Why the discrepancy in required cell counts?

[cloudybrewer]

This is copied directly from White Labs website in the section about starter tips:

"One package of White Labs yeast within proper date ranges will work for any 5-gallon batch of beer of any gravity."

Their yeast packs contain 100 billion cells on the day of packaging. According to Brewer's friend, for a 5 gallon batch of 1.042 wort, you need 99 billion for a pitch rate of .50 mil cells/ ml/ P.

Now the question, why does white labs make the above statement when they only have enough cells for a .50 pitch rate in a 1.042 wort? 1.042 is on the smaller side and .50 seems to be too little. Isn't .75 mil a more acceptable rate?

I'm not calling out White Labs here, not at all, just trying to learn. I love math because numbers don't lie, so when they don't seem to add up I try to find out why. Thanks for the help.

 

[day_trippr]

Perhaps it comes down to the full definition of "will work".
Maybe "will work" is a superset of outcomes that includes "desirable".

I honestly don't know other than chalking it up to marketing over science.
I occasionally run into some obvious BS on both of the major yeast sites and just shake my head and move on...

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

They are also marketing to the lowest common denominator. They don't want to make it too difficult for the beginner. What you can do is not always what is best to do. Even among those who say you need to make a starter for X amount of OG, there is a range. I have heard 1.040, 1.050 and 1.060 stated as the lowest gravity.