Commercial Pitching Rates

I recently read somewhere that commercial breweries and brew pubs pitch a great quantity of yeast cells than homebrewers.

I typically stick with Mr. Malty's pitch calculator. However, what if one simply doubled the cell count? Would any harm be done? Obviously you'd get a fast and powerful ferment with plenty of yeasts to clean up afterward.

I'm assuming it would be a good thing as long as you don't go crazy.

Has anyone tried doubling their pitch rate? What were your results?

Well, it's like this... the more the yeast have to reproduce to get fermentation going, the more by-products they produce (e.g., esters). The more of these compounds produced, the more "flavors" your beer will have. So, in a fruity ale, these are desirable and pitching at standard homebrewer rates is fine (like a tube of White Labs or a 1 liter start with it). If you want a cleaner ale, pitch more (like a 2 liter starter). If you want a clean lager, pitch even more (like a 4 liter starter). If you pitch "too much" in a fruity ale, for example, you might end up with a beer with less character than you desired. (Disclaimer: this does not account for fermentation temperature which can also have an affect on producing more or less of these compounds.)

I've never calculated pitching rates, but I've pitch wort on a yeast cake. Usually I've seen heavy fermentation with in minutes. It finishes fast and ends up somewhat dry.