Overpitched - maybe?

I try to behave myself while brewing and keep the consumption of HB's to a minimum but I got a little carried away on Saturday. Everything went really well with the whole process and by Sunday afternoon the carboy had a nice kroisan and was bubbling nicely.

The one problem I discovered was this. I had a bottle of White Labs WL001 in my fridge and when I took it out Saturday morning it didn't look like it was "healthy" (it still had a month before it expired). I decided to be safe not sorry and went to the LHBS and bought another bottle to use for the brew. My intent was to use the new bottle and probably toss the older one.

However, On Sunday I found two empty tubes in the recycle bag and for the life of me I can't remember if I pitched both of them or just the one. So what will happen to my beer if I stupidly pitched both tubes of yeast? Over attenuation maybe? Not much I can do about it but I'm just curious

Have another hb and don't worry about it; it will start fermenting soon.

What avidhomebrewer said. You are still well within reasonable pitching rates.

There is a really good podcast on basicbrewing.com that speaks to this topic specifically. Basically they took a bunch of different batches and underpitch, pitched correctly and overpitched.

The results of the experiment didn't seem to really yield consistent results and the differences were pretty nominal. If you have the time I would really advise that you listen to the podcast as it's pretty fascinating. RDWHAHB!

Thanks for the encouragement! I had enough HB's last weekend, I'm done with that until Saturday. No worries on the fermenting part, it started within 12 hours.

It is technically possible to overpitch but in practice, it is difficult to achieve that "feat" on a homebrew scale. In any case, we tend to underpitch more often such that we are always advised to pitch more. Also, overpitching is never half as bad as underpitching.

There is no way two vials of yeast over pitched your beer, unless you were shooting for a Colorado 19-year-old-can-drink-if-it's-under-3.2%-'cause-that's-not-really-beer beer.

No worries.

Depending on the SG, 2 vials is good. A lot of people underpitch. I think for most 5g batches 2 vials is great, possibly better than one.

Just think of what possibly went into your beer that you DON'T have evidence of.

cvstrat said:

Depending on the SG, 2 vials is good. A lot of people underpitch. I think for most 5g batches 2 vials is great, possibly better than one.

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Yes, 2 vials is probably closer to the "Right amount". You should check out this pitching rate calculator: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

For 5 gallons of 1.050 wort with yeast that is manufactured 1 month ago (77% viability), you should probably be pitching about 2.3 vials, or 175 million viable yeast cells.

Since most people don't like buying lots of vials/smack packs, most people pitch a starter. With a stir plate, you can achieve 175 million viable cells with a 1L starter and 1 vial in 18-24 hours.

i agree with what has been said, but i'm more curious what about the vial didn't 'look' healthy? Did it seem to be the wrong color, things floating in it, yeast clumping together? what about it made you feel uncertain.

I've had yeast not smell right, but not really sure about look right (at least before it expired).

I'm just curious.

The "didn't look right" part was because there was a relatively large chunk that didn't want to dissolve. I usually take the vial out of the fridge in the morning if I am brewing in the afternoon. I pick up the tube & give it a shake throughout the day. In the past everything has always turned into a slurry after a couple of hours of warming & shaking. This vial had a blob in it about the size of half a pinky that just wouldn't dissolve.

You sure you didn't bet a buddy he wouldn't drink it? Seems like something I would do after a few. Maybe it never even made it into your wort.