Sterling 514 Yeast

Just saw that AHS has this in stock. I've never heard of it before and Google has failed me. Any info or experience??

New Sterling 514 English Ale Dry Yeast
You have been asking for it, and now Austin Homebrew Supply has an exclusive on it!

A clean English dry yeast with very high flocculation properties.

- Flocculation: High
- Attenuation: High
- Ideal Fermentation Temp.: 61-75 F
- Alcohol Tolerance: 9.5%

Sounds really easy to use. Floccs and attenuates well and has a large temp. range. Interesting!

Maybe a Pacman strain? Wyeast suggests 60-72 ferm temp and it attenuates / flocs well. That would also explain the "you've been asking for it!" comment.

Google worked pretty well for me:

http://www.maurivin.com/yeast.aspx?id=4&menu=open&parentid=282&menuid=286#Ale514

samc said:

Google worked pretty well for me:

http://www.maurivin.com/yeast.aspx?id=4&menu=open&parentid=282&menuid=286#Ale514

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Other than "514" appearing in both how can you be sure they are the same?. The Australian company doesn't have the word "Sterling" anywhere on it's site.

camiller said:

The Australian company doesn't have the word "Sterling" anywhere on it's site.

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"Sterling" sounds like a marketing touch

bottlebomber said:

"Sterling" sounds like a marketing touch

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And the last post in this thread at aussiehomebrewer kind of confirms that.

Still, how is it different from S-04?

fastricky said:

Still, how is it different from S-04?

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Yeah, I guess I'm wanting that little sales pitch that says why I should buy this. Given the variation of english yeasts available, it would be helpful to know what it is similar to and what the differences are.

camiller said:

And the last post in this thread at aussiehomebrewer kind of confirms that.

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Good Find!

Well, I pitched 14g of this stuff on 9/3/2011 onto an Amber Ale, and am less than happy with the results so far. Super-long lag time (almost 48 hours and zero signs of fermentation). Zero airlock bubbling (although it has sucked enough vodka out of my airlock that I have had to refill it twice), so I opened the lid to peak inside, and there was zero krausen. I will give it another day or two to see if fermentation picks up, and if not, I will pitch a packet of Notty.

Of course, I will reserve final judgment until I actually taste the beer, but let's just say I am disappointed with this yeast so far. I can say with certainty that it is NOT the Pacman strain (or if it is, most of the cells in the 2 packets I pitched were dead).

Still nothing with the Sterling yeast, so I pitched a packet of Nottingham. Boo to Sterling 514!

That's disappointing. I just did a chocolate porter yesterday and used the same yeast. I didn't rehydrate this time. I'll give it a couple of days before I put some Safale on it.

Does mixing two different yeasts cause issue? Different flavor profile perhaps?

kenpotf said:

That's disappointing. I just did a chocolate porter yesterday and used the same yeast. I didn't rehydrate this time. I'll give it a couple of days before I put some Safale on it.

Does mixing two different yeasts cause issue? Different flavor profile perhaps?

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I'm thinking it won't, since the Sterling was probably dead. I've had to do it once before, when I pitched a slurry of Notty that never started ferementing, so I had to pitch S-33 on it.

Well I got home tonight and I have some activity. Maybe you just got a bad packet?

kenpotf said:

Well I got home tonight and I have some activity. Maybe you just got a bad packet?

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It was TWO packets...that's what disappoints me. I had 4 packets of the stuff, and 2 of them couldn't even start a fermentation. I'm almost scared to use the other 2. I will have to make sure I have some other yeast on hand when I pitch the 2 remaining packets of Sterling, in case this happens again.

douglasbarbin said:

It was TWO packets...that's what disappoints me. I had 4 packets of the stuff, and 2 of them couldn't even start a fermentation. I'm almost scared to use the other 2. I will have to make sure I have some other yeast on hand when I pitch the 2 remaining packets of Sterling, in case this happens again.

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This is why making a starter with dry yeast can be A Good Thing - in spite of the "conventional wisdom"...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

This is why making a starter with dry yeast can be A Good Thing - in spite of the "conventional wisdom"...

Cheers!

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That kind of defeats one of the main benefits of using dry yeast.

blizzard said:

That kind of defeats one of the main benefits of using dry yeast.

