Can you over pitch yeast?

[RobinW]

I'm doing a recipe that calls for safale s-04. I've used this stuff before and it has always stalled on me at 1022. This time I've done a starter. I've got it going in 800ml of DME on a stirrer, poured off the spent liquid and tipped 3/4 of the yeast into a sterile jar.. I dumped another 800ml of DME into the flask and let it rock for another 12 hours and did the same.

I now have almost 1/4 of a 500ml maisson jar full of yeast. I plan to pitch the lot into this 20L brew this week. Will it cause me any issues if I'm over pitching? It should be a 1065 beer.

I upsized to a 3L flask today.

 

[malt junkie]

Your good to go.

 

[wynnum1]

Yes you can over pitch yeast can produce flavor or remove flavor.

 

[manticle]

You can but you'll need a hell of a lot before you do.

 

[stewy]

It’s very difficult to overpitch yeast & have noticeable detrimantal results on homebrew scales.

With S-04 it just needs a bit of caressing. I start out at 18C & after 72 hours I bump the temp up .4C/day. Once high krausen starts to pull back (sometimes as early as day 4) I also give a gentle swirl a couple of times a day. I’ve never had it stall by following these steps. It’s usually fully done by day 7

 

[RobinW]

Cheers guys. I've tried upping temps and swirling on previous batches without success. This time I'll try a bigger hammer

 

[MHB]

Never had a problem with S-04, its my go to dry yeast I like it much more than US-05.
At least it finishes properly, drops bright when its finished and forms a cake that sticks like the preverbal .... to a blanket.

Looking at the picture of the yeast in the OP - it's very dark, frankly it looks old and not at all what I would expect from a nice fresh culture.
Mark

 

[malt junkie]

Looking at the picture of the yeast in the OP - it's very dark, frankly it looks old and not at all what I would expect from a nice fresh culture.

Thought that too. but may just be the lighting.

 

[RobinW]

Yep, just a dark crappy phone pic.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

For a 1.065 beer I would still reactivate that in a small volume starter and pitch it at high Krausen but that's me.
Under pitching is much more to worry about then over pitching. IMO

 

[RobinW]

Brew Day yesterday. The plan changed and I was going to cube 17L but I didn't get the expected boil off, my volumes where out, so I dropped the wort into a fermentor, and put 1.5L into a flask. I pitched the collected yeast into the flask and it was away within the hour and booming about 3 hours later. I pitched the whole flask into the fermentor and away it went. It looked like this late last night. Now that's active Fingers crossed my stall issue is gone. It dropped 3 Brix points today alone.