Bad lot of Safale US-05

[terrapinj]

my cream ale finished up beautifully - crystal clear after 2 days cold crashing and 3days in the keg/on gas

grain to empty keg in 19days

started fermented at 64° and slowly ramped it up to 69° over the course of a few days

 

[brewtus_]

Brewed an IPA on 11/05/11 with US-05 (06/30/13 exp. date). OG=1.065. Pitched at 68F. No fermentation after 48 hours. Pitched another pack (same exp. date). Again, nothing for 48 more hours. Took SG reading and was still 1.065. Took another SG reading on 11/19/11 and was still 1.065. Yeast was stored for approx. 6 weeks in the refrigerator and allowed to come to pitching temp before pitching.

Brewed an amber ale on 11/19/11 with the same US-05 (06/30 exp. date). Waited 36 hours and there was still no fermentation. Pitched another US-05 with a 09/30/13 exp. date yesterday morning (11/21/11) and had a vigorous fermentation within 12 hours.

I'm not saying the original US-05 with the 06/30 was "bad" per se, but something was going on in my opinion. Two batches behaved exactly the same way then a different date code yeast was used and fermentation took off as usual.

I've got 2 packets of the 06/30 left, and I think I'll make a starter with one for my next beer. If the starter does not take off, then I think I got some bad yeast. I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

[aryoung1980]

I find with us 05 I see Krausen after 48 hrs never before. I just racked my batch to secondary it tool 16 days for Krausen to fall. Popped a cream ale open been 1 week in bottle (us-05) and it's almost fully carbed it's clear and tastes really good.

I love us-05

I'm glad to hear this. I brewed a cream ale last night and am using US-05 for the first time. Airlock is going crazy but zero krausen. I thought this was odd so I figured I'd do a quick browse.

My yeast batch is 72611 exp 09/2013 and fermenting began quickly but I did use a starter. Hopefully everyone who used the lot which expires 05/2013 will get a good homebrew.

 

[ayoungrad]

Off-Topic:

aryoung1980, your name looks oddly familiar. Can't put my finger on it...

 

[OldWorld]

Now you guys have me worried. I have an older package of 05 in the fridge...I think I'll leave it out to get to room temp...

I never made a starter with my last batch of Safale. It turned out fine. Maybe you guys just need to give the carboy a little love swirl or shake...Oxygenate the heck out of it.

Some use a stone...I just do it the old fashioned way with a vigorous shake. I also splash the heck out of my wort when it enters the carboy for the first time.

So far so good. My Safale S-23 turned out great. It was really clean and not at all fruity. I went with a 50-55 degree fermentation cycle. I also used tons of special B malt...It was supposed to be a dark lager but the extra dextrin made it sweet like a scotish ale...No complaints.

Good luck. Mine expires in January...I better hurry 2012 is going to be the end.

 

[Teacher]

The Imperial Stout I commented on about a month ago tastes great. I'm not sure what was going on, but it seems some packets were bad but others weren't. I bought more US-05 at my LHBS and they were from the batch in question, and the guy in charge of yeasts thinks I also bought from that batch (we can't be certain, of course, but he based this on his dates of receipt of the yeasts). I hope that whatever was going on is resolved by now.

 

[jonmohno]

Maybe his refrigerater is freezing them? Im not shure if its bad for dry yeast or not but something to consider. Some people dont have accurate temp control, and like my fridge it very easily can freeze but i have put a simple thermometer in to keep an eye on it from freezing. I would consider discussing it with him/her.

 

[scottland]

So the double IPA in mention at the start of this thread just scored a 43 in a BJCP comp. so it's obvious this yeast is still making great beer.

 

[ayoungrad]

Congrats. Great score.

Maybe this can mean an end to this thread?

 

[fastricky]

I've been using S-05 regularly and recently and have had no problem whatsoever.

I do wish it dropped out faster during crashing, but that's another story...

 

[ResumeMan]

Just for the record, I brewed a 1063 IPA on Sunday and pitched at 69F with US05.72202 179 1713 06/2013. So def not the same batch as the OP. Rehydrated at 100F and let cool.

I haven't used this yeast before, or if I did it was a very long time ago. From what I'd heard I thought it would take right off. I was surprised the next morning to see...nothing. Somewhere between 16-24 hours it developed a little 1/4" or so krausen, and now at about 48 hours it's got a nice 2-3" head and is bubbling away.

