To much or to little yeast

[Raffie]

Was reading to much yeast and you'll get yeast bite. To little and your beer will not ferment all the way.

How do you tell how much to use is you harvest and make a starter??

 

[Evan!]

Yeast "bite"? Pshaw. Hogwash. Maybe if you use like 3 quarts of pure slurry and don't do a secondary clarification...maybe. But normally the "yeast bite" is from something else. Under normal conditions, you'll be fine. Think about how many yeast cells are in a beer when you pitch onto an existing cake! Lots and lots.

As for your beer "not fermenting all the way" with too few, that's not really 100% true either. Attenuation is dependent on many factors: aeration, yeast nutrients, temperature, the strain of yeast, the age of the yeast, etc. I think aeration is the biggest factor besides the strain of yeast in question.

The biggest problem you get from using too few yeast cells is a long lag time leading to possible contamination.

I usually make a 2 liter starter with 6 or 7 ounces of extract for my starters. You can harvest whatever you want, but I'd use at least a pint of slurry. Otherwise, if it's new, the pitch the whole package/vial into the starter and give it 2 days.

 

[Brewsmith]

It's hard for a homebrewer to pitch too much yeast. For the average brewer, just pitching a "pitchable" amout of yeast is still underpitching. Making a starter makes sure that the yeast is viable and that there is a large enough cell count.

 

[olllllo]

While I agree with the above posts, there is a "correct" amount of yeast to pitch if you believe Jamil of the brewing network:

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

That said, I always pitch with a starter with O2 and a stir plate, which coincidently coincides with a sweet spot when using the calculator 1 vial / 1L. I think if you are getting off flavors, yeast is not the first culprit.

 

[olllllo]

I'm going to add.... Please don't sweat this detail. Keep things clean and at the right temp and beer makes itself.

 

[Evan!]

I'm going to add.... Please don't sweat this detail. Keep things clean and at the right temp and beer makes itself.

Yes, "beer" makes itself, but "great beer" needs more help than mediocre beer. While you shouldn't sweat this particular detail too much, I would pay particular attention to wort aeration.

 

[olllllo]

Yes, "beer" makes itself, but "great beer" needs more help than mediocre beer. While you shouldn't sweat this particular detail too much, I would pay particular attention to wort aeration.

I agree. Nice flourish.