Yeast: Pitching Rates

Common wisdom is that you can't pitch too much yeast. This makes sense, because long delays before fermentation conjure of images of the brewing boogeyman: infection. After browsing homebrew forums for days, you'd be forgiven for thinking the best option is to make the biggest damn starter you can and pitch a quart of slurry every time.

I'm here to tell you that's bullshit.

First of all, if you follow good sanitation practices and don't brew outdoors during a hurricane, infection problems are minimal, regardless of how long it takes fermentation to start.

Second, your yeast need to reproduce to create many of the esters you expect in your beer. Sure, in an Pale Ale you might not care, but what about a Weizen?

I learned the hard way today that you can pitch too much yeast. My all grain bavarian weizen, based on Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles "Harold-is-Weizen" recipe, doesn't taste like a hefeweizen. Because I pitched too much yeast slurry from my last batch (only about half a cup to a cup in total), the yeast didn't create enough of the banana and clove esters that represent the style. The result is a dry, refreshing and mostly tasteless brew.

All is not lost! The beer itself is well-made - it just doesn't taste like a hefe (or anything, for that matter). More like an American Wheat. The solution is to add fruit extracts! I figure I'll add a fruit extract to a third of the batch, another extract to a third of the batch, and try the last third without extracts. The extracts will be added at bottling time, on a per bottle basis. I need to experiment with the proper amount, probably by tasting small amounts of beer with different amounts of extract in them until I like the taste. I'll choose between cherry, raspberry, apricot and strawberry.