I have a question that I know is a newbie one. I re pitched a saga clone on top of last batches saga clone cake and I noticed fermentation like crazy within hours but two days later put put on the air lock. Seems like a real slow down. I haven’t checked gravity but i suspect the yeast had a feast and did their thing (for the most part) is this going to adversely effect the flavor of the beer?
I posted in the recipes forum a little while back about this summit saga clone recipe and I have made this beer probably 8 times now. I’m learning the smallest changes on brew day can really effect your outcome as far as
taste goes. I notice significant taste changes and I cant figure out what I did? same yeast recipe kettle blah blah blah? Very puzzling.
having just asked this question before i did a batch using previous slurry - yes you over pitched if you did the same size and gravity brew on an entire yeast cake/slurry. mr. malty was where i was directed-there you can figure out how much slurry to collect and resuse for your brew. you likely only needed about a 1 to 1.5 cups of the slurry.
Your beer is probably not ruined, but it may not be as good as it could have been. Over pitching can have negative effects the same as underpitching. Use one of the yeast calculators, like the one at www.mrmalty.com to get an idea how much slurry (or how big a starter if starting from liquid yeast) you actually need.
I would say it’s definitely not ruined, at least not from over pitching. It will almost certainly taste different and maybe not quite what you were looking for.
On the upside, now you have the opportunity to compare the two batches side-by-side and see the impact of pitching rate on flavor. I’ve never done a side-by-side with different pitching rates, but it now seems intriguing.
I will report back and let you all know what the taste test results are. I am still learning and trying to keep things as simple as possible. That’s partially why I like the BIAB process so much simple.