How do I know I have enough yeast for my batch size?

hockeynut

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My 13th brew session was an extract brew West Coast IPA. I had some issues during the brew with my equipment in cooling the wort that resulted in a foamy mess. (The transfer pump was unrestricted which made the flow too rapid) I had estimated a batch size of 7 gallons in a 10 gallon fermenter which was also an equipment change. In a desire to increase my batch size, I increased the fermenter size, using a 10 white garbage can with a lid. Because I had previous issues with blow outs, I felt the additional room would give my beer more room to ferment. I used corn syrup for my priming sugar to achieve a 2.5% carbonation. The end results were, my vapor lock never bubbled and yet my ABV is at 6.59% when the recipe expected 4.95%. The flavor is what I was expecting. However the beer while carbonated, produce very little if any head. The lacing is as expected. The only other factor I could not reconcile was the yeast amount. I used one packet of Lallemand's West Coast Ale yeast which is the same I have used for 5 - 6 gallon batches that came out well. So my question is essentially, when and how do I scale up my yeast amounts?
 
There is a pitch rate and starter calculator here on BF, you can use it either standalone or with the recipebuilder. It will tell you how many yeast cells are needed for your brew.
 
You have a few different things going on here.

It is possible that your garbage can may not seal perfectly, so the Co2 will escape via the path of least resistance.

Was there evidence of krausen on the inside of the fermenter?

It would seem that you pitched enough yeast as your ABV is higher than expected. Did you record your OG and FG? How do these numbers relate to the recpie targets?
 
You have a few different things going on here.

It is possible that your garbage can may not seal perfectly, so the Co2 will escape via the path of least resistance.

Was there evidence of krausen on the inside of the fermenter?

It would seem that you pitched enough yeast as your ABV is higher than expected. Did you record your OG and FG? How do these numbers relate to the recpie targets?
Yes the garbage can may not have completely sealed and yet the bottleing co2 is what escaped or was not produced sufficiently. The was kranseni g in the fermentwr
There is a pitch rate and starter calculator here on BF, you can use it either standalone or with the recipebuilder. It will tell you how many yeast cells are needed for your brew.

Yes it is quite likely my fermenter did not seal completely and yet I don't feel that caused any issues because it is the bottling CO2 I am concerned with. There was evidence of krausening on the inside of the fermenter. My OG was spot on and my FG was quite different from the recipe's FG (I take a picture with a close up of the hydrometer to make my reading) I understand pitch rate calculators and yet the piece of the piuzzel I think I'm missing is in determining how many yeast cells I have in each little pre-packaged packet. I have used SF4 & 5 as well as the Lallemand I used in this batch. Most times I was pitching a packet over the top of my 6 gallon standard fermenter, sealing it and storing it. This yeast had to be re-activated prior to adding. Does each packet indicate how many yeast cells it will produce? Thank you for your feedback, this is truly an enjoyable learning experience as is every brew session. I already have new equipment and ideas for my next session.
 
Interesting on the OG/FG, what were those numbers?
 
As well as checking how much sugar you added via the calculator, what's the temperature where you've been storing the bottles and how long?
 
I understand pitch rate calculators and yet the piece of the piuzzel I think I'm missing is in determining how many yeast cells I have in each little pre-packaged packet. I have used SF4 & 5 as well as the Lallemand I used in this batch. Most times I was pitching a packet over the top of my 6 gallon standard fermenter, sealing it and storing it. This yeast had to be re-activated prior to adding. Does each packet indicate how many yeast cells it will produce?

Fermentis has its cell count on their website and on each package they have a doseage figure for 20 to 30 liters per packet but that's a pretty big ballpark that they are putting you in. As my friends above have mentioned, use the site's calulator and if you want to get actual count numbers, hit the manufactures' web sites for those. Seven gallons out of one packet while being in the middle of the Fermetis ballpark is asking a lot of your yeast IMHO.

Here you go...BRY97 right??
  • Living Yeast Cells ≥ 5 x 109 per gram of dry yeast
  • Wild Yeast < 1 per 106 yeast cells
  • Bacteria < 1 per 106 yeast cells
so they claim that each gram in the packet has at least 5 times 10 to the 9th per gram so 50 billion cells per gram
 

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