Safale S-04 finishing in 36 hours. No Krausen.

[portguy]

just 2 days after my third all grain experience...i needed to make another one just because i felt like it:

Test Porter

10 liter batch
0,90 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5,9 EBC) Grain 2 39,4 %
0,70 kg Carapils (Briess) (3,0 EBC) Grain 3 30,7 %
0,50 kg BEST Vienna (BESTMALZ) (9,0 EBC) Grain 4 21,9 %
0,13 kg Chocolate Malt (886,5 EBC) Grain 5 5,6 %
0,05 kg Chateau Crystal (150,0 EBC) Grain 6 2,4 %
8,00 g Target [11,00 %] - Boil 60,0 min Hop 7 24,1 IBUs
5,00 g Yeast Nutrient (Boil 60,0 mins)
6,00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5,00 %] - Boil 30,0 min Hop 10 7,1 IBUs
1,0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)

My post boil OG was higher than expected because my boil off rate was higher than expected. Had to top off with 1 liter of water to make it to 1.050 OG

I do No Chill for now and ended up using a 6 month old packet of S-04 about 14 hours after the boil.

As far as i can tell i had no apparent Krausen. After 36 hours of bubbling it stopped. Just took a reading and the beer is at 1.013 and there's a nice yeast cake at the bottom of fermenter.

This is way faster than i expected.

Can it have fermented this fast with no Krausen?

P.S. Temperatures were around 18-20 C.

Cheers.

 

[kh54s10]

Look for a ring of crud above the level of the beer. If it is there that was the krausen. 3 days seems a little fast but not extremely so. Make sure it is at fg, then bottle. I would let it sit in primary for about 14 days, bottle condition for a month or two.

 

[Electrake]

what were your mash temps? could have just made a super fermentable wort. I've seen a 20bbl batch brewed on a friday to 1.054 finish at 1.006 on Monday after!

 

[portguy]

what were your mash temps? could have just made a super fermentable wort. I've seen a 20bbl batch brewed on a friday to 1.054 finish at 1.006 on Monday after!

Mash temps were @ 68 ºC most of the time. Lower mash temp towards the end was 66 ºC.

 

[portguy]

Look for a ring of crud above the level of the beer. If it is there that was the krausen. 3 days seems a little fast but not extremely so. Make sure it is at fg, then bottle. I would let it sit in primary for about 14 days, bottle condition for a month or two.

There's a thin half ring on my fermenter that i believe was caused when i moved the thing around the house. But all i could see during this time was not like a Krausen but more like a beer with a slight head. It really looked like it was all bubbles.

And btw: it's not 3 days. It will be 48 hours today at 11 PM (it's 1.55 PM now).

Update:

Just moved the fermenter inside the house. The airlock re started after 1 hour or so. Temp is 21 C. Only thing that is confusing me right now is it surely can't attenuate that much more. It's already @ almost 5% ABV when Beersmith predicts 4,6 %.

 

[kh54s10]

There's a thin half ring on my fermenter that i believe was caused when i moved the thing around the house. But all i could see during this time was not like a Krausen but more like a beer with a slight head. It really looked like it was all bubbles.

And btw: it's not 3 days. It will be 48 hours today at 11 PM (it's 1.55 PM now).

Update:

Just moved the fermenter inside the house. The airlock re started after 1 hour or so. Temp is 21 C. Only thing that is confusing me right now is it surely can't attenuate that much more. It's already @ almost 5% ABV when Beersmith predicts 4,6 %.

Brewer's Friend ABV calculator puts it at 4.86%.

Attenuation starts off fast with the gravity dropping rapidly. Then it slows down. It might only go from your 1.013 to 1.011 or the like and take many days to go those 2 points.

Different yeasts ferment differently. The same yeast will ferment different recipes differently. The yeast also don't go by a recipe calculator and stop when the calculator said they should.

After moving the beer the bubbling airlock could be from further fermentation or it could just be co2 coming out of solution from the agitation.

Close the fermenter up for another 10 days or so then start taking your gravity readings. The more you mess with it the more chance you have of contaminating it.

 

[Hanglow]

it's a fast yeast and flocs fairly fast and doesn't form much of a head as it got adapted for use in conicals. So could well be done.

just leave it be for another few days at a steady temp at least before taking another reading

 

[65C]

S-04 is a jinx for me - I don't get why it's so popular

It really is the least reliable yeast I've used - I've done 7 batches of S-04 now and every one has been either mediocre or bad - after 7 it can't be anything else but the yeast when all my other batches are good to superb using different yeasts

I put a fridge in after the first S-04 went off like an outboard motor - but it's always crap beer - US-05, M44, 1187 Ringwood I use too and all have done well - but S-04 is consistently poor

 

[portguy]

Thank you guys.

As an update: it really did not stop fermenting. I mean it appeared like so, and the reading threw me off a bit. But it is still bubbling at a very slow pace.

Third day in, all seems ok. I think i just got puzzled by the thick yeast cake and the apparent stop of fermentation . It's just my 4th All grain batch and previous to this one i brewed two cooper's kits. But this yeast behaves very different than the cooper's and Mangroves Jack M41 yeasts (these are the only ones i used before).

It's calm but quick and drops like a stone in no time.

 

[Riverevir]

I've got to say I have similar thoughts to 65C on this - I've done S04 a few times now and I'm going to have to be really sold on it to go back for more. I don't mind it but it seems to have some troubles that S05 just doesn't. I know they're different but until I get better ferm temp controls I might have a hard time going back to S04 again.

 

[thehaze]

SafAle S-04 ferments quick and 2-3 days is not unheard of. I would definitely let it sit and check gravity again in 5 days.

I have only had good experiences with S-04 and always works OK for me. It works wel at lower ferm. temps , as well as higher ferm. temps.

 

[GrimBrewer]

Did u pitch the whole yeast pack? I think I only pitch 8gram on 10 liters most of the time and thats higher than a lot of people do. 11.5 gram works for 20liters. So that probably also help speeding up the fermentation.

 

[Jimbodaman]

31% carapils? is that correct that's a lot of cara malt.

 

[portguy]

Did u pitch the whole yeast pack? I think I only pitch 8gram on 10 liters most of the time and thats higher than a lot of people do. 11.5 gram works for 20liters. So that probably also help speeding up the fermentation.

Yes. I didn't want to save half a packet.

31% carapils? is that correct that's a lot of cara malt.

That's correct. It's above the max recommended (i read 20% max). But it's just a test. And the sample tastes yummy.

Hydrometer reading confirms: 1050 down to 1013. I'll report my thoughts about the final result!

Edit: btw it's Weyermann CaraPils, really dunno if i should have added THAT much to a porter but their site states "Often used for lighter beers for an improved head, increased body and softer flavour. Normal usage 5-10 %, but can be increased up to 40 %."