One of the main points I was getting at is I just don’t understand how wyeast for example is 100 billion and says it’s good enough for a direct pitch but then every calculator is telling me I need close to 200.
There is the book "
Yeast" written by Jamil Zainasheff (of
Mr. Malty fame, and much more) and Chris White (yup, the White Labs guy).
It goes quite deeply into the organism, her inner workings and contribution to fermentation, especially beer. Among other interesting topics, it also focuses on how to optimize culturing, propagation, storage, and yes, fermentation.
That's where the recommended pitch rate (million cells/ml/°P) comes from, which in turn is based on tons of scientific research. It's also the pitch rate used in most modern day yeast (pitch) calculators. In that light, recommended pitch rates for
Lager yeasts are double those of Ale yeasts.
More recently, even Chris White, when asked, if he would pitch directly or make a starter, has stated he would pitch directly.
@mongoose33 mentioned this after he attended a brewing workshop in Asheville within the past 2 years.
Chris White undoubtedly believes in his company's products, but statements like that are curious at the least.
Maybe
he can grab a fresh PurePitch sleeve out of his company lab's refrigerator, and know it's as vital as last week's batch. But most of us don't have that luxury. My goto LHBS has an astonishing White Labs selection, but not many packs aren't even close as fresh as his, most are 2-4 month old on average. And they were shipped at some point, possibly more than once.
Even a vial from White Labs' Yeast vault I had
pre-ordered needed 3 step ups over 2 weeks to get a pitchable cell count for a 5 gallon 1.060 Grisette (it's a hoppy Saison) and have enough left for another starter to brew more from later. Yes, it was on a USPS truck for nearly a week on the most southern route to get here, in March, not even in the midst of Summer.