(Un)SafAle US-05

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Conan

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Haha. So this beer fermenting now, a Cascadian IPA, has been going for exactly 26 hours. I woke up this morning with some krausen and knew it would fill the airlock by the time I got home this evening. Sure did....filled right up. I'm using a 6 gal. carboy with 5.25 gallons of wort and this ain't my first true need for a blowoff tube, but it's certainly the coolest. I put a small (3/8") blowoff in when I got home and just checked it 10 minutes ago. It wasn't flowing anything, so I gently pulled the stopper out- filled with hop leafs. Oh, and it exploded. Definitely the first for that: covered the walls, kegerator, and myself. Cleaned and replaced the stopper/ tube, let it sit not 5 minutes and had the same thing happen again. My point here is this- does US-05 do this every time? I fermented a session RyePA with it on my last batch and that took off like a banshee as well. That was 1.046 OG down to 1.008 in 6 days. This beer is 1.062, fermenting in both cases is right around 69-71*F. If nothing else, this yeast is exciting! Kyle
 
I've never had an explosion like that, but US-05 definitely ferments quick. I used it in a DIPA that went from 1.093 to 1.016 in 4 days.
 
I use US-05 and S-04 for almost all of my beers that don't need specialty yeasts. I love both of these yeasts. As you noticed...they're agressive SOB's. They also compact very nicely at the bottom of the fermenter and make racking a breeze.

Every american beer I do, other than wheats, gets US-05.
 
I just racked a Porter to oak - fermented it with S-04, and can absolutely attest to what Suthrncomfrt1884 said. It blew off like it was going out of style (I set this one up with a blow-off tube right from the start - and the growler I ran the tube into overflowed with krausen for the first 2 days it was going) and I was really surprised by just how compacted the yeast cake was when I racked... No worries about trub going into the secondary - it barely wanted to budge for cleaning!!!
 
It's not because of the yeast strain, it's because of the hops. Whole hops in the fermentor is a recipe for disaster no matter what strain you use. I'm experiencing this right now with a 1.091 IIPA pitched with 1968.
 
I'm on my first batch, Extra Pale Ale, and I also used SafAle-05. Stared 1.045 6 days later I was at 1.008 and have been there for 4 days. Wasn't sure, what sped that up but it looks like it's some quick working yeast. I have also been fermenting at 72, but have not had a need for a blowoff though.
 
Fermenting at 72 will definitely finish a small beer in 6 days. Overall I feel like S05 is average for speed-of-fermentation. S04 is much quicker, and the liquid versions of the English strains are some of the quickest available. I use 1968 in most of my ales and I can get most of my average strength beers in the keg within 6-10 days.
 
Conan said:
Haha. So this beer fermenting now, a Cascadian IPA, has been going for exactly 26 hours. I woke up this morning with some krausen and knew it would fill the airlock by the time I got home this evening. Sure did....filled right up. I'm using a 6 gal. carboy with 5.25 gallons of wort and this ain't my first true need for a blowoff tube, but it's certainly the coolest. I put a small (3/8") blowoff in when I got home and just checked it 10 minutes ago. It wasn't flowing anything, so I gently pulled the stopper out- filled with hop leafs. Oh, and it exploded. Definitely the first for that: covered the walls, kegerator, and myself. Cleaned and replaced the stopper/ tube, let it sit not 5 minutes and had the same thing happen again. My point here is this- does US-05 do this every time? I fermented a session RyePA with it on my last batch and that took off like a banshee as well. That was 1.046 OG down to 1.008 in 6 days. This beer is 1.062, fermenting in both cases is right around 69-71*F. If nothing else, this yeast is exciting! Kyle
Click to expand...

I've not experienced that vigorous fermentation w/05. I keep the temp between 61-63. The temp difference would be the difference.
 
I brewed the all grain version of BM's Centennial Blonde and I had to switch to a blow off after 12 hours and then back to a airlock at 4 days. This was a 5 gallon 1.041 SG batch fermented at 68 degrees in a 6 gallon better bottle. This was my first time using US-05.
 
+1 on both S-04 and US-05.

