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**jaspass** · 05-27-2012, 01:03 AM

I am trying to brew a batch with some banana flavor, so after some research I found that Wyeast 3333 would achieve these results if I ferment at a warmer temp (no problem I have that control) and if I "...decrease the pitch rate. Over pitching can result in a near complete loss of banana character." (from Wyeastlabs.com).

I picked up one of the usual slap packs with the nutrients already in it. I suppose I ultimately have a few questions on this as controlling yeast is new to me. In the past I simply bought the pack, slapped it, then pitched it a few hours later once activated.

My first question is that decreasing or overpitching is simply a relative description, is there a specific pitch rate anyone would recommend to achieve what Wyeast calls decreased pitching?

I should also mention I am doing a 5 gallon batch, and it should have an OG of 1.051.

Using a chart Wyeast has online it shows a standard pitch rate for a gravity less than 1.060 is around 6.0. Should I target a pitch rate of around 4-5 then? Too low? Just right for decreased pitch?

Second question is, how do I achieve this pitch rate? The pack says it has 100 Billiion Cells, and with nutrients it totals 125ml. That calculates to 800 million cells per ml, which seems way too high (so I suspect I am doing something wrong with these numbers).

Ultimately I'm just trying to achieve this decreased pitch rate, and am guessing I might want to simply pitch some, but not all the yeast after it has activated. Maybe half? Or 2/3, or 3/4?

Any insight or thoughts would be very appreciated. Am pretty new to trying to control yeast like this, so I have a lot of learning in front of me!

duboman · 05-27-2012, 01:47 AM

ImHO I would just pitch the smack pack which will give you the under pitch and couple that with the warmer temp you will get what you are looking for.

**helibrewer** · 05-27-2012, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaspass

I am trying to brew a batch with some banana flavor, so after some research I found that Wyeast 3333 would achieve these results if I ferment at a warmer temp (no problem I have that control) and if I "...decrease the pitch rate. Over pitching can result in a near complete loss of banana character." (from Wyeastlabs.com).

I picked up one of the usual slap packs with the nutrients already in it. I suppose I ultimately have a few questions on this as controlling yeast is new to me. In the past I simply bought the pack, slapped it, then pitched it a few hours later once activated.

My first question is that decreasing or overpitching is simply a relative description, is there a specific pitch rate anyone would recommend to achieve what Wyeast calls decreased pitching?

I should also mention I am doing a 5 gallon batch, and it should have an OG of 1.051.

Using a chart Wyeast has online it shows a standard pitch rate for a gravity less than 1.060 is around 6.0. Should I target a pitch rate of around 4-5 then? Too low? Just right for decreased pitch?

Second question is, how do I achieve this pitch rate? The pack says it has 100 Billiion Cells, and with nutrients it totals 125ml. That calculates to 800 million cells per ml, which seems way too high (so I suspect I am doing something wrong with these numbers).

Ultimately I'm just trying to achieve this decreased pitch rate, and am guessing I might want to simply pitch some, but not all the yeast after it has activated. Maybe half? Or 2/3, or 3/4?

Any insight or thoughts would be very appreciated. Am pretty new to trying to control yeast like this, so I have a lot of learning in front of me!

The smack pack in 19L (5 gallons) yields just over 5 million cells per ml which is just about a perfect underpitch for ester production.

See this: http://www.mbaa.com/Districts/MidSouth/presentations/Wheat_Beer_Yeast__Fermentation2.pdf

**jaspass** · 05-27-2012, 04:12 PM

Perfect. I am still wrapping my brain around the math for it all, but my brain understands 'use the whole pack'. I will give a try and post how the results turn out. Thanks so much!

**jaspass** · 05-27-2012, 04:48 PM

Ah, the light bulb just went off (or on really). If I have 5 gallons of wort, that is 18,927ml. If I take the 100 billion cells I have and divide that by the 18,927, I get 5.28 million cells per ml. That puts me under the 6 million/ml which has me at a decreased pitch. Makes much more sense now, I was using the math of the nutrients in my initial calcs and not the math of the wort. Thanks again for the post, it helped me get here!