Safale US-04 questions

[Moody_Copperpot]

I'm brewing my annual holiday brew today, for which I've always used US-05. This year I'm going to change it up and use US-04 just for fun.
I've never used this strain before.
05 is a beast and has had no issue with any high OG I've thrown at it. Is 04 the same? My recipe will end up being 1.065 at 75% efficiency...but I generally get 85%, so I'm not sure how 04 will handle that bump in OG.
Also, with 05 I've had great results just sprinkling it into the wort, no rehydration. I've done it both ways and haven't notice a difference in results. I don't know anything about 04 though, so I'm wondering how to proceed.

 

[osagedr]

I believe it's S-04. It's a British strain, so will be different than what you are used to. I've used the strain once (in an ESB) and was very pleased with the results.

As far as "how to proceed"...hard to go wrong following the manufacturer's instructions.

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

What kind of OG can it handle though?

 

[zman]

I would like to know as well. I see that people used it with the DHF India Brown Ale recipe. http://www.brewingkb.com/homebrewing/US-04-blows-4146.html. I do not have this months Zymyrgy with me at work but I believe the OG is in the +1.071 range. I am going to do this beer and the arrogant Bastard clone tomorrow and will use US-S04 for both. The DFH calls for Ringwood but I will not have the yeast until after work. SO I will just save it for another day or make a starter and freeze some to add it to my collection

 

[jamboparty]

I used it in my cream stout last week and my results were similar to the linked article above.

Rig up a blowoff.

 

[kpr121]

Agreed on the blowoff. I brewed a 10g batch of GL Xmas Ale clone 2 weeks ago. One fermentor got US-05 and the other S-04. i actually think the S-04 half had about 1/2 gallon less wort. Fermenting at around 63F, guess which one blew through the blowoff tube... 04.

I think you will be happy with it for a Holiday Ale. It lets the malt shine through much better than 05.

 

[commonsenseman]

What kind of OG can it handle though?

It can handle quite a bit. It's listed tolerance is 12% I believe, I've used it up to 10%.

 

[zman]

It can handle quite a bit. It's listed tolerance is 12% I believe, I've used it up to 10%.

sweet good to know

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses. Those who have used it, did you rehydrate or no? The safale site says you can do it either way. Just wondering what kind of results people have had with the two methods.

 

[kpr121]

I almost never rehydrate. Only time I do is when I have extra time on my hands, a high OG (over 1.070) and I am not feeling lazy.

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

If I get my normal 85% efficiency, I'll be over 1.070. Rehydrate? Yes? No?
I don't have a stir plate or anything, and I know the safale site says to stir it for 30 min after the cream forms.

 

[kpr121]

If you're asking about it, then do it.

I personally would probably flip a coin, then ignore the outcome of said flip, and sprinkle.

 

[Malticulous]

At 1.070 it's a good idea to rehydrate. Sprinkling into that wort will kill half of them.

 

[ayoungrad]

It sounds like people have success without rehydration. In my experience I tend to have faster fermentations (granted, not necessarily any better) with rehydration and slowly lowering the rehydrated yeast temperature to wort temps. And this gels with many things I've read. I have heard that you will also lose half the yeast population from temperature shock simply by not slowly bringing the rehydrated yeast down to wort temp. This was either from Mr. Malty or 'Yeast' or 'How to Brew'.

And SO4 will handle almost anything that US05 will handle but you should get an apparent attenuation of about 5% less, given the same wort and same conditions. SO4 is similar to WLP007.

 

[Malticulous]

Sean Terrill has done cell counts of dry yeast rehydrated in wort and water. In wort pitch rates into five gallons could be as low at 6 million cells per milliliter. That's fine for low to regular gravity beers and might bring out some desirable esters. Rehydrated in water the pitch rate may be as high as 14 million cells per milliliter (more than enough.)

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

I rehydrated my yeast, but I yielded more in the kettle than expected, so I need to add a good 40min extra to the boil to boil it down. Will the yeast be okay in the water for and hour and 40 min??

 

[Malticulous]

It will be fine.

 

[jamboparty]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses. Those who have used it, did you rehydrate or no? The safale site says you can do it either way. Just wondering what kind of results people have had with the two methods.

I rehydrate mine. I know it's probably not necessary, but it's easy and I have good results when doing it so I might as well keep doing it.

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

I did end up rehydrating mine. I got 85% attenuation out of it, with an ending abv of 8%. The beer is EXCELLENT!

 

[Pilotpip]

I rehydrate my dry yeasts. I always boil some extra water for topoff since I'm still learning my evaporation rate and use a small bit of this for the rehydration. Its on my checklist while the wort is coming up to boiling temp.

 

[Formito]

I did about 6 months of brewing with only us-05 and s-04 and I never rehydrated or made a starter once(mainly out of ignorance). Several brews for both strains had an OG of over 1.080 with no problems except popping off the bucket lid so I'm pretty sure you can safely run s-04 safely as long as your in the correct Temp range.

 

[Matteo57]

Here is a question along with using us-04. I plan on doing an imperial stout this weekend and when I went to my LHBS and told them the OG I plan on for this Imperial will be around 1.100 he said to us 3x packets of us-04. Mrmalty.com says I only should need 1.8 packets.... Was he just trying to sell me extra or do you realy think I would need an extra packet over what mrmalty.com says?

Thanks!

 

[Formito]

2 packets would work, but you need to take extra care to oxygenate the wort regardless. 3 would also work, but it's approaching on overkill and not necessary. Some people really don't like overpitching in that sense and they believe it can leave off flavors

 

[Matteo57]

Yes, I have an oxygen tank and stone so i'm good on that front. Ok thanks, i think I will just use 2 and then maybe get a third for adding a bit of yeast to bottling bucket.
Thanks

 

[Piratwolf]

I'd tend to side w/ mrmalty, especially where S-04 is concerned. It's a BEAST! Plus, I've found as well as seen that many LHBS owners are a bit behind the times.

 

[agroff383]

Plus, I've found as well as seen that many LHBS owners are a bit behind the times.

man i could start a whole thread just on that....soooo true.

 

[C-Rider]

I use Sa-04 on all my English ales. I only do 1.75 gallon batches in 2 gallon buckets and have never had anything up into the airlock. That would include a few w/OG around 70.

 

[Moody_Copperpot]

man i could start a whole thread just on that....soooo true.

Oh my GOD yes! The owner of a LHBS by me (who also has two microbreweries locally) had NO clue what I was talking about when I was boasting that I got 90% efficiency once I started double batch sparging. He repeated "double...batch.....sparge???"
Clueless on how far dry yeasts have come as well. I almost never rehydrate US-05, I have no oxygenating system -other than when I pour my wort through the strainer into the fermentor- and it's always been great. S-04 seems to be a beast as well. My OG was around 1.072. I used one packet and I have no off flavors; the beer in the whole is great. I brewed the exact same recipe without rehydrating, and that one is still in the primary, so we shall see what the results were.