 

[FatherJack]

Just for the record, I brewed a 1063 IPA on Sunday and pitched at 69F with US05.72202 179 1713 06/2013. So def not the same batch as the OP. Rehydrated at 100F and let cool.

I haven't used this yeast before, or if I did it was a very long time ago. From what I'd heard I thought it would take right off. I was surprised the next morning to see...nothing. Somewhere between 16-24 hours it developed a little 1/4" or so krausen, and now at about 48 hours it's got a nice 2-3" head and is bubbling away.

I chucked my recent pack and I don't know the lot number, however ,I have worked wit S-05 quite a bit and I had a similar slow start. The other day I sent the re-hydrated troops for a swim at about 72F.

And I waited.

And waited.

It took about 36 hours to develop a thin wisp of krausen. Before that, I watched in agony as it took nearly a whole day to push the fluid line inside a bottle from my blowoff tube down. Things are plugging away nicely now with good krausen.

Normally S-05 takes off like a rocket, but this one was a tad slow. I'm not sure if it has to do with pitching at 72 and letting it settle to about 62, but it didn't seem like it's normal self.

 

[SkyHighBrew88]

Pitched US-05 (exp. 06/2013) on my Milk Stout. Took off around 12-14 hours. Perhaps this is a slightly longer than normal lag phase but the fermentation has been strong and continuous for 3 days (65F). Seems like the yeast are gradually flocculating today (day 4).

I think 4-5 days is a pretty good timeline for a fermentation from what i've read.

 

[nilo]

Guys, there's got to be something wrong with this yeast
I just tried another batch with S05 and it also tasted phenolic. Here are few comments:

1)3 out of 4 batches I did with S05 had a phenolic bite.
2)Fermentation temps are not the reason, I have fermented 3 at 67F and the last one at 63F. Same with pitching temps.
3)The fact that people get the fermentation started after 12h and sometimes after 36 to 48h is for me an indication that something is wrong. I think that the longer it takes for the yeast to get going, the highest the chance for infections.
4)My phenolic off flavor is not due to lack of sanitation. I have double cleaned everything and it still came out.
5)My last batch used lot# 71322-124-1855 May/2013, same exp date of my previous batch. I don't have records for my earlier 2 batches
6)Last two batches showed no signs of fermentation before 36h. I mean both krausen and gravity were flat.

My last attempt to isolate the issue, other than the yeast, is to mill my barley with a wider gap. I was using 0.031 and increased to factory standard of 0.039. Did you guys have any issues with a too narrow gap producing phenols?

 

[Ozzfest05]

There is nothing wrong with us 05 . There is a lag time but that happens with lots of yeast. 3 last batches I aerated real well, about 4" of foam and fermentation happened within 8 hours. The only issue I had with it was Krausen lasted like 12 days but with my last red it was perfectly normal.

Never issue with off flavors, something else might be wrong. Maybe your local hb got bad batch.

 

[jdd12364]

I pitched two days ago into 2 , 5 gallon buckets of 1.065 A.P.A , by day one there was an active fermentation going on , 48 hrs later & the other still isn't bubbling , same batch , bought the two packs of o5 the same day from lhbs . I have used o5 in the past & it always took off within 12 hrs.

 

[nilo]

There is nothing wrong with us 05 . There is a lag time but that happens with lots of yeast. 3 last batches I aerated real well, about 4" of foam and fermentation happened within 8 hours. The only issue I had with it was Krausen lasted like 12 days but with my last red it was perfectly normal.

Never issue with off flavors, something else might be wrong. Maybe your local hb got bad batch.

I'm not saying that every S05 is bad. But it seems that some lots of S05 are not up to standards. One thing that really differentiate us from the large scale brewers is consistency batch after batch. How can we do that when we have no control over the quality of our ingredients?

 

[jonmohno]

Its all the new Nottingham costing more conspiracy,i swear.See its oh now you gotta buy the more pricy nottingham.Somethings brewing..
I got the 9 13,so i plan on harvesting some of the wlp005 liquid till i cant then maybe use that but,you guys are getting me paranoid.

 

[iaefebs]

Oddly enough, my attenuation is fine, but the yeast is slow to floc. These are all signs of poor yeast health. Anyone else having any issues with US05 lately? My packs expire 05/13.

This is the OP question, Don't be paranoid. Note "US05 dated 5/13" Somehow it ended up with a review of any batch.

