Which yeast for fruity character? Notty or US-04?

I'm brewing a Pale Ale with a buddy of mine this weekend, and we'd like to maximize the "fruity" character of the beer. Which yeast would be most appropriate for a fruity pale ale: US-04 or Nottingham? Any other suggestions or comments?

Us-04. Notty tends to be very clean (although I'm not a fan).

Notty can be fruity if it's fermented warmer. Part of the reason I don't use it for Pale Ales anymore.

S-04 seems to be pretty good at this. I recently got to taste a side-by-side Pale Ale brewed with US-05 and S-04. The difference was very easy to spot.

Both flocc well and form a compact yeast cake. I just racked an IPA into secondary to dry hop and was amazed at how tight that yeast cake was after less than 2 weeks! (Yes, I know I said I don't use Notty for Pale Ales, but this time I wanted a more fruity IPA and I wanted to break out of the norm. Sue me. =8D )

Any belgian yeast would be much better suited for a fruity character. You can get anything from pear/apple to lemon/orange to plum/fig.

But for super fruity, you really need to give 100% brett beers a try

+1 S-04. I've had decent results with it. Notty likes things cool- You will get esters if you use it warm, but they are not pleasant. Cheers.

Recipe, process and ferm temp being equal, I doubt if I could tell much difference between 04, 05 and notty. They are all pretty clean. Then again, I'm pretty much a neanderthal. NTTAWWT. As always, experiment and report back. Cheers.

You could rock an S-33 for the fruity thing. Or ferment your 04/notty hella warm.

I've used both and even in the low 60's my palate gets bombarded with esters i'm not a fan of

m00ps said:

Any belgian yeast would be much better suited for a fruity character. You can get anything from pear/apple to lemon/orange to plum/fig.

But for super fruity, you really need to give 100% brett beers a try

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I've been wanting to try a 100% brett L beer

Careful with s-33 if you consider it. It can really make a beer sweet... But weird sweet. The esters are sweet, but it doesn't leave a lot of sugar. It's just..odd, sometimes. I prefer it in biggggg dark beers (see: 888 RIS).

Neither! While both can throw esters at above about 66 degrees, neither of them are "fruity" at all in a pleasant way. They get weird (both of them) with notty getting actually foul (rotten fruit) at above about 69 degrees. S04 gets weirdly fruity, but not quite rotten like Notty.

Try Wyeast 1272 for that. I can't think of a dry yeast that I would consider pleasant and fruity, especially in a pale ale. There are probably other liquid English strains that would do a good job, but 1272 is an American yeast with those qualities.

Yooper said:

Neither! While both can throw esters at above about 66 degrees, neither of them are "fruity" at all in a pleasant way. They get weird (both of them) with notty getting actually foul (rotten fruit) at above about 69 degrees. S04 gets weirdly fruity, but not quite rotten like Notty.

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Again, I have to agree with Yooper. I fermented with S-04 really warm trying to make a fruity beer thinking that would work well with Belma hops. And woah! I will never do that again. It was a weird fruity. Not a desirable result.

I've actually found US-05 gives a pretty nice fruitiness fermented in the low 70s (ambient temperature).

Haven't used Nottingham, but I fermented a beer with S-04 and no temperature control once.

Once.

I wouldn't say "fruity" exactly. Spicy, funky, maybe "rotten fruit," sour, and just WEIRD. >.> It was going to be a brown mild. It turned into a really terrible saison-ish kinda thing. Only three people so far have claimed to love it. >.>

Rhaop said:

I've been wanting to try a 100% brett L beer

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Id definitely give it a go. What are you waiting for?

I would recommend Conan over WY1272 if you are looking for a ripe stone fruit flavor. WY1272 throws esters reminiscent of tart peach and sourdough at temperatures above 66F - but below that it's fairly restrained. I love WY1272 and used it as a house strain for awhile. I found its tartness to accentuate American hops and it worked especially well with cascade and centennial hops. IMO Conan works better for hop forward beers that taste 'tropical' and use hops like citra and mosaic.

Just tasted a brew made with a lot of Crystal and El Dorado hops - plenty of fruit. Not my cup of tea but definitely fruity.

This thread is killing me.I have another thread going hoping S04 WASNT fruity after I pitched it in a Smithwicks clone. I'm gunna drink it..and I'm gunna like it...and that's all I have to say about that

For a fruity profile, I suggest Cooper's Ale yeast.

When fermented warm, that stuff is like a basket o' berries.

jwalk4 said:

For a fruity profile, I suggest Cooper's Ale yeast.

When fermented warm, that stuff is like a basket o' berries.

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Good to know. How warm, about?

I'm sampling a wheat wine I fermented with US-05 on my countertop (started around ambient of 70-72, now the ambient is...a bit higher. Damn this climate...) Usually a get sort of a stone-fruit-tropical-fruit flavor from it when warm-fermented, but this one...suggests dried apricots a little, and something impossible with oranges. (Like, if you could make a caramel sauce and adding at least a whole orange to it, without it just becoming a horrifically bitter mess - yes, I see you IPA fans perking up).

NoIguanaForZ said:

Good to know. How warm, about?

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I used it twice, both times in John Palmer's Brown ale when I first started brewing. Both times it just fermented at my house's ambient temp, 68-70. So during the yeast's active primary stage, I would say it probably got up well into the 70s.

If the OP is dead set on using dry yeast, pitching Nottingham and Windsor together can be a viable strategy if one is looking for British-style fruitiness. Windsor is maltotriose challenged; therefore, it usually leaves a high final gravity unless one performs one's saccharification rest at a much lower than normal temperature. Pitching Nottingham with Windsor helps to offset Windsor's inability to reduce maltotriose to glucose with a small loss in Windsor's more British-oriented flavor characteristics.

Brewed it yesterday with a buddy of mine, 10 gallon batch, split. We pitched 2 packets of rehydrated US-04, it's already formed a krausen 24 hours later. Everything went well, can't wait to taste the result!

I pulled a sample today of my Irish red using S04 after 6 days fermenting.I would describe it as carmel/red wine. If I burp I would swear I just drank red wine..So Id say its fruity for sure. Exactly what I didn't want.Hopefully I will mellow in a few weeks.