching 2 packs w/o a starter

I recently pitched 244 billion cells into a 12 gallon batch of hefeweizen with a 1.052 gravity. I fermented at 62°F using wlp 300. The beer came out cleaner than what I was going for, but is still really good. If I did it over, I'd pitch the same amount of yeast but ferment at 65°F. That temp seems to be where wlp 300 really starts with the banana esters. Sorry I can't comment on the wyeast 3069, I've never used it, but it's probably similar.

[edit] The temperatures I'm referring to in my case are my fermentation chamber temperatures, not the actual fermenting beer temps. I don't have a thermo well set up yet so I set the temperature a little lower than the temp I'm trying to ferment at.

 

[Hayden512]

On wyeast website the range is 64 to 75oF. So maybe 66oF w/ 1 pack? Probably lean on the side of banana without being overpowering?

 

[jmcquesten]

On wyeast website the range is 64 to 75oF. So maybe 66oF w/ 1 pack? Probably lean on the side of banana without being overpowering?

That's what I would probably try.

 

[Hayden512]

Picked up yeast. It was a month old with a viability of 70% so I made a half liter starter. Am I good brewing tomorrow or should I let it ride another day?

 

[cicquetto]

Lots of very good info here. One of the highlights is the author (a Ninkasi Award winner) dismissing the under pitching thing and pointing out how lots of banana esters can be TOO much.

http://byo.com/body/item/2265-german-hefeweizen-style-profile

For example, increasing the ratio of glucose to maltose in the wort increases the production of isoamyl acetate (banana flavor)

What does this phrase mean?