Pro brewery pitch rates vs. homebrew "overpitching"?

Briggs said:

The actual pitching rate used varies considerably between breweries and rates of 5 to 20 million cells/ml of wort are common depending on the specific gravity of the wort. An optimum level is considered to be 10 to 12 million cells/ml and this should result in a reproduction rate for lager yeast of 3 to 5 times.

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AdamWiz said:

I think that pro brewer's large pitching rates are mostly to increase fermentation speed and for the viability/repitchability of yeast with constant multi-generation use. Their main concerns are getting beer through the fermenters quickly and making sure their yeast is not stressed at all so they can continually reuse it. These 2 things are not nearly as important to homebrewers who don't need to rush production to make money and don't need to worry about cost cutting as much by repitching for many generations. For a pro brewer though, it is VERY important to be able to extensively reuse yeast to cut costs. They can't just buy a 6$ White Labs vial like us. I only reuse yeast from my lightest and lowest gravity beers, and even then for only a couple generations. I would rather spend an extra 6 bucks than risk mutated, contaminated, or overly stressed yeast messing up a batch.

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Malticulous said:

Thanks for the work Saun.

Pitching more than .8 to 1^6/ml per degree plato has little increase in fermentation rate, and pitching much more than that reduces yeast growth. 10^6/ml into 12P or 12^6/ml into 15P wort is in the sweetspot.



This is 15P wort.

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