S-04 Yeast first time

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skinfiddler

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Anyone experience slow start-ups with the S-04 yeast? I brewed a 10g yesterday and split the fermenters: one with S_05 and one with S-04.

The S-05 was off and running last night (as usual) while the 04 still shows no sign of life.

Going to wait, but just curious.
 
I used the 04 last weekend and it took off on me. I was surprised it had totally fermented in 2 days. Never had that happen before. Could be old yeast.
 
It always takes off very fast in my experience. I usually end up pitching around 5:00PM, and by 8:00AM the fermentation is roaring right along.
 
What was the date of manufacture on the package? What was the OG of the beer? How much/how did you aerate? What style of beer was it? What temperature did you pitch at? What temperature is the fermentation being kept at?


See where I am going with this... ;)
 
I've only brewed a few batches, but S-05 has always more gradual than S-04's furiously fast fermentation. I had an ale done in under 48 hours with that.
 
I think you're probably fine. I did side-by-side batches with US-05 and S-04. The '05 took off like a rocket, while the '04 looked like it was dead - so much so that after a week I pitched another pack of yeast. It turned out that the '04 had been fermenting all the while, but with no krausen or visible signs of fermentation that I could see. I've never seen such a stealth fermentation, but the final beer was great. So give it a few days and then take a hydrometer reading - if it's like my batch, it'll be doing its stuff secretly.
 

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