Yeast for Midwest Chocolate Stout

[AHF]

Any recommendations or experiences brewing Midwest's Cow Chocula milk stout?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cow-chocula-chocolate-milk-stout.html

Yeast options are:

*Safale S-04 dry yeast
*Northwest Ale Yeast Activator WYeast 1332
*White Labs Pacific Ale WL041

(I am buying the kit today but am open to other Midwest stout kits as well if there is one you'd especially recommend).

 

[DromJohn]

I am partial to White Labs and 041 which is supposedly Redhook. But the Wyeast should be the same yeast. The dry yeast is cheaper if not Redhook. Each will do fine.

 

[sptaylor70]

S-04 is Whitbread yeast (= WY1098, WLP007). It will attenuate about 75% and is highly flocculent. It is okay for sweet stouts, but is more at home in pale and amber ales.

Wyeast 1332 is Hales (Seattle) yeast. It attenuates less than Whitbread (about 68%), and is less fruity (but moreso than US-05). According to my brewpub-owning friend, it is a great yeast for IPA, and good for a sweet stout.

WLP041 is Red Hook yeast. Also less attenuating than Whitbread (about 68%), it is about as fruity. It is good for a sweet stout.

I would probably opt for the Hales yeast, just because I like the smack pack.

 

[eadavis80]

I've had good luck with 04 and 1098 for my chocolate and vanilla stouts.

 

[myelo]

What temperature can you ferment at? I don't like the taste of s-04 if it gets much above 65F. I think the other two might be better choices if your fermentation is going to be 70F or so.

 

[KeninMN]

My go-to yeast for chocolate milk stouts is Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast. I've also done Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale and Safale S-04 and 1084 blows them both away. It ferments like a beast, completing in 4 - 7 days, attenuates between 70 - 76% and settles out fast, hard and compact. (The spec sheet says it's a medium flocculator, but that hasn't been my experience. The majority of the yeast drops out by Day 7 and my stouts clear completely with a two-week secondary at ambient temperature.) I like to brew a Dry Irish stout and then immediately follow with a chocolate milk stout, transferring the Dry Irish Stout after seven days in primary and then pitching a fresh batch of chocolate milk stout wort on 1/3 of the fresh yeast cake, saving another 1/3 for future use. I try to keep the fermentation temperature in the low to mid 60's F.