S-04 or Notty for my ESB?

I'm brewing the ESB from brewing classic styles. I know the dry yeast recommendation in the book is S-04, which I have on hand, but I have had poor attenuation from S-04 (60-63%). I think that decent attenuation is probably important for an ESB for the same reasons that it is for an IPA.

edit: Brewing tomorrow (Sat the 6th)

I love nottingham yeast, and it gets my vote. Attenuates well, starts fast, and is a bit cheaper than safale products.

What's the recipe? There is no reason s-04 shouldn't attenuate to about 72%. What temp are you mashing? I voted s-04 because you do want to leave some sugars an have those nice esters it would provide. I've read that dry yeasts don't need the wort to be aerated, but I always do it anyway, and have had no problem with s-04 finishing.

US-04 is the far better choice for an ESB; Nottingham will finish too dry and clean, and the beer will seem too thin. You need the fruitiness of an English ale yeast with lower attentuation for bitters.

You should be able to get higher attenuation from US-04 as KingBrianI indicated.

I'm going to try the 04 then and mash lower (150). My O2 stone came in today so that might help.

S-04 ftw!

-bn

Totally agree with the last 2 [edit 4] posts

-a.

i say s04 as well, but the 6th is today. you better get your ass to work!

Coastarine said:

I'm going to try the 04 then and mash lower (150). My O2 stone came in today so that might help.

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That is the yeast for my house bitter.
You mash that at 150 and oxygenate properly you better throw some carapils in there for body

My latest bitters have attenuated to:
76 (overnight mash)
72
74
72

Are you warming the beer up after primary subsides?
The yeast really benefits from that

Coastarine said:

I'm going to try the 04 then and mash lower (150). My O2 stone came in today so that might help.

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150-152 is a perfect mash temp for bitters. Brew on, my friend, brew on!

flyangler18 said:

150-152 is a perfect mash temp for bitters. Brew on, my friend, brew on!

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I pretty much without fail mash my bitters at 154 and they will always end up somewhere between 1.010 and 1.014 depending on OG. I wouldn't want to get any drier for the risk of losing too much of the malt character.

This does complettely leave out the other variable, mash thickness. It was said a thicker mash (1 qt/lb.) would yield a less fermentable wort, and as such, british brewers would mash at 150. I always mash with 1.25-1.33 qts./lb so that may have something to do with my attenuation. Or maybe some of the recent talk about mash thickness not having much affect on fermentability could be true. Right now seems to be a turning point in homebrewing, where old ideas are being challenged and sometimes overthrown.

This does complettely leave out the other variable, mash thickness. It was said a thicker mash (1 qt/lb.) would yield a less fermentable wort, and as such, british brewers would mash at 150. I always mash with 1.25-1.33 qts./lb so that may have something to do with my attenuation. Or maybe some of the recent talk about mash thickness not having much affect on fermentability could be true. Right now seems to be a turning point in homebrewing, where old ideas are being challenged and sometimes overthrown.

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I've been mashing my bitters at that thickness and, as such, will mash at the indicated 152. Even when mashing at 1.25 qt/lb, I've still gotten good attenuation without finishing too dry.

YMMV, of course.

Jason

regardless of your preference between these 2 yeasts s-04 is more geared toward this style by not finishing as dry and is more of an english style, ie: EnglishSB.

I'd use the nottingham or maybe the US-05

humann_brewing said:

ie: EnglishSB

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huh? 10char

humann_brewing said:

ie: EnglishSB.

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I thought the E stood for "extra", as in Extra Special Bitter, rather than "English".

Yes. Extra.

Maybe I go against the grain, but my SB's and ESB's (ala Ole Speckled Hen) get mashed at 159-162.

Pour yourself a Bluebird Bitters (SB) or an OSH (ESB) and you'll definitely pick up a caramel sweetness.

Even Orfy mashes his OSH at like 163(ish).

Well I mashed at 150, had an OG of 1.061, 38 IBU, oxygenated for a few minutes and pitched one packet of rehydrated S-04.

Coastarine said:

Yes. Extra.

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I know, it just fit this situation so much better