I generally put 5.5 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy for primary and always use a blowoff tube. Using a carboy hood and 1/2" transfer tubing works great for this. I run the tube into a quart jar half filled with sanitizer and sitting in an old 4 qt. stock pot.

As for temperature, I agree that lower fermentation temperatures greatly reduce the need for a blowoff tube, but with that little head room in the fermenter it's still a good idea.

Bob
 
Before I built my fermentation chiller and started using fermcap, I had to clean US-05 residue off the ceiling a few times.

:eek:
 
I used 05 and found it took my 1.045 amber down to 1.012 in 3-4 days. A lot of activity pretty quickly. I use a bucket, which has a lot of headroom. Used a blow-off but didn't really need it in the end. For higher gravity beer (or the hefe I'm planning on) I would use the blowoff tube again though, to be safe. The bucket got up to around 70-72 on the amber at high activity. I plan to put it in a cooler room for my Sierra Pale clone I intend to brew this weekend to try to ferment in the mid 60s. After the activity slows, I'll move it into the warmer area and try to maintain upper 60s temp to clean it up. Hoping to bottle after 2 weeks in the primary. Might go to 3 weeks if needed.

US-05 is what I'll used for american ales. Lots of good things said about it, even by folks who tend to prefer White Labs and making big starters (which is something I still need to learn to do)
 
Whew. Well, 'heck-half-week' is over for this go-around. I'm keeping it on the blow-off tube until it's nearly done fermenting just to be sure, but it's slowly glugging away now. Yesterday was about a second-long burp with a half second between burps. I think I'll be saving this yeast when the time to keg comes around. It'll be my first, and admittedly economically pretty senseless- I'd be much better off to scavenge some WLP001 or some other $7 yeast. Ah well, it'll be fun! Kyle
 
I'm having an almost opposite experience with my latest batch. Brewed a porter, OG 1.070. About 3 weeks later it's only down to 1.024 and staying there, no more airlock activity. I add about 4 cups of cold press coffee, and two weeks later the darn thing is bubbling again. It's now a month later and the batch is down to 1.017 or so. I want to bottle, but not if the yeast is still working. Thoughts?
 
First few times I used US-05 I produced just enough wort to leave about 2-3 inches of headspace on the carboy and was in no blowoff danger. Now that I tweaked my process I seem to be able to fill them to less than an inch of space, so now I use a blowoff. In both cases, and with other yeasts too, I never had a mess to take care of.
 
I had a similar experience with us-05 that fermented at 68F... I now have to paint the wall in the basement as I didn't install a blow-off tube.
My question is though (and this applies to any yeast) does a fast starting, vigorous ferment like this create a better beer with less off-flavors?
 
Used US-05 (2 packets) for my coffee stout (OG was 1.078, 10 days later 1.021). No activity at this point in fact most activity stopped around the 6th day. ABV estimated to be 7.5 %. On Saturday, I'll be cold crashing for a week then transfer to a secondary fermenter over nibs and vanilla beans. I will likely leave it go for two weeks and then possibly to a blue corn whiskey barrel. I will admit during the heat of fermentation the krausen (2 inches thick or so) was at the neck of the carboy. It took about 18 hours to really get going but once it did CO2 was firing off like a machine gun in a container of starsan. I use a blow off tube.
 
Oh by the way my ambient temp in my basement is probably around 64 degrees. During vigorous fermentation it got up to 72. Sample tasted good.
 
I would think it would be safe to bottle. I can't imagine the beer would attenuate down much further. When I went and got a sample yesterday I must have aggetated it a bit because I started to get a little action from the blow Off tube but I have a feeling it was just some co2 coming off that may have been trapped in the Traub versus yeast activity.



goku_3001 said:
I'm having an almost opposite experience with my latest batch. Brewed a porter, OG 1.070. About 3 weeks later it's only down to 1.024 and staying there, no more airlock activity. I add about 4 cups of cold press coffee, and two weeks later the darn thing is bubbling again. It's now a month later and the batch is down to 1.017 or so. I want to bottle, but not if the yeast is still working. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
 

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