Pitching yeast when the OG is higher than recommended?

[Sea_of_Shells]

Hey all,

I'm brewing today, and I'm going to use Wyeast London Ale 1028. My OG is expected to be somewhere around 1.070-1.075. The package says to pitch into wort up to 1.060. Is the going to be a problem, or should I consider changing yeast?

 

[kingwood-kid]

The type of yeast is fine. The amount is lacking. You would be better off making a starter or buying another smackpack, but it's not 100% necessary.

 

[DocScott]

I think it is necessary to make a starter (hard to do if you're brewing today) or get another pack - or two. Underpitching is setting yourself up for stressed yeast and off flavors. If you cannot get more yeast today, I'd hold off until you can make an appropriate sized starter/buy more. If you absolultely cannot wait, you can pitch what you have, cross your fingers and hope for the best. Your beer will ferment, flavors could be fine, but could be very funky. Nothing worse than forcing yourself to drink bad beer or worse yet, tossing a batch.

 

[Sea_of_Shells]

The yeast is a direct pitch activator pouch. It's a "self starter" of sorts.

 

[DocScott]

Smack packs allow you to know that some of the cells are viable. If you pitch only one pack, your cell count will be too low to ferment that high of an OG without the chance of producing off flavors by stressed yeast. Look up MrMalty yeast calculator to find the appropriate cell count and starter size needed for your anticipated beer.

Think of yeast like workers in your office: If there is too much work (sugars to ferment from high OG beer) and not enough workers (yeast), everyone has to work much harder to get through it. The job will get done (converting to alcohol/CO2) but it may not get done very well (stressed yeast = off flavors). Poor analogy, but you get the picture.

You can try to pitch your one smack pack, and it may very well turn out well this time. But from my experience, if you continue this practice, you'll run into batches that don't, and you'll kick yourself for not making a starter/pitching more yeast.

 

[Sea_of_Shells]

You can try to pitch your one smack pack, and it may very well turn out well this time. But from my experience, if you continue this practice, you'll run into batches that don't, and you'll kick yourself for not making a starter/pitching more yeast.

I'm going to pick up another pack. Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

 

[Yooper]

The yeast is a direct pitch activator pouch. It's a "self starter" of sorts.

No, it's not. As was mentioned, it does help check viability. Even Wyeast says to use more than one smack pack, or a starter in brews above 1.060, and other experts (like Jamil Zainasheff) say even that is inadequate.

check out this helpful "yeast pitching calculator" on mrmalty.com: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html I bet you know more yeast that you could imagine!

For info on why pitching the proper amount of yeast is so important, I like this write-up: http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php