Stressing Yeast in IPAs

I have heard a few pro brewers (Vinnie Cilurzo and Jeff Erway from La Cumbre who won gold at GABF for his IPA) claim that one of the keys to there IPAs is how they treat their yeast. They have both said they underpitch and stress out WLP001 for complimentary esters.

Has anyone else heard about this or tried this technique? I usually use dry yeast and usually don't focus on actual cell count, just that I have enough. This also may be difficult to replicate on a homebrew scale.

I too have found that WLP001 is great for IPA's if you can stress the yeast (I wasn't meaning to but it happened). But instead of gambling with trying to stress the yeast consistently without creating off flavors, I just use WLP051 and mash a little on the dry side to offset the lower attenuation. My IPA's are usually my most commented on brews too.

I think that's advise is very specific to WLP001 and CERTAIN formulations of IPAs. The esters given off from underpitching WLP001 is very much a fruity, almost bubblegum flavor that would compliment fruity/citrusy IPAs, but would be conflicting with a spicy/earthy IPA.

Anyway, that is certainly a fairly narrow application, not a good general rule.

I've heard of stressing yeast to create esters in Wheat Beers but never heard of doing it with IPA's, although it sounds logical... Cheers!!!

I think Vinny recommends under-pitching in ipa's to maximize hop flavor; yeast tends to bind hop compounds and pull them out of the beer. I don't think he does it to produce esters.