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I understand the rationale behind the "conventional wisdom", but one thing it doesn't cover is determining whether the dry yeast is still viable before it is pitched...

Cheers!

People spend hours and hours brewing, buying supplies, worrying about recipes and then cheap out on the final expense and buy crap yeast. If you are going to use dry (I do a lot), then buy Safale or Danstar and leave the Sterling for down under (no offense to our Aussie friends).

Well, I pitched the Sterling I had left into a Vanilla porter I brewed late Sat. night/early Sunday morning, and there is already some krausen formed and airlock activity as of this morning (~ 30 hours later). Looks like I had a couple of bad packets the first time.

I took a chance on Sterling on my last brew. I was making an Irish Red and chose the yeast since it appeared to be a general ale yeast. I rehydrated it prior to pitching but it still seemed a bit slow. Though when it did begin, it seemed to go pretty good. I opened the first bottle a few days ago and it had a good head to it. Maybe I had some good packs, but it worked pretty good for me.

anyone else use this yeast, i was wondering if the flavor profile and performence was comparable to WLP 007/ Wyeast 1098

I just pitched this yeast in a midnight wheat stout PM batch from AHS on Monday afternoon I kept the temps at around 64*f and didn't see much action for about 2 days then I got a very small Krausen and a little airlock activity for about 5 hours and then nothing... I think I'll stay away from this yeast from now on, I just hope the beer turns out ok.

Rehydration of dry yeast will show viability, it should get creamy within ~ 15 - 30 minutes. This is another good reason to rehydrate, vs just dumping it in and hoping.

Desrever said:

I just pitched this yeast in a midnight wheat stout PM batch from AHS on Monday afternoon I kept the temps at around 64*f and didn't see much action for about 2 days then I got a very small Krausen and a little airlock activity for about 5 hours and then nothing... I think I'll stay away from this yeast from now on, I just hope the beer turns out ok.

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I am brewing the same recipe, I brewed it on Sunday and dumped it on the yeast cake from previous brew that had Sterling. Monday morning at 5am it was burping like crazy, I see krausen and its going strong.

How did your brew turn out? Do you feel that 64F was a good temp or do you think it would be better at lower temp?

This midnight wheat turned out ok, I think my temps were a little low if I used it again I would keep it in the higher 60's.

I ordered this yeast on a whim and gave it a test with an extract batch I was trying. The recipe is a very pale ale, lots of easy fermantables like rice syrup solids.

I pitched a whole packet into 3.5 gal. Took off like crazy in 2.5 hours (~74F). Next day it was done, visually at least. I waited 3 days, then added a clarifier, since it did not flocculate at all. Maybe this was too soon. Tested it two weeks later and it was still at 1.020, from an OG of 1.058. Taste was obviously sweet but pretty clean. I'm pitching notty now to see if it can take it lower. Based on my experience (stuck ferm) I'm not sure I would use it again, although maybe you can blame me for adding a clarifier too soon.

REVIVAL ..... just bringing this back to life because I seen this yeast for the first time in a Brew Canada Red Beer kit I picked up to fill an empty keg for the holidays. I just pitched the thing in the bucket, fingers crossed, lets see if this yeast has gotten any better. Anyone else have any more recent experience with this yeast?

Edit: Checked it this morning and it was vigorously bubbling away. Now to wait to see how it attenuates, how well it clears, and most importantly how it tastes.

Post ferment edit: Went from 1.050 to 1.015 giving an attenuation of roughly 70% from what I can tell. Going to keg and see how it tastes. So far so good, it did well for an all extract and sugar recipe.

Tasting edit: Prob should have let it ferment for another week to see if it would drop a few more points, which it prob would due to the amount of yeast that was still in suspension. Beer has a bit of a sweet caramel taste to it and is actually pretty good, just couldn't drink 6 in a row. Yeast is very clean with little to no observed taste.

Final verdict: I would definitely use this yeast again, really glad I didn't chuck it and gave it a go, kind of wishing I had of actually saved some instead of pouring it down the drain when cleaning the fermenter. Who knows maybe in it's early days they were not taking care when shipping storing and all that good stuff. Worked well for me, hope this review helps anyone who stumbles upon this yeast in the future.