I Love S-04!

What a great yeast! Flocculates well, ferments like gangbusters, cleans up nice at 65, throws great fruity esters at 70, and talk about a compact yeast cake!

Racked an Oatmeal Stout and dumped the yeast cake from primary after sitting on yeast for 5 weeks. Cake fell out in three "tofu" chunks from the bucket.

I this yeast!




That is all.

mmb said:

What a great yeast! Flocculates well, ferments like gangbusters, cleans up nice at 65, throws great fruity esters at 70, and talk about a compact yeast cake!

Racked an Oatmeal Stout and dumped the yeast cake from primary after sitting on yeast for 5 weeks. Cake fell out in three "tofu" chunks from the bucket.

I

this yeast!




That is all.

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I'm partial to S-05, but need to take a crack at the 04. It's comforting to fall in love with a certain yeast isn't it?

I just tried it for the first time too. I love it! I used it because I read about it's settling properties, and I was really pleased with the yeast cake. Now I'm hoping it does just as well in the bottle. I would love to finally get a sediment that doesn't wanna go dancing when I open a bottle!

Calico Jack said:

I'm partial to S-05, but need to take a crack at the 04. It's comforting to fall in love with a certain yeast isn't it?

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Both have their place and are definitely not interchangeable.
S-04 is a pretty good English Ale yeast, with good English style characteristics. I like WLP002 and Wyeast 1968 a little better but at under $2 and the convenience of a dry yeast I use S-04 more often.

US-05 is a much cleaner yeast, it ferments a little dryer and does not floccuate quite as well. It is good for most American Ales, especially hoppy beers like Pale Ales and IPAs. I havn't really noticed the difference between this and WLP001 so I mostly go with the cheaper and easier choice.

Nottingham is kind of inbetween these two. Not quite as clean as US-05 and a little dryer than S-04. I use it for bigger english beers or beers where I want a little English character.

All are great dry yeast, and real helpful to the budget when brewing.

Craig

S-04 is a little fruity and estery to me.

I've used it for english pale ales and brown ales.

Nottingham for stout. Some yeast character but much cleaner than s-04

S-05 for cleaner american pale and amber ales, for sure.

I did an oatmeal stout last month with 04 and it went from 1.052 to 1.014 in a day and a half. It flocced like a rock to the bottom of the fermenter and looked like it had been in the fermenter for weeks.

I use S-05 for all my ales and haven't been able to get out of that rut.

Calico Jack said:

I use S-05 for all my ales and haven't been able to get out of that rut.

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I agree. I'm probably going to do a 10 gal batch of Stone IPA. Apparently they use an English-style yeast (I always thought it was a California ale yeast). I'm going to split the batch and use US-04 and US-05. We'll see how it goes.

CBBaron said:

Nottingham is kind of inbetween these two. Not quite as clean as US-05 and a little dryer than S-04. I use it for bigger english beers or beers where I want a little English character.

Craig

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Really? I use Notty quite a bit and have always thought it at least as dry as US-05. In fact, I thought I'd read somewhere about it's very high attenuation. I have a batch of my RyePA that went from 1.060 to 1.010 (!), with only .75 lbs of sugar (I wanted less malt so the hops would shine through).

Thoughts, anyone? Have I simply misperceived the two?

I think US-05 is cleaner than Notty but they both seem to attenuate the same for me. S-04 tosses more esters than Notty and doesn't attenuate quite as much.

Those three make up my goto beer yeasts.

Teacher said:

Really? I use Notty quite a bit and have always thought it at least as dry as US-05. In fact, I thought I'd read somewhere about it's very high attenuation. I have a batch of my RyePA that went from 1.060 to 1.010 (!), with only .75 lbs of sugar (I wanted less malt so the hops would shine through).

Thoughts, anyone? Have I simply misperceived the two?

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Sorry did not mean to imply it did not finish as dry as US-05 just that it finishes dryer than S-04 (probably similar to US-05) but had more character than US-05 (not as much as S-04 though). Did not mean to confuse.

These 3 yeasts seem to be the most popular and in my experience I see why.

Craig

ScubaSteve said:

I agree. I'm probably going to do a 10 gal batch of Stone IPA. Apparently they use an English-style yeast (I always thought it was a California ale yeast). I'm going to split the batch and use US-04 and US-05. We'll see how it goes.

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would love to hear which one you think is better suited for the ipa.

Calico Jack said:

would love to hear which one you think is better suited for the ipa.

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American or English?

All 3 of these dry yeasts are EXCELLENT! I probably use more of the S05 than the others.

We are lucky to have "quality dry yeast" as an option.

I started brewing in 1982 and yeast selection was basically..........nill ! very few options back then. Internet was not around, so most everything was ordered from a catalog and mailed. Who knows how old the yeast was they were getting.

I switched to liquid yeast when it became available to me, but returned to the dry stuff about 2 years ago with very good results.

Super convienent, no need for starters, can brew on short notice without a problem. Does not totally replace liquid yeasts, but a step in the right direction.

-Tom

I just dropped a packet of S-04 in my latest brown ale last night. When I checked it in the morning, it already had a krausen (of the slimey English type). The ambient temperature was 48 degrees, but this stuff was warming itself to 65 degrees!! This stuff is explosive! :rockin:

Unfortunately I did not get same experience with S-04. I think S-04 is very much like Danstar Windsor yeast and in my opinion both do not compare with any liquid English Ale alike strain. I fermented my last esb batch half with S-04 and another half with Wyeast 1968. What a difference! Sure it starts fast and drops clean. It's just flavor and aroma were not as clean and as nice as the liquid counterpart.

I'm actually doing the same thing, but with two batches of nut brown: one with 1oz glacier for bittering and 1968 yeast, and one with .3oz warrior for bittering and S-04 yeast, both with 2oz willamette for aroma.

They both certainly have gross looking krausens. Let me tell you.

What's the temp range for 04? I brewed a batch today and the ambient temp is 60. Is that too cold ?

Bulls Beers said:

What's the temp range for 04? I brewed a batch today and the ambient temp is 60. Is that too cold ?

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I would get it up to at least 65.


hijack:
I had a 1.088 OG come down to 1.020 in 5 days with S-05. :rockin:

Bulls Beers said:

What's the temp range for 04? I brewed a batch today and the ambient temp is 60. Is that too cold ?

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According to Fermentis' website (http://www.fermentis.com/FO/EN/pdf/SafaleS-04.pdf) the recommended ranges is 15C - 24C (59F - 75F). I don't know about the low end of that range but I do know from experience that above 70F it throws some strong phenols & esters.

I have a sachet of windsor and nottingham yeast , of gifts from a friend: what kind of beer are recommended these yeast? (NB I live in Italy)

Nottinghan and Windsor ale yeast, may resemble the yeast S-04 and S-05 ( perhaps the nottigham yeast ) ?

thanks

Yeah, doc, I think you're on the right track.