High ABV with dry yeast

[Haydn-Juby]

So I'm looking into brewing some Imp. stouts and high gravity IPAs but have no real access to a good healthy liquid yeast. What I do have access to is is some Danstar products and Us-05/04.

Does anyone have any experience brewing a higher gravity beer with either of these two brands? I'd like to achieve a moderately high attenuation ( 75- 80%) level with lowish ester profiles. What is the alcohol tolerance of say Nottingham ale yeast or US-05?


And no I cannot use liquid yeast. It takes a while for already somewhat old yeast to arrive to me. Everytime I have pitched a whitelabs or wyeast I got zero fermentation signs after as long as 2.5 days.

 

[lhrobinson]

I brew 10 and 11 percent beers all the time with US-05. Just did a pumpkin barleywine at 10.2 using it. However I do pitch 30 grams of US-05 and hydrate it before pitching.

Shouldn't be a issue as long as you pitch enough. I don't know that I would go much higher than 11 or 12 percent on that yeast though.

 

[Pappers_]

US -05 is the same strain as White Labs WLP001, according to many sources. From my experience, it is a workhorse with high attenuation.

Dry yeast has much higher cell counts than liquid yeast, out of the package, so are better suited for higher gravity beers if you are not making a yeast starter.

What was likely happening with your previous tries with liquid yeast is that, because the cell counts were low, the yeast were having an extended replication period, where they were building their numbers and strength to get the job done. Making yeast starters are the way to go with liquid yeast, or pitching multiple vials.

But in my experience, US-05 will do the job for you. As suggested above, hydrate the yeast before pitching to maximize the cell count.

 

[BigFloyd]

Nothing at all wrong with using dry yeast for those imperials, 05 for the IIPA and 04 for the stout.

Put enough rehydrated packets on them and you're good to go. Your other option is to brew a lower gravity beer using the same yeast, then either toss the high gravity wort on a portion of the existing cake or harvest a part of the cake and pitch that in a new bucket. If you do either, you have to aerate your wort just like with liquid yeast.