Pitching more yeast at start

[JWS]

I looked all over the boards but all I could find is people asking about certain beers and stalling of the yeast.

I have a question after reading a lot of post and wondering, what would be the downside of pitching more yeast at the start of fermentation.

For instance, Mr. Malty says that 1.6 tubes/packs of liquid yeast would be needing for a 1.044 ale. What would be the downside of just pitching 2 full tubes/packs without a starter?

Would this harm the wort at all?

 

[mcwilcr]

No harm in over pitching a bit.

the other option is to save yourself a few dollars on yeast and make yourself a nice starter from 1 tube.

Also, from my experience with my LHBS atleast, there are generally allot more cells in the yeast cultures I buy than advertised and I have never had a problem with just pitching 1 tube. This could be unique to my LHBS though.

 

[cvstrat]

from whitelabs.com:

Is overpitching yeast harmful?

If the beer is overpitched, yeast do not grow though a complete growth cycle. This results in few new yeast cells, which makes for unhealthy yeast and low viability by the end of fermentation.

Personally if it says 1.6 I wouldn't feel bad pitching 2, but like others are saying I would use 1 and make the proper sized starter instead. Cheaper and you can control exactly how much goes in.