Anyone else love S04?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Monstar

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2010
Messages
440
Reaction score
36
Location
Denver
Ive used it for the last 3 or 4 batches, and every time it explodes, clears fast, and tastes friggin' great.

Definitely my new go-to. Just felt the need to say profess my love for this yeast :mug:
 
Yes, I am also impressed with this dry yeast and quite agree with you that it starts quickly, ferments strongly and quickly, and also flocculates pretty well.
 
+1

Very new to this hobby but have used S-04 in every batch, but one, that I've done so far and it hasn't let me down with regards short lag time, vigorous attenuation and producing a couple of batches, already, that have some great flavours.
 
US05 is also spectacular.

In fact, all of Fermentis' yeasts are great.
 
Used S04 for the first time last Saturday for an oatmeal stout. Pitched dry. Come Sunday, that sucker was going crazy!! I couldn't believe the airlock activity! Then, Sunday night it was pretty much all spent. Looking forward to tasting the results.
 
Cool, glad Im not alone. I had not used since I started brewing back in '10! I guess I didn't know any better then :drunk:

US05 is also spectacular.

In fact, all of Fermentis' yeasts are great.

I totally agree.
 
I use it often. If it's fermented cool (65 or so), it's not estery and it leaves a super clear beer with a tightly compacted yeast cake.

Yep, I find the same thing. Kegged a beer last night and had a little trouble breaking it up for washing!
 
Used S-04 one time, and was quite pleased with the results. Very flocculant and resulted in a nice clear beer. Will give US-05 a try sometime soon.

Mostly agree that Fermentis' yeasts are great. S-23 is tempermental for a lager yeast but is great for those who need to do lagers in the mid-50s. W-34/70 is my workhorse; I absolutely love it. Got some S-189 on order that I'm really looking forward to trying.
 
I also use US05, S04, and W-34/70. My main three yeasts I use -- however, WL090 (SDSY) is starting to take over US05 for me.
 
Got some S-189 on order that I'm really looking forward to trying.

Sounds awesome. Unfortunately, I don't have a lagering setup at the moment, but I googled that yeast and it sounds great!

Love -04... love -05, love fermentis...Just tried out their wheat -06... I'm sure it'll turn out well.

I use it in all my wheats, and they always turn out great. Tastes a lot like New Belgium Mothership.
 
I'm a big Fermentis fan. US-05 is my "house" yeast. I have a batch of British-style pale ale going with S-04 right now. I've used S-33 and WB-06 and enjoyed them. I'm a bout to do a California Common and, after doing some research, decided I'll again turn to Fermentis and use S-23.
 
Just moved ( a couple days ago) a Mirror Pond Ale clone from a primary to keg for dry hop/secondary/conditioning. Being the cheap person I am, I saved the yeast cake into a couple Sterilized Mason Jars (which are sitting loosely capped in my Refrigerator). So, anyone out there have recommendation for other All Grain recipe's using US-04? (I've got plenty of grains and hops to choose from). By the way, the Mirror Pond FG reading was 1.008 and the sample tasted wonderful!
 
Dude... so many... I've done IPAs, Porters, Browns and Stouts.... with 04... it's pretty clean... though admittedly, the ones I listed are fairly tolerant and robust brews ;)
 
I agree on the yeast cake, I just racked my BrandonO Graff which I made with S-04 and the yeast cake was SOLID. WOW!
 
Dude... so many... I've done IPAs, Porters, Browns and Stouts.... with 04... it's pretty clean... though admittedly, the ones I listed are fairly tolerant and robust brews ;)

So, if you had to pick ONE right now, what would it be? It it helps any, my brews so far (since re-taking up this hobby) and my self-review are:
California Common (extract Kit) - eh, so so . Think I steeped the specialty grains at too high a temperature.
Blue Moon Clone (Blue Balls, modified extract kit) - others like it, I assess as "not bad"
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone (All Grain) - nice
Victory Hop Devil (All Grain) - wow, I like it - this one is going quickly and I've gotten some very positive feedback (like how come you don't open a brewery)
Red Rocket Ale Clone (All Grain) - ABV much higher than expected due to higher efficiency - nice, but don't like it as much as the IPA.
Mirror Pond Clone (All Grain) - we shall see.

