US-56 fermentation characteristics

Just brewed a porter on Saturday using Safale US-56 ale yeast, which I've never used before. I made a yeast starter with it, and fermentation really took off within 2-3 hours of pitching into the cooled wort. Activity was pretty high all Saturday and most of yesterday.

I've noticed things have slowed down considerable as of this morning. The scent escaping the airlock definitely smells like beer, but there has been no krausen rise (or fall) to the best of my knowledge. There do appear to be brown flecks of what look like flocculating yeast floating on the top of the beer.

I scrubbed and sanitized everything that came in contact with the starter, grains, wort, everything. I did a full wort boil and cooled it down in about 30 minutes.

I'm just curious if anybody has ever used this strain before and, if so, did you notice any similar activity characteristics during fermentation?

As always, thanks for the input and info.

Sorry, meant Safale US-05, not 56...don't even know if such a strain is made...

Ok, so most HB stores call it 05, but the package says 56...hopefully somebody knows what I mean...

It's a very clean ferment.Great yeast if you don't want yeast flavor.Won't leave to much estery goodness

US-56 is the old name, they changed it to US-05. I use it quite regularly and typically see fast starts and fermentation peaking at day 2 or 3 depending on ferment temp. What you have sounds perfectly normal, in any case it's far too early to worry about it. Let it go a couple weeks and then check the gravity.

I posted something similar in another forum and was told that making a yeast starter for a dry yeast can be harmful (to the yeast, I suppose)...is that true?

Not harmful per se, just kind of pointless.

A package of dry yeast has a much larger number of cells than a liquid package. All the dry yeast require is proper rehydration and they're ready to go.

Thanks, I didn't realize that. I've also heard that by making a starter, you waste some of the dried yeast's nutrient that would have been better saved for the beer...Is there a possibility the fermentation will peter out before finishing?

I'm sure it will be fine. If it started and you give it enough time, it should finish up with no problems.

if you've used wyeast 1056 or wlp001 before then you have used us-05.

I've used US-05 a bunch. I prefer dry yeasts (unless I'm making a hefe, wit, etc.) and my go-to yeasts are Nottingham, US-05, and US-04. I find that US-05 is a little less "aggressive" than Nottingham. That is, it doesn't ferment quite as rapidly and doesn't attenuate as much. I do find that it starts faster, though. No starter needed for dry yeasts, but I've always rehydrated prior to pitching (except once, where I just sprinkled and everything turned out fine, go figure).