2.75 gallon batches - Yeast pitch advise??

[taylorjohn11892]

I have 2.75 gallons going into the fermenter for a final volume of 2.5 gallons in the keg. I have brewed two batches on this new little system I have and both times my wort has just tasted kinda "off". Both batches have been around 1.050-1.060 gravity and I have pitched 5 gallon yeast packs in them - no yeast starter. I have read that we shouldn't worry about overpitching on the homebrew level but it seems like this may be the variable that is causing the off flavor?

Thanks for the help!

 

[STMF]

I don't think the yeast pitch is the the variable. What yeast did you pitch and how old was it?

 

[Terpene]

You're probably not overpitching, and you may even be underpitching.

If you use a pitching-rate calculator, you can take the guesswork out of it.

For 2.75 gallons @1.055, you would need 106B cells to pitch at a rate of 0.75 M cells/mL/deg Plato. At 100% viability, most liquid yeast packs contain only 100B cells, and depending on the packaging date, your pack could be well under 100B.

That said, it doesn't sound like your problem is pitching rate.

 

[brownni5]

If the wort tastes off, then it has nothing to do with yeast and everything to do with your grist and hopping.

We don't know enough variables to really help you much. What brand/ strain of yeast? How old? What flavor profile are you aiming for?

As stated above, a yeast pitch calculator should answer all your questions.

 

[Gameface]

Do you control your fermentation temps? That would be the first place I'd look if I had an "off" flavor.

What's the yeast?

What was the wort temp when you pitched?

What's the ambient and/or beer temp during fermentation?

How was it from yeast pitch to when you tasted the "off" flavor? What was your Final Gravity?

And I just want to add some clarification to what brownni5 said above. It is wort right up until you add the yeast, at that point it's beer.

 

[taylorjohn11892]

Pale malt, white wheat, flaked wheat, table sugar, US-05. Fermentation temp averaged around 69 F. I may be just over sensitive, I will report back after it's carbonated.