I’m brewing Matt’s Vienna Lager recipe today. I’ve got 3 packs of 34/70 I was thinking of using. MrMalty and Brewer’s Friend disagree greatly as to the amount of dry yeast I should use. 1.7 pack vs 4 packs.
I’m thinking of just racking it onto the WY2206 Bavarian lager cake from my Munich Dunkel. Would I be over pitching to just use the whole cake?
In my experience, at a homebrewing scale, it is very difficult to overpitch. Said more specifically, I have not perceived any detectable off-flavors from overpitching ALES, and I would think it would be even less of a possibility with a lager.
Some may disagree, but for our purposes here, the only beers where you have a danger of overpitching are beers that are yeast-ester forward, such as tripels, hefeweizens, wits, maybe some of the other belgians.
Lagers and cleaner ales: I say pitch that whole cake.
Thanks for the response and confirmation Pietro. That’s what I did.
Only issue I didn’t really consider was chilling since I pump it through the plate chiller straight to the carboy. Having said that, the ground water is so cold and it’s about 40 outside so I ended up getting it in the carboy on the cake at about 54. Got it in the cooler with ice now pushing it toward 50.
Cleaned up and done by noon. Good brew day! Love my new brew rig!
[quote=“Pietro”]In my experience, at a homebrewing scale, it is very difficult to overpitch. Said more specifically, I have not perceived any detectable off-flavors from overpitching ALES, and I would think it would be even less of a possibility with a lager.
Some may disagree, but for our purposes here, the only beers where you have a danger of overpitching are beers that are yeast-ester forward, such as tripels, hefeweizens, wits, maybe some of the other belgians.
Lagers and cleaner ales: I say pitch that whole cake.[/quote]
Agreed, generally. Although you should be aware that there are very knowledgeable people who say that overpitching can lead to increased esters.
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“Pietro”]In my experience, at a homebrewing scale, it is very difficult to overpitch. Said more specifically, I have not perceived any detectable off-flavors from overpitching ALES, and I would think it would be even less of a possibility with a lager.
Some may disagree, but for our purposes here, the only beers where you have a danger of overpitching are beers that are yeast-ester forward, such as tripels, hefeweizens, wits, maybe some of the other belgians.
Lagers and cleaner ales: I say pitch that whole cake.[/quote]
Agreed, generally. Although you should be aware that there are very knowledgeable people who say that overpitching can lead to increased esters.[/quote]
I’ve always erred on the side of overpitching and have never detected any off-flavors due to it.
Agreed. I think you’d have to really overdo it to notice anything.
I poured off about 1/4 of the cake prior to pumping the wort in. I’d have take 1/3 off if it was an ale. So the experiment has begun.
