Over Pitching Consequence?

[RustyHorn]

I've read about how over pitching doesn't allow the yeast to produce some fruity esters, but I was wondering if it also takes away some of the maltiness? The beer I'm making is clean tasting but is lacking some of the beeriness of commercial beer. I've stupidly been pitching whole packets of dry yeast in half batch sizes and was wondering if this was causing the lack of beer/malty flavour? In future I will pitch properly, I was just wondering if anyone has knowledge of this to help my understanding of it.


*This isn't a question about water profiles...

 

[RichBenn]

I've read about how over pitching doesn't allow the yeast to produce some fruity esters, but I was wondering if it also takes away some of the maltiness? The beer I'm making is clean tasting but is lacking some of the beeriness of commercial beer. I've stupidly been pitching whole packets of dry yeast in half batch sizes and was wondering if this was causing the lack of beer/malty flavour? In future I will pitch properly, I was just wondering if anyone has knowledge of this to help my understanding of it.


*This isn't a question about water profiles...

Which dry yeasts are you talking about? Ones like US-05 are designed to be neutral and attenuate well. Others may get more maltiness and esters, depending upon fermentation temperature. But you may need to get liquid yeast to get the maltiness you seek, as there are many more choices.

I don't belive you have a problem over pitching, but we need to see the recipe. Also "BEERINESS" is not a descriptor I'm familiar with. What commercial beer?

 

[RustyHorn]

Which dry yeasts are you talking about? Ones like US-05 are designed to be neutral and attenuate well. Others may get more maltiness and esters, depending upon fermentation temperature. But you may need to get liquid yeast to get the maltiness you seek, as there are many more choices.

I don't belive you have a problem over pitching, but we need to see the recipe. Also "BEERINESS" is not a descriptor I'm familiar with. What commercial beer?

05 still produces beeriness. I was just wondering if over pitching stripped out some beeriness... (I can't think of a better description than beeriness!)

 

[rhys333]

It's generally a good idea to follow conventional wisdom on stuff like this and pitch recommended amounts of yeast. Under-pitching can cause delayed/stuck fermentation or off-flavors, as you may well know. Over-pitching is less of an issue, but IMHO becomes a factor when you're reusing stored harvested yeast. You want to encourage production of new yeast cells, but if you pitch large amounts of tired, old cells its not going to happen. I like to see a lag phase of between 8-24 hours, which tells me I pitched just enough healthy yeast to kick start fermentation but few enough that I'll get cell reproduction. I've noticed in the past that an over-pitch of old cells can lead to less that stellar beer. There may well have been other contributing factors, but eliminating yeast as a variable helped and my beer is better for it.

 

[RustyHorn]

There may well have been other contributing factors, but eliminating yeast as a variable helped and my beer is better for it.

The good news is that my beer tastes clean and flaw-free; the problem is that I feel that some beeriness is missing. I don't want to say body, or maltiness, as I know how to adjust those things and people will cling on to them for an answer. Maybe I mean umami. Maybe it is just the esters missing. Time will tell, I suppose, once I've started pitching proper amounts (I've been pitching nearly double the amount of yeast required!)