I was making my hefe today and had my yeast starter all set to pitch, when I went to dump out the excess wort from the yeast starter I accidently dump about half of my yeast out. Will I be ok with my fermentation or do I need to get more yeast?
As a guess, I think you’ll be OK.
Thanks Denny, I will keep my fingers crossed. :o
Hefeweizen is one style that a lot of commercial breweries intentionally underpitch anyway. As long as you get fermentation in 24-48 hours I think you will be ok. Otherwise pitch more yeast.
Do they really? I’ve never been able to confirm that they do. To me, trying to use pitching rate to control beer flavor is a crapshoot. But I imagine that a commercial brewery that did it would have better methods than I do.
My understanding is that a lot of them do in Germany. That said, they also top crop so maybe it is a moot point as top cropping is picking the absolutely most healthiest yeast…
I’ve heard that too, but I have yet to find any evidence it really happens. Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, though.
OK, how about something you can respect a little more. In my experience you don’t really need a big starter for hefeweizens. I used to make them all the time and I would just make a 1L starter and pitch at high krausen.
well, that’s great anecdotal evidence, but do you know you were really underpitching and by how much? Could you verify that you were pitching the same amount every time? Of course, neither can I, but I’m just trying to make sure I pitch enough. It just seems like it would be very difficult to quantify that you’re underpitching and by how much.
Since I’m not counting cells on homebrew level, no, but I assure you the rate was lower than what I normally pitched for ales. Your not growing much yeast in a 1L starter pitched at high krausen. Your just making sure the yeast is viable.
Serial dilution is easy, just time consuming. OTOH, as long as your starter equipment and procedures are constant, you could probably do it once per strain and call it good.
Hey Sean, what’s serial dilution?
Just adding (carefully measured) amounts of water to a sample of yeast slurry. When it stops being turbid, the cell density is <1 million/mL. Multiply by the dilution ratio and you have the density of the original slurry.
Writeup with photos, if you’re interested: Low-Tech Yeast Management for Home Brewers
Damn, great info! Why aren’t you famous? 
I thought I was… ???
Randy Mosher, in a talk at NHC, said he was reminded by his wife that he “is only beer famous.”
A lot of us are beer famous in our own universes.
So much this^^^^. Big fish in a small pond.
Another vote for underpitching weissbier yeasts. I used yeast cakes a couple of times from these beers in the past, and they sucked.
Oh, and you guys are all brew gods in my universe as well. I have a poster in Denny in my brew room. He is all covered with mud at Woodstock with his arms outstretched while Jimi Hendrix is playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Yes, I know that mud-covered hippie on the poster probably is not Denny. But I wrote on it with a sharpie “Denny Conn” with an arrow pointing to the mud-covered hippie that I believe to be Denny, and whenever I host a local brew club meeting, all the newbies look at it and say “oooh”.
German heyweisen usually tastes like some one pissed in it (and then threw-up nearby). I’m thinking the added nitrogen is the game changer.
Yeast should convert sugar into alcohol because alcohol is higher energy by weight and energy is derived from having done so. A dehydrating agent then releases the alcohol and the yeast do it again. The dehydrating agent is probably CO2, so you shouldn’t release it until the pH becomes unmanageable.
And do so slowly or else the little yeast will explode.
As long as it’s not a short bus.