Too much Yeast?

[IAN]

Hi everyone,

 

I have just started experimenting with liquid yeast in my brews, and have now got a couple of queries;

 

Firstly, can you have too much yeast? My first brew went smoothly and afterwards I took a slant of yeast and stored it away for a week, I then made about 1L of activator and pitched into my new brew, (Coopers Pale Ale) the fermenter was at bottom of the recommended temperature range for the yeast, and yet the next morning it had bubbled through the air lock. Is there a penalty, taste or otherwise for brewing too fast? And would cooling it even further affect taste? (it is brewing at 21\xb0C and the range is 21-23)

 

 

 

Secondly, when making an activator I only used sugar and no malt, I believe its harder to start in malt but does it make a difference?

[kieran]

sugar will get the metabolism going, as its energy.. malt is also energy but has a bit more oompf in it. That is, you can only keep yeast happy for so long in a sugar-only environment.. but in a malt or malt extract environment where they have energy AND food, they will be much happier in the long term. Activating in water/sugar is fine IMO, and I do it all the time now with dry yeast even. but I reckon there is no such thing as "too much yeast", it bubbling through the airlock is probably something more to do with what the liquid yeast strain that you're using actually is.. it might be a top fermenter, versus others which do most of their fermentation at the bottom of the fermenter. Can it bork a brew? Possibly.. but i wouldn't worry too much, just give it a go, bottle it and see how it tastes!

[Oliver]

It's pretty difficult to have too much yeast :D

 

 

 

What you've done is to increase the amount of yeast that you pitch, which increases the rate of fermentation.

 

 

 

A short, quick fermentation is good, but it should not be achieved through increasing the temperature of the wort as this will cause the yeast to produce undesirable flavors.

 

 

 

So in short, you've done well (but, as you found, a quick fermentation, particularly with ale yeasts, can lead to foaming from the airlock).

 

 

 

Remember that the amount of yeast that we pitch when we add a sachet of yeast to a homebrew is far less than the proportion that commercial breweries use.

[IAN]

Thanks guys. my next question is, I lowered the temp right down (5-6C below recommended range) and it is still bubbling away happily but I was wondering is there a taste penalty for doing this?

 

 

 

I will post this again in case no-one else looks in here.

[Kai]

You can have too much yeast, if you have too much the ferment will be very rapid. Yeast produce heat as they ferment, and too fast a fermentation can raise the temperature of your beer too high and cause funky flavours to form. I don't think it will be a problem in your case though, and I imagine it's rarely a problem for home brewers.

 

 

 

The answer to whether fermenting too low will be an issue is "it depends". It may be a problem if you go really cold and your yeast goes to sleep, but simply raising the temp back up would fix that. If you're making a style of beer that benefits from flavours produced by the fermentation, then a cold ferment can suppress those flavours.

 

 

 

How are you reading your temperature? If it's from the strip on the outside of your fermenter, I would not be surprised if the active fermentation inside is keeping the temperature a couple degrees warmer at the center of the fermenter.

[Oliver]

Fair point, although as you say it would be pretty difficult to achieve this at home.

[Kai]

Especially given a lot of people think homebrewers typically underpitch.

[IAN]

Thanks Kai

 

I am controlling the temp by having the vat over 3/4 submerged water in a sealed Styrofoam box with a hole cut out of the top for the lid and airlock to come out. I check the temp of the water in the box using a thermometer that stays in there and I cross check the temp on the strip on the side of the vat. Is there a better way without opening the vat?