Amount of yeast to pitch

I'm brewing a blood orange hefe this weekend and won't be able to get to my LHBS until brew day, so I can't make a starter in time. Mr.Malty suggests I use 2 (1.9 to be exact) vials of yeast, but for some reason I feel like this may be excessive and I really don't want any off flavors in this one. So would 2 vials of WLP300 be too much for a 5 gallon 1.053ish batch?

Try this starter calculator as a cross reference: http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

According to White Labs,one vial is supposed to be good for pitching straight into a wort up to 1.070OG. I did just that in a dark lager of OG1.046,& it worked great. The yeast was WL029.

yeastyboys said:

I'm brewing a blood orange hefe this weekend and won't be able to get to my LHBS until brew day, so I can't make a starter in time. Mr.Malty suggests I use 2 (1.9 to be exact) vials of yeast, but for some reason I feel like this may be excessive and I really don't want any off flavors in this one. So would 2 vials of WLP300 be too much for a 5 gallon 1.053ish batch?

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Severely under pitching stresses the yeast, can cause off flavors and is right at the top of the list why beers don't always fully attenuate. Not to mention you're making a lighter beer where any flaws don't have anything to hide behind. Can 1 vial ferment your beer... Yes. Will it make a good beer... Probably. Will it make a world class beer of commercial or competition quality... only if you're lucky and I'd go so far to say no. If you don't want off flavors I'd suggest pitching the proper amount. I'd rather spend the $6 then end up with a beer I'm disappointed with.

Okay so according to the brewer's friend calculator, at full viability I will have 14 billion extra yeast cells than necessary. Would that be enough to cause any off flavor in my beer? I know under pitching and over pitching can cause off flavors and I really can't hide those in this beer

I think most people would suggest that pitching to packets of liquid yeast will not lead to off flavors from overpitching. But if you are that worried about it, why not use dry yeast instead? WB-06 is a nice wheat beer yeast. One packet is perfect.

It is really, really hard to over pitch and then get off flavors as a result. And besides, 14 billion is almost inconsequential. If you end up with a little more wort than expected, you'll need those extra cells.

True. The only reason I'm worried is because this is my first light beer so I've been able to mask mistakes previously. But I'll probably end up pitching 2. Thanks guys!!