What counts as "overpitching"?

I pitched 11 grams of Nottingham into my 1040 ale, when all the calculators I consulted (Mr. Malty, etc.) recommended 10. I figured, better safe than sorry.

Then, too late, I noticed that my recipe (from "Brewing Classic Styles," a batch that straddles the line between ordinary and best bitter) recommends 5 - 9 grams of dry yeast!

Subsequent reading warns me that by overpitching, I sacrifice valuable aromatics and esters. But is my 11 gram pitch really "overpitching"?

two to threes times the recommended amount,, your totally fine

Ever knock off on a yeast cake? That's overpiching...

ErieShores said:

Ever knock off on a yeast cake? That's overpiching...

Click to expand...

I haven't. Do you find you lose valuable esters doing that?

I follow JZ's advice...
http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

One possibly important fact I just remembered: Mr. Malty's 10g recommendation was based on the calculated viability of my dry yeast. The expiration date was sometime in 2012, and IIRC, I estimated (based on the two-year shelf life quoted on Danstar's technical spec sheet) that my packet was as much as a year old already.

Maybe Mr. Malty's 10 g recommendation, and my 11 g pitch, weren't so far off from the 5 g of fresh yeast that the recipe recommended.