Yeast for Stone IRS Clone

[Pehlman17]

I want to brew a batch of BYO’s Stone Imperial Russian Stout Clone. Most Stone recipes call for something like WLP007. But lately I’m only using dry yeast, plus I don’t wanna pay an arm and a leg to have liquid yeast shipped in the summer time with ice packs and risk it still not surviving.

So my question is for those that have used either/both of these often, do I go Nottingham or S-04?

Thanks!

 

[DBhomebrew]

Notty for the attenuation.

 

[day_trippr]

Purportedly, Fermentis S04 is the same strain as WLP007 and WY1098...

Cheers!

 

[Pehlman17]

Purportedly, Fermentis S04 is the same strain as WLP007 and WY1098...

Cheers!

I’ve heard the same but I’m not sure how much that might be true in terms of flavor. I’ve also heard S-04 has cleaned up a lot. I wasn’t a fan last time I had a beer with it, but that was almost a decade ago, so I figured maybe it’s time to give it another shot soon.

 

[InspectorJon]

I was just reading up on S04 and Nottingham. Nottingham seems to have higher attenuation. Unless it is very expressive, I don’t think the yeast flavor will be very apparent in a RIS. Final Gravity has a lot to do with how an imperial stout tastes and feels. I would suggest playing around with your recipe calculator, mash temperature, and attenuation numbers and try and match the known FG of the beer you want to make.

I did a quick web search and didn’t find a FG number for Stone’s RIS. You might have to buy some and degass a little to test it to know what you are shooting for. Be sure to post it here if you find the actual number.

Actually hitting an intended FG with a big beer can be a challenge. Be sure to research fermenting high OG wort. Use lots of yeast.