Over pitch

[ChelisHubby]

Hi please bear with my newbie question. I am considering washing and re pitching my yeast cake on new wort. What kind of bad or off flavors and problems can come from over pitching? I can see the cost is much cheaper to reuse the yeast and understand that I only need a pint or so for a 10.60 beer. But i wondered what happens if I pitched say 2 quarts. I remember reading that the big commercial guys pitch very heavy amounts, do they get away with that because of it being Lager beer or does their grain bill allow it. Forgive my beginner questions please.

 

[hottpeper13]

I only repitch from beers 1.060 or less and med to low hoppieness.
After rinsing(lots of info on that elsewhere on this site)there is enough to split into 2-3 1.060 beers or one monster. I like to pitch one and give the other to a friend or make bread with it.

 

[RM-MN]

It isn't so much bad flavors that come from overpitching as a lack of flavor. Some of the flavors come from the reproduction of the yeast and when you overpitch, there is so much yeast that they don't reproduce much so your flavors are lacking. Here's an article about experimenting with under and over pitching. http://sciencebrewer.com/2012/03/02/pitching-rate-experiment-part-deux-results/