saFale us-05

Ingredients
1

Not sure if I posted this in the wrong place this morning.

Good morning,
First of all let me say I am new to brewing and this forum.  I appreciate any and all comments and constructive criticism.

I recently Brewed my first small batch beer (2.0 gal) and things are going good so far. I’m using the subject yeast saFale us-05. I followed the instructions for pitching the correct amount of yeast for this size batch.

I’m curious what could potentially happen if I were to pitch the entire packet (enough yeast for 5-7 gal) in a 2.0 gallon batch?
Could it effect the flavor (too many Esters)?
Could I have a Krausen volcano?

R,
Curtdogg

2

Depends on how you’re pitching, rehydrating vs not, and what the OG of the wort is.

You’re probably overpitching at least a little bit, but it’ll be beer regardless.

3

Better to over pitch than under pitch.
You won’t have more esters and, unless, you’re fermenting with too little head space in your fermenter, you won’t have a krausen volcano.

4

Thanks for the replies.
My og was 1056, and I pitched directly into the fermenter. It took aboot 12 hours to get any action but its working well so far.
This being my first brew I,ll be learning as I go.

5

You Canadian?  [emoji16]  J/K but on a serious note:
Here is an older article by Palmer talking about pitch rates and effects.  http://byo.com/grains/item/1717-yeast-pitching-rates-advance-homebrewing
It’s tougher to over pitch than to under pitch, I doubt that even doubling the amount as you described would lead to autolysis.

6

I think you’ll be fine. It’s kind of hard to overpitch at home brewing scales.  Especially with a clean yeast like US-05.

7

update,
since last night all activity in the air lock has stopped. Knowing that this is not a good indicator of the yeast activity I looked through the side of the fermenter and there doesn’t appear to be any movement either. It fermented for about 2 days total while using a blow off tube then I switched to a regular airlock and moved it to the garage where its been protected covered and the temp didn’t change, its within range of the yeast specs, 66 degrees. I also understand that the yeast could still be working and I should leave it in primary for at least a couple weeks.

Being that this is only a small batch (2gal) is it possible that the yeast is done already?
Can bumping and moving the fermenter cause issues?

I appreciate all the replies.

8

Since you have an airlock on, there’s a good deal of co2 in your carboy, protecting your beer from oxygen.  A little movement is ok, you want to avoid sloshing it around.

9

The yeast is likely still working.  If you have a warmer area (around 70) you could carefully move it to, that may help.

10

Thanks JT,
since I read your last reply I found a spot in the house that is @ 70 degrees. When I went to move the fermenter I noticed all the krausen had fallen out.

Is this a problem?

R
Curtdogg

11

No, it’s just doing its thing.  Krausen dropping is part of the process.  Take a look at your beer, maybe take a picture.  You’ll see it start to really clear up over the next week as yeast continue to floculate.  The danger comes if the yeast flocs too soon.  They may not have finished consuming all the available sugars, or finished cleaning up off flavors like diacetyl (butter flavor).  What day did you pitch the yeast?

12

Jt.
I pitched yeast on the 1st. I didn’t see any action for aboot 12 hours.

Thanks.

13

It’s a small batch so it probably just didn’t take it long to finish.  If it’s at 70 now and you give it some time you should be ok.

14

thanks JT, ill give it a few days and see what happens.

R,
Curtdogg

15

With a small batch, you can over pitch (or even on a large batch).  Over pitching results in a dull, lifeless and flabby beer - I doubt you will experience this at the homebrew level, as I only had this occur on a beer where I intentionally overpitched by more than two times the necessary yeast.  It was drinkable , but not remarkable in any positive way…YMMV, of course, but with small batch brewing I suggest avoiding a dramatically overpitched beer

16

Thanks very much for the reply.
Since I posted last, there is still some activity in the fermenter but ver little. Not enough to bubble in the airlock. At least I know there’s nothing getting in.

Thanks a lot.