Help! Did I over pitch?

[beerlackey]

I was brewing today and while waiting for the boil, I decided to rack a Blonde Ale I made a few weeks ago with Nottingham yeast to a keg. As I did so I decided that I could reuse the yeast in the carboy for my next batch, which also requires Nottingham Yeast. Long story short, I added some sterilized water to the carboy, decanted off the yeast into a flask and added the whole thing to my cooled wort. Was that too much? It seemed like a good idea and I was horribly sober at the time.... Now after reading about re-pitching on the forum, I realize that I only needed a quarter to a third of the yeast for the a new batch. Is this batch ruined? What should I expect,aside from a vigorous fermentation, will the beer end up to yeasty?

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

You can expect your fermentation to be finished very quickly. The only drawback to over pitching IMO, is that since there is such a large number of yeast that the off flavor compounds that they can produce during fermentation will be more abundant.

If you have tight fermentation temperature control or your fermentation doesn't cause the temperature to spike too high during the most active stages of fermentation then you will more than likely have few issues if any.

If you are lacking fermentation temperature control, then you may end up with some esters due to the over abundance of yeast.

Like I mentioned earlier though, usually if all is well, finished beer sooner is the most likely outcome.

Cheers!

 

[bschot]

I'm sure it's fine. Its good that you washed the trub off the yeast. I believe you have to pitch a massive amount of yeast to over-pitch. If you're unsure, send me your fermenter and I'll be more than happy to dispose of the contents.

 

[beerlackey]

Just a report out - I finally kegged and carbed the batch that I thought I over pitched. everything turned out fine, the beer is great! I did get a quick and vigorous fermentation and it it finished in 2 days, yeast dropping out nicely. I gave it another week and racked off to secondary and later to a keg. So pitching directly on an entire batch of yeast from a previous batch in this case produced no off flavors. Next time, I'll save off the yeast and pitch only 1/4 to 1/3 for the next batch..

 

[JonW]

I've put fresh wort on top of full yeast cakes several times and never had any issues with it. Is it over pitching? Yes, by a lot, but I ferment in a kegerator that does good temp control, so I think that helps.