S-04 yeast super fast!

Never before have I seen a yeast take off so fast! I brewed an Irish Red ale last night, aerated the wort as I normally would by splashing it into the bucket from the kettle, from a height. I had three 500ml jars with unwashed trub and s-04 yeast from my last batch, a Vanilla Brown ale. I'd harvested that when racking to secondary onto the vanilla beans.

The jars were warmed to room temp by the time I pitched, the wort was around 78F (higher than I'd normally pitched but whatever).

After pitching I went to wash my kettle and stuff, maybe 45 minutes later I check and I have a skim of krausen...what the...nah, must be trub floating up. An hour later I had an inch of foamy white krausen, unmistakable. Holy hell!

For funsies here's the recipe I built up:

5lbs Gambrinus English Special Blend Malt (basically Marris Otter)
5lbs Gambrinus Pilsner Malt
.5lbs Crystal 20
.5lbs Gambrinus Aromatic Malt
.25lbs Roasted Barley
.75oz Chinook hops at 40min

40 minute mash, got 84%. 40 minute boil, 24ibu's or so, 82% efficiency all said and done, 5.8 gallons or so of wort in the fermenter.

This yeast is just so fun, the vanilla ale I did last with it about a month ago was fully finished from 1.065 to 1.012 in 2 days. Crazzzeeee!

Checked in on this batch this morning, some 36 hours after pitching: 1.014, krausen completely fallen and beer is clearing already. :rockin:

Tastes REAL nice, smooth. I taste no roast barley at all unfortunately, was hoping for a tiny bit. Chinook hops went well in this so far, has a pleasant mild hop flavor. Malt forward for sure but not cloying or anything, not overly sweet at all.

This is totally my go-to yeast for anything with a bit of color.

Same here. I'm currently fermenting BierMuncher's Black Pearl Porter (thank you). Brewed Monday night, pitched with rehydrated dry yeast at 10:30 p.m., it blew off the blow-off tube Monday night and looked done Thursday morning. I think I might try washing this yeast.

So it's faster than us-05?

So much faster...it's consistently finished the bulk of fermentation (at various fermentation temps, this one is abnormally high for me) in 2 days after it starts. It's still doing stuff but largely, it's finished...

I like us-05 too though, sort of what I use for lighter color ales, it supposedly attenuates higher than s-04 so will go a bit dryer.

I had the same experience on my wee heavy/stout. look like this yeast likes to be pitched high and @ a little higher temp. Smooth and clean after 2 weeks!

Edit: and was almost done in 2days

Doing a 1.045 pale right now that was mostly finished in two days and took off like a bat out of hell just like you described. Definitely my future choice for beers that I need quick turnaround on.

I had a packet of well-expired (4/2010) S-04 darn near blow the top off of my fermenter while making a batch of Irish Stout last week. I lost probably 1.5 quarts of beer to the blow-off, but I was thoroughly impressed with the speed. I am looking forward to tasting the finished product!

I've only used S04 once, cause I'm usually trying to brew american styles, the time I did use it, it fermented out FAST

S04 has always fermented fast and violently for me. I've had significant blowoff even with fermcap S in there.

Brewed a 1.089 stout w/ S-04 on Sunday that almost blew off the blow-off tube by Tuesday and is already slowing down to a trot. That's a lot of sugar to chew through in a short time!

I just have a bit of a problem with it and bottle conditioning, it has a distinct aftertaste that takes a few weeks to clear? any one els have this?

DannyD said:

I just have a bit of a problem with it and bottle conditioning, it has a distinct aftertaste that takes a few weeks to clear? any one els have this?

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Try fermenting at the cooler end of the yeast's preferred range and let it sit in the fermenter a little longer. I ususally try to ferment in the low to mid 60's for a few days to maybe a week then let it warm into the low 70's for another 2 to 3 weeks before bottling. S-04 should be a clean fermenter.

Im all setup to brew a batch of Orfy's Boddingtons tomorrow. Im gonna try and turn it around for a party at the end if the month and Im debating whether to use S-04 or Nottingham. Ive never used s-04 but im a little concerned about this "distinct flavor" I keep reading about with s-04. Im concerned notty will dry it out too much though...

I've had s04 attenuate more than Nottingham a few times.

It might work well in a bodies clone, but I've gone well off S04 since it made a mess of an IPA I really liked with a neutral yeast.

HopheadNJ said:

Im all setup to brew a batch of Orfy's Boddingtons tomorrow. Im gonna try and turn it around for a party at the end if the month and Im debating whether to use S-04 or Nottingham. Ive never used s-04 but im a little concerned about this "distinct flavor" I keep reading about with s-04. Im concerned notty will dry it out too much though...

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I've never had a problem with S04 having an unpleasant flavor. I ferment it at mid-low 60s and its fairly clean with a touch of fruitiness.

I've only once had an unpleasant flavor from s04 but it was a repitch test into a really small container, which wasn't really cleaned...I didn't care about it, was only half a gallon or 1 gallon. So I think the taste was from everything else.

I wouldn't keep using a yeast that I didn't like, and I keep using this one It's neutral enough flavor for my liking for sure!