Safale S-05 Alcohol Tolerance

Hey Guys,

I'm kind of irritated that the official PDF tech specs for this yeast don't mention anything about alcohol tolerance.

http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_US-05_HB.pdf


I love this stuff and want to use this or S-04 for my RIS. It will be between 11-13% ABV and of course would put quite a strain on the yeast.

I just want to make sure that the yeast would be able to finish the job.

Anyone have any ideas on whether or not the S-05 or S-04 could handle this?

I think they refrain from giving specific numbers because so many factors can affect this. However, in my experience (and, from what I gather, that of most around here), US-05 should do just fine at least to 11-12 percent. S-04 may not.

11-13% ABV will be fine with S-05. I took a 1.112 barleywine to 1.022 with it

Awesome, thanks

Yeah, you will be fine with US-05. just for another point of reference, I pitched 2 packs on a 1.116 Barleywine and it went down to 1.021.

That's almost dead on with the numbers I'm looking for.

Use 2 packs, re-hydrate them 30min prior to pitching and aerate well. You shouldn't have an issue.

dcp27 said:

11-13% ABV will be fine with S-05. I took a 1.112 barleywine to 1.022 with it

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Beautiful, thanks, I'm planning to doing almost the exact same thing Good to know it'll work

s-05 is probably one of the most resilient dry ale yeasts. i use it tall IPA's (8.5%), Barleywines (12.5%) and heavy Blonde ales (8 and 10.5%). no prob.

just my 2 cents...

I still use it for almost everything.

I just managed 17% on S05.

Nice. I still haven't gotten that high on this strain yet. Maybe for my next RIS or barleywine

I realize that this is a two year old thread that's been resurrected but I wondered if there's been any further insight into the alcohol tolerances of US-05 and S-04. I managed to find this document
but the information in there states that S-04 is only really able to efficiently attenuate, and then re-ferment (bottle carb), at up to 6.5% ABV, although it may be able to attenuate/bottle carb, very sluggishly, a brew of up to slightly under 9%. There's no reference to US-05 in the document I linked to but, from what you guys are saying here, it sounds like US-05 is definitely far more tolerant than S-04 of high alcohol environments and able to get brews up to considerably higher ABVs.

Not sure about this strain but there is a saf-33 high alcohole yeast, which has a stated tolerance of around 12%.

I'm sure pitching two packs would have a similar effect though.

billy_m said:

Not sure about this strain but there is a saf-33 high alcohole yeast, which has a stated tolerance of around 12%.

I'm sure pitching two packs would have a similar effect though.

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S-33 has a very different profile from US05.

CSI said:

S-33 is a Belgian strain in the Saison and Bier-de-Garde category. It is a very different strain from an American ale yeast like US05.

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S-33 is not belgian, it's english (EDME strain)

dcp27 said:

S-33 is not belgian, it's english (EDME strain)

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Bonkers! Had T-58 on the brain.

This thread has helped me out a lot. I'm making an old ale/ESB/Barleywine (not sure what the monster will be yet) with S-05, and the OG was 1.082. I wasn't sure how well those little buggers would do with higher gravities, but it sounds like it'll do just fine. Thanks again!

Mairoa said:

I just managed 17% on S05.

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Now that's impressive

I had a packet of safale 05 to spare and used it to create some mead.
It's running quite a bit dryer than I expected going from 1.071 to 1.002 in primary fermentation after two weeks (97% attenuation, over 9% ABV). Has anyone else run into the same problem of safale 05 making your beer/mead far dryer than expected?