I've been doing mostly clone recipe's so that I can compare my result to what I'm cloning, but open to just about any suggestion.
 
So, if you had to pick ONE right now, what would it be? It it helps any, my brews so far (since re-taking up this hobby) and my self-review are:
California Common (extract Kit) - eh, so so . Think I steeped the specialty grains at too high a temperature.
Blue Moon Clone (Blue Balls, modified extract kit) - others like it, I assess as "not bad"
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone (All Grain) - nice
Victory Hop Devil (All Grain) - wow, I like it - this one is going quickly and I've gotten some very positive feedback (like how come you don't open a brewery)
Red Rocket Ale Clone (All Grain) - ABV much higher than expected due to higher efficiency - nice, but don't like it as much as the IPA.
Mirror Pond Clone (All Grain) - we shall see.

I've been doing mostly clone recipe's so that I can compare my result to what I'm cloning, but open to just about any suggestion.

Are you out of any of these? If so I might make the one that you are out of except for the Blue moon clone...Also, looks like you got a bunch of hoppy brews... what about doing a brown or something different... otherwise do your VHD
 
Are you out of any of these? If so I might make the one that you are out of except for the Blue moon clone...Also, looks like you got a bunch of hoppy brews... what about doing a brown or something different... otherwise do your VHD

I will re-do the VHD soon as it is going quickly. I'm trying to do as many batches as time permits just to practice the process. Having participated in group buys on grains, also got a bunch of hops @ $.79/ounce a couple months ago, and got a bunch of hops given to me (fresh, which I've dried and placed in vacuum sealed bags), and reusing yeast means my costs are relatively low. I'm also sometimes doing reduced batch sizes (4 gallons) due to limitations on how much liquid I can get to a boil on my electric stove top. For instance, my estimated ingredient cost for a 4 gallon batch of VHD is about $12.00 ($.29/bottle).

This is my long winded way of saying I want a new recipe that other people like to try. :)
 
copyright1997 said:
Just moved ( a couple days ago) a Mirror Pond Ale clone from a primary to keg for dry hop/secondary/conditioning. Being the cheap person I am, I saved the yeast cake into a couple Sterilized Mason Jars (which are sitting loosely capped in my Refrigerator). So, anyone out there have recommendation for other All Grain recipe's using US-04? (I've got plenty of grains and hops to choose from). By the way, the Mirror Pond FG reading was 1.008 and the sample tasted wonderful!

Are you down to spend a couple hours toasting some two row? If so I can try to turn my favorite home malt recipe to a store bought malt recipe that I'm sure you will love.
 
Maybe I made a mistake but the last time I used S04 I had it crap out in the low 60s and left my beer overly sweet. I prefer S05. However, dry yeast rocks- if only they could diversify the strains a bit.
 
I actually find that US-04 has a little twang to it. I can't describe it well, it's not a phenolic, just a little estery. I've fermented it cold (62*), and it's still there, so I gave up on S04. I use WLP007 for my Dry english needs.
 
I actually find that US-04 has a little twang to it. I can't describe it well, it's not a phenolic, just a little estery. I've fermented it cold (62*), and it's still there, so I gave up on S04. I use WLP007 for my Dry english needs.

I find that it has a twang too...at least while it's young. It tastes sort of like soured oak. A buddy of mine once brewed an English Brown with it which he didn't like very much for the S04 taste. He left a few in my fridge and somehow I forgot about them for a month. A month later I found them sitting at the back of my fridge and poured him a glass without him seeing. He couldn't identify the delicious brew he was drinking and was totally shocked to find it was his own. I think S04 just needs a little more time than other yeasts to shake off its green flavour, but when it does...so good!
 
Back
Top