Saflager S-23 at Ale Temperatures

[redkj]

I just made a Vienna-ish lager with s-23. I fermented right around 60 and it is super clean. I was a little nervous to use this yeast after doing some reading, but most who reported super fruitiness fermented <55. I plan on using the slurry for my next batch or two and would recommend it for standard lagers (just a little warmer on the primary).

 

[954surfer]

thanks for the info Im gonna give it a whirl

 

[marcagio]

I know, I know, I'm answering this like 4 years too late but I stumbled upon this thread doing some googling... From my experience and from the comments I got from my supplier, S23 is an awesome yeast to use when brewing lager style beers when you don't have the gear to keep the temp down. You won't end up with the same results as if you fermented at lager temp but you'll end up with a lot of lager characteristics without ending with undesirable side junk... It's a pretty versatile yeast although branded for lagering.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I have also had decent results with S23 at ale temps. I did find the beer needs to age a bit longer, and matures nicely, more drastic than typical ale yeasts
Be patient, I was surprised several times how much the beer changed and improved as it ages.

 

[dlaramie08]

I made a steam beer with s-23 and I think the only reason it turned out well was because of the northern Brewer hops covering up the yeast flavor. I have not had a clean ferment from it in a style where there is nothing to hide behind. I have decided to go exclusively liquid yeast for lagers, because I haven't had great results with the w34/70 or whatever the code is for the other dry lager yeast from this manufacturer.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Ancient thread, but for anyone else who's following in my footsteps on warm-fermenting S-23:

I've made tropical stout recipes with S-23 twice now. The first time was all S-23; I split the batch in 3, 1 fermenting on my kitchen counter in Sacramento in March (so...72-75ish ambient), one fermenting in a fridge at...like...65ish....and one fermenting in a fridge at 50something. None of them were bad, but I liked both the counter and lager temp ones better than the ale temp one, and I think the counter might have narrowly edged out the lager temp one. Both were mildly fruity, with slightly different profiles, and had a decent accentuation of malt character, the ale one was kind of stilted.

I just split a second batch into four, with S-23, Nottingham (...yeah, I knew that was a bad idea from the start, but I had 6 gallons of wort and 2-gallon bucket fermenters), US-05, and W-34/70, counter fermented again in March, and...bottled it, Sharpie-ing the caps to note which batch each was from, then had to prepare for a trip before I could label the bottles, put one of each in the fridge before I got home, labeled the bottle batch generally earlier this evening, finally, then decided to pour myself a sample from each...carelessly tossing the caps aside, having forgotten the bottles didn't have new labels on them. So there's a small chance I'm mistaken about which is which. But...

I liked the one I"m like 98% sure is US-05 (it interacts with dark grains...distinctively). I did not get the tropical-peachy flavor I usually get counter-fermenting it, which is interesting.

The I-think-was-Nottingham one was not the kind of bad I expected (prominent ethyl acetate on top of crispness, but not the "Dry hopped with a burning tire" flavor you get warm-fermenting S-04, yay small mercies).

I was quite shocked that the one I'm pretty sure was W-34, which I kind of expected to be the best of the bunch for a tropical stout, given the "warm-fermented [oh, probably means "ale-fermented" >.>] lager yeast" roots, was almost as bad as the Nottingham one in the same broad ways. o.o

Honestly, I liked the one I think is S-23 best. o.o

If I turn out to be right about that...oh, and it has very good attenuation and flocculation characteristics...I may just have to try it in a porter, a blonde "ale", and a brown IP"A" next.

If I've found a house yeast, I'm going to laugh and laugh and laugh. o.o