Avoiding overpitching yeast and why?

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mdawson9

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Hi all. I'm an extract brewer and have add a few batches lately get stuck at a high-ish FG. Can I pitch 2 packs of dry yeast to remove the yeast count variable? Would this be over pitching in the recipe below? What harm does over pitching do? And while your looking, any feedback on this single hop IPA recipe? Thanks!

Recipe

Malt & Fermentables

LB OZ
6 6 Breiss Golden Light LME

2 ~ Breiss Golden Light LME

1 ~ Briess Caramel 40L

Specific Gravity
1.061 OG

Hops

Time OZ
60 min 1 New Zealand Nelson Sauvin ~ pellet
15 min 1 New Zealand Nelson Sauvin ~ pellet
5 min 1 New Zealand Nelson Sauvin ~ pellet
dry hop 2 New Zealand Nelson Sauvin ~ pellet

Safale US-05 Dry Yeast
 
That OG should not need 2 packets of yeast, especially with US-05. Are you adding all of your lme at the beginning of the boil? If so, try adding a small portion of the lme at the beginning of the boil and the majority with 15 minutes left in the boil. When you add it, stir a lot so it doesn't scorch on the bottom of the kettle which will cause a high fg.
 
At what gravity is high-ish? Extracts have a tendency to finish near 1.020.
Did you use dry or liquid yeast. If you used liquid yeast did you make a starter.
Even if you did not it still should not affect FG.
There should be no need to pitch more than one pack of dry yeast.
 
There's rarely such a thing as "overpitching" when it comes to yeast, at least within reason. By the time fermentation is truly done, you've probably grown tens of trillions of yeast. When the food (sugar) is gone, life will struggle to continue on...plain and simple. It sounds like, maybe, you're concerned that you're not fermenting the entire batch and not hitting your FG's. Your posted recipe is strong enough that it would probably benefit from a stronger initial yeast pitch. I wouldn't even hesitate to double pitch with 1.060 OG beers.

There's a few paths:

  • Pitch 2+ smack-packs/packages/vials of yeast. This gets expensive.
  • Get into yeast starters and pitch a double/triple load into beers this strong. It's reasonably cheap to get a yeast starter kit with a stir plate and it will pay for itself in around 7-8 batches of double yeast pitching. Technically, you can do it with a stopper, a bubbler, a growler, a pot and a stove for nearly nothing $$$ wise. All your beers will improve and your stronger beers will finish pretty close to where they should.
  • Brew beers ~1.040 or less

Watch your temps and make sure you're at least reasonably close to the spec's of the yeast. Aerate your beers thoroughly (shake that fermenter!) when you pitch. Let your beers ferment out at least 2 weeks, even 4, to be sure you're done fermenting and to generally "clean up" the beer.

I'm sure there's more, but that's what I can think of at the moment. Cheers!
 
With good aeration of the wort, minimized caramelizing of the extract (as OClairBrew mentioned), and the right temperature you should be fine. If it's sitting in too cold of a spot, you could be seeing the yeast flocculating out too fast and not finishing its job.

That can be the problem with overpitching -- if you put WAY too much in, they can race through the wort, elevate the temperature and kick out off flavors, and then go dormant before they've dealt with all the acetaldehyde and diacetyl they've left in their wake. But I've never experienced this, and it's far easier to pitch too little than too much. If you used a second pack of dry yeast, I can't imagine it getting to that kind of clusterf- situation. It's definitely the easier route than getting into yeast starters, though you will want to at some point to take advantage of the myriad strains that are only available in liquid form.

Good aeration, add the extract in the last 15 min with the heat off, and go ahead and try another pack.
 
I've racked on my old yeast cake, talk about over pitching, the beer was fine. I start stepping up my starter early in the week and on brewday I prime with O2. Most important, I give the yeast a little pep talk before I pitch. I say something like "I want you guys to have fun and work at a nice steady pace, keep up the good work you've been doing in the starter" As I say this I'm holding my gas cutting torch because I need the O2 to prime.
 
Brewed the recipe yesterday. Pitched 2 packs. I shook the primary hard before pitching. So the dry yeast went on top of a lot of foam. Temp was 70 F. It's ok to pitch on foam right? That was 2 pm yesterday. This morning I didn't see airlock activity. Usually I do by now. Is all ok?
Thanks !
 
I think it's worth it to rehydrate dry yeasts. It helps them to mix more readily, in addition to being kinder to the cells.

As far as pitching rates, MrMalty says you need either 2.3x5-gram packs or an 11.5-gram pack, assuming your yeast is relatively fresh. According to the yeast data sheet for US-05, the pitching rate is 50–80 g/hL. That is 9.5–15 g for a 5 gal batch. They don't specify an OG for that, though, but I'd guess it's at a typical, middle-of-the-road 1.045. So you'd probably want to go on the high end of that for a 1.061 OG. At that point, two packs is probably overkill, but it's not a gross overpitch.
 
If/when this batch also finishes higher than you'd like, swap a pound of corn sugar in for some of your LME. That'll help dry it out.
 
dogbar said:
If/when this batch also finishes higher than you'd like, swap a pound of corn sugar in for some of your LME. That'll help dry it out.

Not sure what you mean here? You mean the next time I brew this or a similar beer?
 
Not sure what you mean here? You mean the next time I brew this or a similar beer?

Yep. If you knock out stalled yeast as an issue then the next step is swapping in some sugar to dry it out past what you're getting with extract.

Since you can't play with mash temps to adjust fermentability, that's another way to go at it. One pound of dextrose in a beer like this won't hurt the flavor at all.
 
Also of concern for over pitching - many of the desirable flavors produced by yeast are happening during the growth phase. If you over pitch, you risk muting those flavors. For an american ale yeast, you might not notice a difference, but it might be readily apparent in a hefe.
 
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