Scaling down yeast

[Aarong2008]

I have ingredients for a 1 gallon batch and I purchased a smack pack of liquid yeast for a 5 gallon batch and I was curious if I could just use 1/5 of that and it would be enough yeast Thanks.

 

[fishnwhistle]

Are you worried about over pitching? The whole smack pack will be fine in a one gallon batch, probably closer to a correct pitch rate.

 

[brewingupward]

Is the 1 gallon batch a high gravity beer? If it is you might want to use half of the smack pack. Otherwise you should be fine to use just 1/5th of it. I'm assuming you want to use the rest for another beer.

 

[boydster]

Enter the batch size, target OG, and date on the yeast package into a pitch calc like Brewer's Friend or Yeastcalc, and you'll see how many cells you have vs. how many you need. Frankly, unless you find you have more than 4X the amount suggested, I'd just pitch the whole thing.

 

[Aarong2008]

This is for a pale ale with an og of 1.050 and fg of 1.013. I am worried about over pitching and am not worried about saving the rest of it because it could be months before I do a 1 gallon batch, unless that's okay. I'm actually not even sure what happens if you over pitch. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Aarong2008]

Boyster, thanks I check that out.

 

[boydster]

1 gallon of 1.050 pale ale - pitch the whole smack pack. A higher pitch rate will me a cleaner yeast profile, to a point. You will be A-OK pitching the whole smack pack.

 

[sumbrewindude]

This is for a pale ale with an og of 1.050 and fg of 1.013. I am worried about over pitching and am not worried about saving the rest of it because it could be months before I do a 1 gallon batch, unless that's okay. I'm actually not even sure what happens if you over pitch. Thanks for any advice.

Pitch the whole pak.

Let it do it's thing, and in 21 days you can wash/harvest the yeast and repitch to your next batch.

That'll be way more reliable than trying to save an open, partially used smack-pak a month later.

:rockin:

 

[Aarong2008]

Thank you sumbrewindude and boydster, I will take your advice! Now I'm not worried about ruining my beer ha.