Too much yeast?

[Guidry]

Revisting my wheat beer now in the secondary.....When I bought the supplies, my LHBS had only dry wheat yeast (SAF WB-06). In discussing it with him, he mentioned it only had 60-90 billion cells vs the claimed 100 billion in the typical Wyeast packs I normally use. He also noted that many people suggest using 2 liquid packs, so, of course my logic says I need 2 dry packs right. Well, that's what I did. Everything seemed to go fine and yesterday I transferred to the secondary. Gravity reading was at 1.011 which was actually a little lower than predicted (1.014). Of course, not wanteing to waste the sample, I had to taste the stuff. I have to say it has a definitive "spice" taste to it.

Anyone with experience with this yeast can confirm this is normal?

Did I pitch too much?

 

[cookietruck]

it should be fine.

 

[Revvy]

He's got it backwards, there is MORE yeast cells in dry than in liquid.....In fact there are plenty of dry yeast cells in a single packet to do the job for a 5 gallon batch. WIth liguid there are a lot less cells, hence the need to make a starter or use multiple packs, tubes...but making a starter with liquid is much easier and cheaper.

the actual pitch rates of the smack packs and tubes, and has to do with the data that Jamil Z has on his mr malty website.

I'll quote some of it, but really you should look at the stuff there;

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

Ales & Lagers

The general consensus on pitching rates is that you want to pitch around 1 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree plato. A little less for an ale, a little more for a lager. George Fix states about 1.5 million for a lager and 0.75 million for an ale in his book, An Analysis of Brewing Techniques. Other literature cites a slightly higher amount. I'm going with Fix's numbers and that is what the pitching calculator uses.
The Math

If you're curious, here is the simple math to calculate the number of cells needed. For an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast (0.75 million for an ale, 1.5 million for a lager), for every milliliter of wort, for every degree plato.

(0.75 million) X (milliliters of wort) X (degrees Plato of the wort)

* There is about 3785 milliliters in a gallon. There are about 20,000 milliliters in 5.25 gallons.

* A degree Plato is about 1.004 of original gravity. Just divide the OG by 4 to get Plato (e.g., 1.048 is 12 degrees Plato).

So, for a 1.048 wort pitching into 5.25 gallons you need about 180 billion cells.

(750,000) X (20,000) X (12) = 180,000,000,000

As an easy to remember rough estimate, you need about 15 billion cells for each degree Plato or about 4 billion cells for each point of OG when pitching into a little over 5 gallons of wort. If you want a quick way of doing a back of the envelope estimate, that is really close to 0.75 billion cells for each point of gravity per gallon of wort. Double that to 1.5 billion for a lager.
Pitching From Tubes, Packs, or Dry Yeast

Both White Labs and Wyeast make fantastic products and you can't go wrong with either one. There are differences between their strains and each brand has pluses and minuses yet neither is better than the other across the board. Use the brand your local homebrew shop carries, if you need a way to decide.

A White Labs tube has between 70 and 120 billion cells of 100% viable yeast, depending on the yeast strain. Some cells are much larger than others and there are more or less per ml based on size. (The information on the White Labs web site stating 30 to 50 billion cells is out of date.) We can just assume there are around 100 billion very healthy yeast. You would need 2 tubes if you were pitching directly into 5.5 gallons of 1.048 wort to get the proper cell counts.

A Wyeast Activator pack (the really big ones) and the pitchable tubes have an average of 100 billion cells of 100% viable yeast. The smaller packs are around 15-18 billion cells. You would need 2 of the large packs if you were pitching directly into 5.5 gallons of 1.048 wort to get the proper cell counts. For the small packs, you'd need eleven of them!

But to make it easier he has a great pitch rate calculator http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html


I tend to believe you can't really harm your beer by overpitching. But if you don't give the beer sufficient clearing time post fermentation, then you may end up with "yeast bite" too much yeast in suspension not to affect the flavor, even for a wheat. SO let it stay in primary a couple weeks after fermentation has finished before bottling.

 

[Wolfy]

I have to say it has a definitive "spice" taste to it.

Anyone with experience with this yeast can confirm this is normal?

Did I pitch too much?

In general you expect a bit of yeast character in wheat beers.

However to answer your question 'did you pitch too much' - that depends on the volume and the OG of your wort.
Throw the numbers into a pitching calculator like MrMalty and see what it says.
Most likely you'll be fine, over pitching - in general - should result in less yeast character rather than more, so if you're worried about the 'spicy' taste, its probably not due to over pitching.

 

[Guidry]

I tend to believe you can't really harm your beer by overpitching. But if you don't give the beer sufficient clearing time post fermentation, then you may end up with "yeast bite" too much yeast in suspension not to affect the flavor, even for a wheat. SO let it stay in primary a couple weeks after fermentation has finished before bottling.

Well, I transferred it to the secondary yesterday. I'll probably let it sit for a couple weeks.


My OG was 1.050 and yesterday, after a week in the primary, it was down to 1.011. The predicted FG was 1.013.

Thanks for the responses.