Second Pitching Rate Experiment: Results

Ive overpitched a number of times and agree with the final bit -- if you want a dry beer and to never use that yeast again, its worth doing. Lots of great stuff you had there. Thanks for posting.

 

Great reading, especially since I have some experience with 3522.

Particularly I note the comments about phenolics, from time to time I do notice that 3522 produces some distinct phenolics that have a smoky / burnt rubber quality. I've generally noticed this with pitch rates that would be on the higher side of your control pitch rate (but not overpitched). And also notice this more strongly in scrapped slurry post-ferment.

One suggestion for if you ever run an experiment like this again: Run a limit attenuation sample as well to determine exactly where the maximum final gravity should be (ie a grossly overpitched sample on a stir or shaker plate, though I would expect the under and overpitched samples have reached attenuation limit in this instance).

Also agree that you would expect different results from different commercial yeast strains. Belgians are wild and crazy things, I'll bet you would get different results from english ale strains, lagers, hefe yeasts, etc. etc. Also agree with the notion that you won't notice so much difference from a boring strain like chico. Sorry, I mean workhorse.

Good stuff. Well done.

I love beer.

 

Nice article, thanks for sharing your results.

 

Well that was first rate! I am glad the experiment went better this time.
Those are some deep thoughts on yeast production and pitching rates.

 

Thank you for your feed back. I would be interested to see if you get the same results from a more neutral yeast like WLP001,or WLP810.

 

Great work. Are you sure you don't have time to build that yeast profile library?

 

Very interesting read. I've been thinking about intentionally underpitching when I brew a hefe later this spring.

 

Many homebrew blogs are all over the place with information overload. I'm a first time reader and I must say you convey your results very clearly. Great article, great info.

 

Gotta agree with the group here - excellent article. Thanks for sharing!

 

This is very interesting, thank you for taking the time to do this, and sharing with us here!

 

Very well done! Sir, you deserve a beer. I will definitely give more thought to my consecutive pitching regimes now.

 

Nice work! Looking forward to reading about your wild yeast collaboration.

 

Thanks for sharing that experiment. Very interesting stuff. I'm assuming you controlled for fermentation temperature in the experiment. Imagine what those 2 factors (pitching rate and ferm temp) mean to fruit esters, bitterness perception, and fusels in a beer. In the past I had wondered why large breweries are able to ferment ale yeasts at higher temps (low 70s) than homebrewers and not get crazy fruity esters. It probably stems from slightly overpitching their last yeast cake. It is of note that Jamil Z. advocates for erring on the side of underpitching for Belgian ales for the very reason of achieving more fruity and spicy esters. I suppose this would mean, to achieve a clean, bitter West Coast IPA, overpitching would be the way to go.