Yeast cell count..

[Stauffbier]

I'm looking for opinions and/or facts about something I have been wondering for months. I've read thread after thread on the topic of over and under pitching yeast, but I have yet to find a clear answer to this..

Let's say I'm brewing a 1.046 OG and YeastCalc says I need 170 billion cells. Then, let's say I take a vial of White labs yeast and make a 1.5L starter with it and end up with a little too much yeast. For the sake of argument, let's say I end up with a cell count of 250 billion cells. Would that higher cell count be high enough to be considered "over pitching", or am I still in the safe range? It seems like I read somewhere before that for a beer under 1.060 that you can pitch up to 400 billion cells before it's considered over pitching.. Is that correct, or am I just remembering wrong?

Would you pitch the entire 250 billion cells, or maybe just pitch about 2/3 of the starter to get closer to the 170 billion cells that the calculator recommends?

 

[kh54s10]

I don't know a way without a microscope and maybe some other lab equipment to determine the count of the yeast you have.

If you make a starter of the correct size your yeast count should be within the proper range for pitching. This is all that I do

IMO it is far better to overpitch than to underpitch unless it is an extremely large amount of overpitch.

 

[Stauffbier]

I don't know a way without a microscope and maybe some other lab equipment to determine the count of the yeast you have.

If you make a starter of the correct size your yeast count should be within the proper range for pitching. This is all that I do

IMO it is far better to overpitch than to underpitch unless it is an extremely large amount of overpitch.

I agree it's impossible to know the exact cell count just by looking at my mason jar, but I'm basing these cell count numbers on what YeastCalc gives me. The only reason I ended up with more than what the calculator recommended is because I stepped up and divided my starter a few times over the coarse of a week so I could harvest a couple extra jars of it. The last starter I made (if my calculations are correct) started out at 100 billion cells, so a 1L starter probably would have been fine. I neglected to pay attention to the fact that I accidentally made a 1.3L starter until I had already pitched yeast... hence making more new yeast than what the calculator had recommended..

 

[BBL_Brewer]

You won't notice any ill effects from it. You didn't over pitch by that much. You pretty much have to dump your wort on a whole yeast cake from a previous batch to notice problems from over pitching.

 

[Stauffbier]

You won't notice any ill effects from it. You didn't over pitch by that much. You pretty much have to dump your wort on a whole yeast cake from a previous batch to notice problems from over pitching.

This is what I've been thinking. I'm even inclined to believe that a very slight over pitch (such as in my case) would provide for a very healthy fermentation, and good attenuation...

 

[Seven]

I'm no expert but I don't think you'll have a serious over-pitching concern when you're talking about a difference between 170 and 250 billion cells.

I think most over pitching scenarios occur when people brew a batch of beer, rack it off the yeast cake, then re-use that same yeast cake with a fresh batch of wort. In this case you're talking about needing 170 billion cells but pitching upwards of 800+ billion cells.

 

[Stauffbier]

I'm no expert but I don't think you'll have a serious over-pitching concern when you're talking about a difference between 170 and 250 billion cells.

I think most over pitching scenarios occur when people brew a batch of beer, rack it off the yeast cake, then re-use that same yeast cake with a fresh batch of wort. In this case you're talking about needing 170 billion cells but pitching upwards of 800+ billion cells.

I don't think I'll ever try that, either. I just can't get past the "racking into a dirty fermentor" thing, no matter how many people do it successfully. I'll stick to washing yeast and growing starters.

Thanks guys, you've basically confirmed what I was already thinking.

 

[bcryan]

I'm looking for opinions and/or facts about something I have been wondering for months. I've read thread after thread on the topic of over and under pitching yeast, but I have yet to find a clear answer to this..

Let's say I'm brewing a 1.046 OG and YeastCalc says I need 170 billion cells. Then, let's say I take a vial of White labs yeast and make a 1.5L starter with it and end up with a little too much yeast. For the sake of argument, let's say I end up with a cell count of 250 billion cells. Would that higher cell count be high enough to be considered "over pitching", or am I still in the safe range? It seems like I read somewhere before that for a beer under 1.060 that you can pitch up to 400 billion cells before it's considered over pitching.. Is that correct, or am I just remembering wrong?

Would you pitch the entire 250 billion cells, or maybe just pitch about 2/3 of the starter to get closer to the 170 billion cells that the calculator recommends?

Great qurdtion

 

[bcryan]

Great quedtion

 

[bcryan]

Stupid iPhone spell check. I was trying to say its a great question. Now I've lost my train of thought. Better put this phone away.