For example, if I start at 1.047, as a commercial brewer I am to pitch 70g/hL. But if I am a homebrewer I can use 10g (one packet). As a homebrewer I typically brew 5 US gal batches therefore I pitch into 5.5 US gal due to loss to trub and dead space. Using the above Commercial Brewer calculations I should use 14.57 g of Ale or 27.7 g Lager yeast. As a homebrewer I would under pitch by 4.57 g and 7.07 g respectively. …or as a Commercial Brewer I’d be over pitching (wasting resources). Why the difference?
LOL. I sent them a note. They’ll probably just roll their eyes and say some jackass pulled out a calculator on us. LOL
BTW — stopped by for a pint and grabbed a pizza on the way home the other day. You were workin your butt off for something you had brewing back there. Brewfest Pale Ale was tasty. Cheers!
This is true of White Labs and Wyeast as well. They want things to be simple/inexpensive for home brewers, and figure slight variations in beer quality aren’t as significant.
on another note pitching rate for most homebrewers is an over pitch. In a brewery setting you do not want to under nor overpitch the yeast. over pitching and under pitching have their effects on yeast viability down the road, meaning that the yeast wont be as healthy a few generations in.
The difference is the ease of use of the person doing the pitching. One packet is suitable for a low sg five gal batch, and many mid-range sg five gal batches even if it is a little low on the cell count, therefore if we did 15g packets then many people will use 2/3 of a packet which we really wouldn’t recommend. So we expect more experienced homebrewers to use:
Pitching rate = 1 million cells x ml of wort x degrees Plato of wort
Yes but you run a professional brewery and viability really shouldn’t be a concern anyway with your pitches. The guy buying off the shelf on the other hand is at the mercy of the distribution chain most of the time and therefore has to place less confidence in date based viability.
As an aside, cell counting is pretty cool and it’s nice to determine for yourself how viable the yeast is.
That isn’t really true. If the yeast is fresh off the bottom of a tank, sure. If we had to store the yeast in a brink for a week it is important to know the viability to get the cell count correct. Granted, normally try not to collect yeasts in brinks for storage but it is often necessary.
I have double checked our cell counts with MrMalty many times and, as I said, always surprised how close together the results are. I would recommend it for any homebrewer.