Overpitching

[Jthornburgh]

Is it possiable to over pitch?

 

[Curtis2010]

Yes.

 

[Sailingeric]

 

[flars]

It is possible to over pitch, but the volume of yeast is so much greater than just having enough cells for a successful ferment, you would know it was to much.

Pitch rate/yeast starter calculators like Brew United or Brewers Friend, are your best friends.

 

[Curtis2010]

Experiment on pitching rates, specifically over pitching:

sciencebrewer.com/2012/03/02/pitching-rate-experiment-part-deux-results/

I accidentally, and dramatically, over pitched once. The result was similar to the above experiment. The beer had very thin body and little flavor...like the excessive yeast population eliminated everything.

 

[Jthornburgh]

I figure it's impossible to know exactly how many yeast cells you have, so whne using the calculator, and it says to have 231 billion, what do you usually go for in the starter? In his experiment he went 4x the recommended size, where do you see a decrease in quality: 1.5x, 2x, 3x?

Also how do you know the mfg date of the yeast? The whitelabs vial I have it only showed a best by date.

 

[max384]

Commercial breweries often significantly overpitch compared to typical homebrew pitch rates, and they obviously churn out good beer. I think you'd have to really overpitch to have deleterious effects.

 

[Gavin C]

Also how do you know the mfg date of the yeast? The whitelabs vial I have it only showed a best by date.

4 months prior to best-by-date is the date of manufacture

 

[slym2none]

I regularly use an entire 11g packet of dry yeast (or used to, anyway) in 2.5 gallons of wort. That's a 2-3x overpitch. I haven't had any bad effects due to too much yeast yet.

 

[passedpawn]

Is it possiable to over pitch?

I don't think so, not on the homebrewer level. You'd have to be pretty hard corps to pitch too much yeast. I think there are beers that benefit from low yeast count and the flavors derived from that, especially belgian beers and maybe some english ones. But the American beer styles that people like to brew, IPAs, pale ales, and especially any lagers, you're only going to improve those with more yeast.

 

[dstar26t]

If you take the time to do cell counts, pitch properly, taste your beer objectively and take notes, you will notice a difference. This year I pitched all my German beers 1.3-1.5X more and did not like the results. Especially the Kolsch which requires those esters that weren't produced. I agree that the American styles are less effected but practice makes perfect. Get your self some lab equipment, develop some good SOPs and experiment. I've found the only issue with brewing at the "homebrew level" is being able to brew often enough.

 

[Jthornburgh]

If you take the time to do cell counts, pitch properly, taste your beer objectively and take notes, you will notice a difference. This year I pitched all my German beers 1.3-1.5X more and did not like the results. Especially the Kolsch which requires those esters that weren't produced. I agree that the American styles are less effected but practice makes perfect. Get your self some lab equipment, develop some good SOPs and experiment. I've found the only issue with brewing at the "homebrew level" is being able to brew often enough.

So would you slightly under pitch with the kolsch in order to get more esters?

 

[dstar26t]

So would you slightly under pitch with the kolsch in order to get more esters?

I like that recipe pitched with 1 Million cells/mL/°P at 58F and then raised to 60F after 48 hours.