Schoolhouse Brewing's video: How Much Yeast to Pitch in a 5 Gallon Batch of Beer S2C4 2018

So when I first started brewing, I did like most people grab a pack of yeast and just pitched it right in the wort. I was making a good beer but one of my friends of been brewing for a long time asked me how much yeast are you pitching. And I noticed with a lot of my beers I was not hitting my Final gravities. Especially with beers over 6% alcohol or a starting gravity of about 1.060. That's are doing a little bit of research, and I realized that different packs of yeast have different alcohol tolerances. Also, I noticed that my lower gravity beers had better flavor from the beginning. This Brought me to How Much Yeast to Pitch in a 5 gallon. What are the pro and cons of Dry and Liquid Yeast, what are the off flavors of over or under pitching? A low pitch rate can lead to: Excess levels of diacetyl Increase in higher/fusel alcohol formation Increase in ester formation Increase in volatile sulfur compounds High terminal gravities Stuck fermentations Increased risk of infection High pitch rates can lead to: Very low ester production Very fast fermentations Thin or lacking body/mouthfeel Autolysis (Yeasty flavors due to lysing of cells) Dry Yeast: pros A 5 g pack of dry yeast has 200 billion cells Has a much longer shelf life Can be shipped without the worry of refrigeration Usually a less expensive alternative Dry yeast is packaged with yeast nutrient, so no starter is needed just rehydrate cons Limited varieties of yeast since the dehydrating process is so hard you can only use the very heartiest of yeast Since nutrient is added, you can't make a starter with them because the nutrients are used quickly in the wort an intern not allowing the yeast to grow defeating the purpose of using dry yeast Dry use is a one and done. Dry yeast is not able to be harvested for another batch which kind of defeats the purpose of the lesser cost. Liquid Yeast Pros Liquid yeast comes in hundreds of varieties You can take one pack and the starter and achieve whatever gravity you're looking for With the growth in both homebrewing and craft beer, there are many more liquid yeast producers you might've heard of white labs or wyeast. But there's a whole cottage industry creating boutique yeast strains such as my good friends at the omega yeast labs out of Chicago Illinois Cons After the liquid yeast has been packaged, the percentage of viable cells can decrease around 15% per month. The more yeast cells you lose due to age, the less likely you’ll get a good fermentation. So the rule of thumb 100 billion cells up to 1.050 200 Billion cells can reach up to 1.068 300 billion cells up to an original gravity of 1.080 400 billion cells can go up to approximately 1.100. Follow us on Itunes and Google Play at The Mötley Brü for your Craftbeer lifestyle podcast. https://schoolhousebeer.com/ https://www.facebook.com/schoolhouseb... https://www.instagram.com/schoolhouse... https://twitter.com/mariettabeer