Over Yeasting??

What happens to Wort if you over Yeast?

If you were depending on the yeast for esters such as in a German witbier, they will be greatly diminished. Some say that a yeasty taste can become apparent with high levels of over-pitching.

gelatin said:

If you were depending on the yeast for esters such as in a German witbier, they will be greatly diminished. Some say that a yeasty taste can become apparent with high levels of over-pitching.

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THank you!!!!

In regards to over yeasting, would using double yeast and adding extra sugar raise the alcohol content of the finished beer?

I just made my first batch (Stout altered to be a Baltic Porter with a coffee and chocolate flavors added), and the alcohol content is only about 4% by volume when I was hoping the extra sugar I added (1 cup before primary) would raise it. The aroma is nice and flavor seems to be a great preview before carbonation but obviously the % I wanted wasn't accomplished. I'm thinking an extra fermentation step with more yeast could solve that.

Tips for the next batch would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Adding extra sugar will increase the ABV. As long as the yeast can tolerate the extra alcohol, overpitching will not significantly increase the ABV.

Adding pure sugar will also decrease body and mouthfeel. If you are making an exceptionally strong beer this is desirable, otherwise you will want to bump up the malt extract/grains while keeping hops in balance.

Adding one cup of sugar will increase the volume of alcohol, but depending on the original batch size may not do squat to the overall ABV. One cup of sugar in a 5 gallon batch won't be noticeable.

I'm sensing a trend here. Overmalting? Overyeasting?

Thanks for such a quick reply. I'll make sure to try more sugar in the next batch. How much for a 5 gallon batch would be best to reach an 8-9% ABV?

Also, I'm using pre-made Wort kits from The Brew House, and just making alterations for my personal taste.

FlavorHound said:

Also, I'm using permafrost Wort kits from The Brew House, and just making alterations for my personal taste.

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Pre-made not permafrost! Stupid autocorrect.

There's a world of knowledge about beer styles and balancing hop bitterness with malt sweetness. Are you using pre-hopped malt extracts? If so, the calculations just got a lot more difficult due to estimates needed about hop bitterness. If not, you need to use a brew calculator like brewersfriend.com and target an IBU/OG ratio that's similar to the recipe.

FlavorHound said:

Thanks for such a quick reply. I'll make sure to try more sugar in the next batch. How much for a 5 gallon batch would be best to reach an 8-9% ABV?

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To go from 4% to 8% would require twice the amount of sugar. But if you do that with sugar you're going to get something that doesn't taste like beer anymore. You need to look for recipes that are supposed to give you a high alcohol beer to begin with, without added sugar.

Adding more yeast will not increase alcohol levels, except in the case where it was severely under used in the first place, and/or fermentation stopped before it reached the target gravity.

For a high alcohol beer you usually need more yeast than a single package, whether dry yeast or liquid yeast, will give you. Most people make a yeast starter to multiply the yeast, but adding an extra package will also work, but cost more money.

Thanks guys. Sounds like if I want to try making a high gravity beer I'll have to start experimenting with recipes from scratch. This will save me a lot of time from fiddling too much with the mix. Greatly appreciated.