ChessRockwell

Recipes 

This was my first kit ever (aside from a few Mr. Beer batches) and I thought it came out awesome. I only pitched the 1 packet of (I think it was) US-05 that came with it, and my FG was somewhere around 1.030, but I thought it tasted EXCELLENT. If you're like me and prefer your Russian Imperials a little on the sweeter side, I think under-pitching with one pack of dry yeast isn't a problem at all. If you're concerned with the numbers and want your FG lower and your beer a little dryer, you definitely need to pitch 2 packets of yeast.
Either way if you're already past pitching and are extremely worried about your FG being a little too high on a Russian Imperial stout, I say relax, don't worry about it. Give it another week or two to finish and bottle it. It'll be great.

corn

Recipes 

how long from brew day to bottling? the instructions are a little generic at this point. they say 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, then bottle. others are saying this type of stout can take months.

BrewKnurd

Recipes 

People are suggesting two packs because proper pitching rate is a function of your beer's original gravity. For high enough gravity beers (don't know the OG of this particular RIS, but a typical RIS would fall into this category), you're not going to hit recommended pitching rates with 1 pack of yeast for 5 gallons of beer.

Consequences of underpitching range anywhere from minimal (i.e. possibly unperceptable) to off flavors to significant under-attenuation.

Before anyone chimes in with "i only pitched one packet and everything turned out fine".... that's great. I'm happy it worked for you. But pitching the proper amount of yeast is still a better idea.

mrmalty.com for everything you want to know about pitching rates.

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sfrisby

Recipes 

Deleted. Wrong forum.

corn

Recipes 

Ok I am seeing that there are two sizes of yeast packets. 5oz and 11.5oz. Are we all talking about the same size? Along with that, are there any drawbacks to over pitching? I pitched one 11.5 oz packet of safale s-04, that I rehydrated. Mr. Malty.com said to pitch 1.4 packets. So better to do 1 or 2?

ChessRockwell

Recipes 

There's plenty of debate on this and you could get more than a few different answers, I'd just do a month in primary and no secondary personally, making sure the gravity had stabilized before bottling. Then you can taste some of them earlier and let others age to find out where you think it's at it's peak.

BrewKnurd

Recipes 

Why not just 1.4?

But to answer your question about overpitching, yes, there are potential downsides to overpitching, but you would probably need to overpitch more significantly than 2 packs vs 1.4 to tell any difference.

If you overpitch enough you can end up with:
1) elevated fermentation temps from more yeast activity
2) reduction in reproduction of yeast, and many of your yeast flavor compounds are produced during reduction. this is obviously less important for very neutral yeast where you're not looking for much flavor contribution anyways.

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I am the brewer formerly known as discnjh.
"If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs."
-David Daye

Jeepninja

Recipes 

I do a coffee RIS and I use a starter for my yeast. I've been using Rogue's Pacman yeast for all my ales and imperial ales with a lot of success. My current RIS is ready to move to the secondary this weekend. Here is the recipe I use:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Demon-Roast-Imperial-Stout-Coffee-Infused-Beer/

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