One of the best ways to improve the quality of your homebrew is to pitch the right amount of healthy yeast. And while it may be tempting to simply pour a single pack or vial of liquid yeast into the fermentation vessel, this isn’t usually enough. Under-pitching can cause stuck fermentation and produce off flavors, so it’s best to plan ahead and have enough yeast ready on brew day.
Unfortunately, when you search for information about how much yeast you need, you usually encounter complex equations involving billions of yeast cells, mixed systems of units, and competing schools of thought. This is fun for microbiologists and advanced homebrewers, but for beginners and weekend warriors, it doesn’t have to be that complicated.
Here’s an easy way to estimate a reasonable pitch rate for your next batch of homebrew.