That's a specious argument. When people read "you'll be fine", what they take away from the conversation is "that practice is perfectly acceptable". It is not, any more than eyeballing hops or grain or liquor or temperatures.
Homebrewing as a culture has come a loooooong way since I started 20 years ago, when hopped extract in tins was the standard and the only yeast you could get was dried and, frankly, crap. We've gotten to the point where a brewer worth his salt won't half-ass any of his ingredients or procedures,
ever, except in the case of yeast. With yeast, we're still all like, "Yeah, whatever. You'll be fine." That attitude needs to go away. It is just one of the windmills against which I tilt.
This argument is partially specious as well. Of course each circumstance is different. Each ferment is different, each strain is different, ad nauseum. But that is no reason to disregard the calculators, as you advised above. Your advice is a perfect example of letting the best be the enemy of the good: Yes, the only way to be
sure is to do cell counts. But how many hobbyists are equipped for that? Hell, the only reason I'm equipped for it is because I learned it on the job.
MrMalty and other calculators are a ballpark, yes. But they're a far more accurate measurement than anything you've advised. I agree that
obsessing over cell count is distasteful. But to advise blithe disregard for commonly-accepted good practice is irresponsible.
Agreed. I've done the same thing.
What I'm kicking at is the attitude that this is perfectly fine procedure. It's not. We can't say, "OMGWTFBBQ UR BEER IZ RUINED", because that's not true. But what happened in this thread was blithe support of poor practice. We should at least, in the answer to such questions, say something like, "Well, best practice is XYZ, because of 123. You'll probably be all right doing ABC, but it's a half-assed solution. Take a lesson from this and always strive for best practice." What Boyd wrote just above is really the sort of advice Ridire needed right off the bat. Instead, he got far too much "Meh. Whatevs."
I support answers like "Meh. Whatevs." when circumstances dictate (or even allow) it. This is not one of those cases.
In closing, please don't think I'm being all ANGERFURY. If we were sitting in a pub, this would be a spirited conversation, nothing more.
Bob