Dry Yeast Selection for Dark Mild

[CKing]

Next beer is going to be along the lines of an English Dark Mild
Which of the following dry yeasts would be best:
1. Nottingham
2. Windsor
3. S-04

Grain Bill for a 5.5 gallon batch:
7 lbs Mild Ale Malt
1 lb Vienna
1/2 lb Crystal 60
1/2 lb Special Roast
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt

 

[Obliviousbrew]

Ir really depends on what you want to achieve and if you can control your ferm temperatures. I find windsor to finish too sweet for my tastes it can´t break maltotriose so then you have notty and s-04, notty attenuates more than s-04 and ferments fairly clean, S-04 floccs very good attenuates less than notty (at least in my experience) and it´s pretty clean if you ferment it at less than 68F. My vote is for S-04

 

[JordanThomas]

I vote S-04, but if you choose it, keep the ferment below 68F.

 

[gbx]

Unless you are kegging, never use Windsor. If you bottle cond. it will always be cloudy and the yeast has a gross musty taste. If you are kegging, fine with gelatin and its actually pretty good.

Nottingham is way too clean and dry. It chews up too much of the malty goodness you need in low gravity beers.

I have never used 04.

If you have access to liquid, wy1318 is awesome in dark milds. wy1968 works good too.

 

[Sithdad]

I like Windsor for it's ester profile. I agree that it doesn't attenuate as well as the other two. Mash a little lower to compensate. My dark mild is made with Windsor and it's one of my favorite beers.

 

[CKing]

Will be bottle conditioned.
Fermentation temperature in my basement will stay below 68 degrees.

Nottingham is my standard, but the LHBS stocks the others mentioned and I've never used them.
My last batch was a pale ale and I used the S-05 for the 1st time and was not overly impressed, so I was not sure about S-04.

Would prefer to use dry instead of a smack pack.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

S-04 is probably your best bet. You don't want your mild to be too dry -- unless you do -- and S-04 will attenuate a little less than Nottingham.

 

[JKaranka]

That Windsor does sound ok, though (I haven't used it). You want something that keeps some of the complex malt flavour and sweetness of the mild as it does not have a high abv or noticeable hop profile. You want esters, some muddiness in there (maybe two crystal malts?). Do you use any finings to clear it up? I wouldn't think of some cloudiness in a dark mild to be a problem, but you could always use some isinglass.

 

[CKing]

LHBS was all out of S-04 so I ended up going with Nottingham.
Planning on mashing around 154-155 to help.

 

[tagz]

I used Denny's Fav 50 on my last mild with good results. It had nice malt body without being sweet. 1450 takes a little longer to drop clear, but since its a mild, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I have also used S04. IIRC it gave a very slight tart edge, which was interesting, but not what I was looking for. Although, I may have has some special roast in that one so, and that may have been the source.

 

[Horseballs]

LHBS was all out of S-04 so I ended up going with Nottingham.
Planning on mashing around 154-155 to help.

Not saying you have to, but when I brew my mild I mash at 158 and it still gets down to 1.010 from an sg of 1.034 using wlp013. With a low sg it can't help but to attenuate.

 

[CKing]

I mashed right at 155 and must have had great efficiency as the original gravity reading ended up at 1.052
Guess it's now an English Brown!