S-04 - Not liking this yeast

[ballzac]

Should be fine for my oatmeal stout, anyway

 

[oldschool]

Fermenting at 68-70, I've gotten a noticeable mango taste from it, which goes really well with any of the grapefruit-flavored hops (Cascade in my case). I think it's great for IPAs, and as someone else here has already said, it's damn near my house yeast.

Only problem I've had with it is that my pale beers come out a bit cloudy, which is probably just lack of patience on my part.

the mango is almost exactly what I smelled.

 

[EricT]

I have made 2 beers with this and both were very clear after just 2 weeks in primary. The yeast cake was well compacted and I havent noticed any off flavors. It does flocculate very well, all my beers end up at the lower end of the gravity scale so not sure if I am going to use it for darker ales anymore. Worked great with BM's Centennial Blonde.

 

[starrfish]

Should be fine for my oatmeal stout, anyway

LOL clearest beer I've made with it was a Milk Stout...

but if you look at a whitbread it's not crystal clear... same yeast.

I keep using it for the flavor profile... I've always liked whitbread too.

 

[944play]

IPA came out seriously cloudy...

Check your process. S-04 floccs "like a load of bricks" as they say.

 

[Teacher]

That's been my experience. Crystal clear, always, with a pretty compact cake.

 

[starrfish]

hmmm wonder if it was batch of yeast, IPA and ESB ingredients both purchased at same time... Milk stout was earlier

 

[Saccharomyces]

I am not a fan of the ester profile of this yeast, but since it's a dry one I keep it on hand to use as a bottling strain. It's nice and flocculant, and fairly alcohol tolerant.

 

[ballzac]

LOL clearest beer I've made with it was a Milk Stout...

Just to clarify (pun intended, hahaha), I wasn't implying that an oatmeal stout should be cloudy, just that I'm not really gonna care if my oatmeal stout is a bit cloudy. If it was a pilsner or something, it would be a different story.

 

[AviatorTroy]

I used this yeast a couple weeks ago for the first time on a blueberry wit. (I know, not even close to the right kind of yeast for this but its all I had sitting around at the time and I wanted to get the fermentation going before leaving town.) Fermented at about 62, and after 5 or 6 days I let it ramp up to 70 or so to clean up. Took a sample. Went from 1.052 to 1.009! Also I wasn't that happy with the strong fruity aroma at first (BEFORE I put the blueberries in!). Well I racked it to secondary, and stuck it in my mini fridge and its been in the high 40s for 2 weeks and last time I took as sample, it was fantastic so I think the cooler secondary temp really helped. As soon as I get home from this work trip Ill bottle and I think its going to be good.

Oh yea, and Ive never seen a yeast cake from the primary that looked like that. It looked like I poured an inch of concrete in the bucket, and was actually very tenacious and difficult to rinse out!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

For me S-04 ferments vigorously enough that in a 65 degree basement, I have a 72 degree center temp on the fermentor about 60 minutes after high krausen (11 gallons in a 15 gallon demijohn). I only use it when I can cool the fermentor somehow (normally water-tub/beachtowel/fan) to drop the temp a few degrees.

With this yeast the higher the temp the more esters I got. That being said...I like it in an ordinary bitter and it seems to mellow with about two weeks into the keg.

 

[BigFloyd]

Fermented at about 62, and after 5 or 6 days I let it ramp up to 70 or so to clean up.

+1 on your ferment temp profile for S-04. I've used it for ESB and Chocolate stout with the same stepped-up ferment (measured on the bucket) followed by a 5-7 day cold crash. The end result was very clear with a delicious flavor.

I'd use it again without hesitation and plan to have some on hand as a backup to the WY1968ESB I have in the yeast bank. AN ESB is next on the brew list since that keg is getting rather light.