 

[TimBrewz]

I am not one to jump to conclusions, there are a lot of potential causes of poor/slow fermentations and off-flavors however...
My latest stout at 1.064 OG with S-05 was a bit off the mark...slow to start and the taste is just not quite right, maybe a bit phenolic, like nilo has said. Hmmm.

So, in the name of science and beer, I am going to try a 15 gal split batch of 1.050 APA with S-04, S-05 and Nottingham to hopefully give some meaningful feedback.

 

[chickypad]

Brewed an IPA with US-05 a few wks back, it did not seem to take off like usual and needed 14 d to reach final gravity. Starting at 1.061 it finished a bit higher than I expected at 1.014 but attributed that to mash temp a little high. I have one pack left that I bought with the others, is very similar lot # to the OP - 71322 124 1734 exp 5/13. Can't be sure the other packs were this same lot but I know they expired 5/13. Getting ready to keg, right now it tastes pretty good and I don't detect any off flavors.

 

[bovineblitz]

My 05/2013 packet of S05 took off like a rocket Monday night @62.5*F

 

[jheld00]

I've used the same lot of 05 about 6 times that has been mentioned to have issues. The only thing I have noticed is that it has been taking between 20 and 26 hours to show signs of fermentation rather than the 12hrs im used to. After it gets going it seems to be normal it will fully ferment in about 7 days give or take and flocs great as it always does. Btw my OGs for those batches were between 1.055 and 1.068. Fermented at 64, 66, and 68(actual wort temp not ambient temp). Also no off flavors of any kind all were nice clean profiles from the yeast.

 

[the_bird]

Huh, well, that explains it. I pitched some (new) US-05 in a batch last weekend, and it's taken its sweet time to get started. It was in the basement at ~64°, a little on the cool side but that's never slowed the beer down much before. I also couldn't find my O2 wand, so I just aerated with splashing - again different from the usual, but I didn't think enough to cause this much of a slowdown. Interesting that it's actually the yeast.

I have another pack for the next batch, but maybe I'll use my other pack of Notty instead.

 

[jheld00]

Huh, well, that explains it. I pitched some (new) US-05 in a batch last weekend, and it's taken its sweet time to get started. It was in the basement at ~64°, a little on the cool side but that's never slowed the beer down much before. I also couldn't find my O2 wand, so I just aerated with splashing - again different from the usual, but I didn't think enough to cause this much of a slowdown. Interesting that it's actually the yeast.

I have another pack for the next batch, but maybe I'll use my other pack of Notty instead.

I would go with 05, it is fine except the longer than usual lag time(from my experiences). But if your pressed for time or need to get your pipeline up and running then go with the Notty. I love Notty it is a beast, it fermented a 1.073 wort in 3.5 days for me once. I personally find it not as clean as 05 I typically will only use Notty in a pinch or if I'm doing an EPA or EIPA.

 

[brewtus_]

OK, so I had two back to back bad experiences with 05 last month. Promised an update using a starter made with 05 dated 06/30/13.

Made a starter yesterday, and brewed an IPA today. Pitched the starter at 6:30 pm this evening and I have a nice start to fermentation at 9:15 pm. Nothing wrong with this batch.

Not sure what caused my earlier problems, perhaps it was individual packets, but looks like the overall quality of 05 is right where it should be.

 

[RedGuitar]

I'm having the same sort of issue. Brewed an amber ale 2 1/2 weeks ago, pitched US-05. OG was 1.055, it was about 36 hours before I saw any air lock activity, and even then it was very slow to bubble and stopped bubbling at all shortly. I took a gravity reading yesterday and it was only at 1.028 after two weeks. I shook up my wort and the pressure has since built back up in the air lock, but still not active bubbles. Today I added some yeast nutrient to it and shook it up again. Still no bubbles, but if I press down on the lid till the air lock goes all the way down, it doesn't take long for the air lock to float up again, so I'm hoping there's still some fermentation going on. I need to get it down to at least 1.018 by next week.

Has anybody tried to get in touch with the company and see if there's anything going on?

 

[bovineblitz]

My 05/2013 packet of S05 took off like a rocket Monday night @62.5*F

Same thing again, had intense fermentation overnight, same lot of yeast.

 

[Ozzfest05]

Same thing again, had intense fermentation overnight, same lot of yeast.

I think they fixed any issue my 05 is too good.

 

[jonmohno]

I just want to comment on this, since those that had a big lag. Do you think your beers suffered from yeast stress then? Basically it seems since this happend to some people that maybe it was like underpitching then? Because of the vitality of the yeast?