Underpitching

The staffing error that gets filed as a motivation problem The mechanism, in ninety secondsPitching is adding yeast to wort. The pitching rate is cells per millilitre per unit of sugar, and it is decided in about four seconds by somebody holding a packet. Underpitch and three things happen, in order. First, the population spends itself reproducing before it can start the actual job, budding through more generations than it was designed for and producing thinner, less competent cells each round. Second, that stressed growth throws off higher alcohols - propanol, isobutanol, isoamyl - which taste like solvent and give you a headache before the second glass. Third, the batch stalls. The last sugars in the tank are the awkward ones, and an exhausted population drops out before it reaches them. The beer finishes sweet, cloudy, and faintly of butter, because nobody stayed sober enough to clean up. Harsh output plus work that quits near the end. Two symptoms, one cause, and the cause was…