DOWNLOAD: Guide to Accurate Yeast Cell Counting in the Brewery
A practical, brewery-focused approach to dialling in your pitch rates
Yeast cell counting might not be the flashiest task in the brewery—but it is one of the most powerful ways to improve beer quality, fermentation consistency, and repitching success. With nothing more than a hemocytometer, a microscope, and good technique, you gain direct control over pitch rates, fermentation kinetics, attenuation, flavour development, and contamination risk.
To help breweries level up their cell counting accuracy, we’ve created a new mini-guide:
Accurate Yeast Cell Counting In the Brewery — built around Escarpment Labs’ recommended best practices.
This new guide covers:
Why cell counting matters
From underpitching (slow ferments, off-flavours, infection risk) to overpitching (thin body, autolysis, elevated alcohol), we outline exactly how pitch rate affects beer quality and yeast health.
Why diluting by weight is far more accurate than diluting by volume
Pipetting slurry is notoriously inconsistent due to CO₂ bubbles, foam, trub, and varying density. Weight-based dilution removes these variables—giving you cleaner, more repeatable data.
Step-by-step instructions for dilution, viability staining, loading the hemocytometer, and counting
We walk through everything from homogenizing your sample to boundary-rule counting on the grid. You’ll learn why counting five specific squares is best practice, and when to change dilution factors to improve accuracy.
Common pitfalls and how to fix them
Clumpers? Chain-formers? Foam? Mis-stained cells? Uneven chambers? We included a full troubleshooting section to help you get consistent counts every time.
When an automated cell counter is worth it
And when a manual hemocytometer still outperforms automation.
Good habits to build long-term consistency
Including staining discipline, operator rotation, and record-keeping.
Whether you're new to cell counting or want to tighten up your SOPs, this guide gives you the clarity and confidence to count yeast accurately—and make better beer because of it.
