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ReaperOnefour

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Hello all. I'm a newbie, been brewing for about 8 months now. I've been using safe brew s33. I haven't had any real problems with it so far. The only thing I don't like about it is that it starts out strong, then slows down about half way through fermentation. The closet usually stays between 68-75 year round. Anyways. I've been thinking about switching to us-05 for an Irish red ale that I'll be Brewing in the next week or so. I've read alot of good reviews about us 05. I've read that you can use it on lagers as well. Which would be great when I brew my Vienna lager & my pilsner. Any thoughts about this?
 
us05 is a pretty versatile yeast. have it going in my holiday ale right now actually.
 
US-05 is a nice clean yeast great for American style ales and IPAs. I don't think it is at all a good choice for lagers. You need to use a lager yeast that will not go dormant at the approximae 50 degree lager fermentation temperature.

You should be controlling your fermentation temperature better. 68 - 75 degrees ambient temperature will allow the fermentation temperature to rise as high as 85 degrees. Most ale yeasts do best in the mid sixties (wort temperature)

For the S-33 from Fermentis: ideally 15-20°C (59-68°F)

For your Irish Red Ale. US-05 would be a good yeast, but why not get an Irish Ale yeast. I don't know the availability in dry yeasts, If you use a liquid yeast you should make a properly size starter.

Hear is an old thread on dry yeast for an Irish Red. The advice seems to be all over the spectrum: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=111138
 
Agree with above, and particularly kh54s10's comment about temperature control. 70+ ambient is on the warm side for US05. Mid to high 60s is about where you want to keep it. A cool spot in the basement is perfect. Mine gets a bit too cool this time of year, but I use a heat band with a cheapo timer to keep it around 68F.
 
I'm confused: why is everyone talking about lagers? Safbrew S-33 is an ale yeast as far as I know.
 
Thanks everyone for all the helpful tips. I have a nut brown ale fermenting right now, that I used the s33 with. Would the us 05 work well for a brown ale as well?
 
O, ok. Thanks. I'm gonna brew another nut brown ale later on Down the road. So what would be a good ale yeast that would impart good flavors in a nut brown ale?
 
I use US-05 for 90% of my brews. Agree with the above comments, 70 is too high. I like to keep active fermentation in the mid 60's. Don't go too cool though, or you can get peach off flavors.
 
O, ok. Thanks. I'm gonna brew another nut brown ale later on Down the road. So what would be a good ale yeast that would impart good flavors in a nut brown ale?

Notty and US-04 would both be good for a nut brown. US-05 is very clean and some brews (like a nut brown) might benefit from something with a little more character. That said, 05 is almost always a safe bet if you're not sure what to use.
 
O, ok. Thanks. I'm gonna brew another nut brown ale later on Down the road. So what would be a good ale yeast that would impart good flavors in a nut brown ale?

Try Wyeast 1469 if you want some yeast character. It's the Yorkshire Timothy Taylor strain. That said, you can do a great nut brown with US05 just as well. Grain selection is going to give your brown all the character it needs.
 
On the topic of 05, I am planning on using US-05 to ferment my first RIS with an OG of about 1.090 (5 gallon). Is it safe to estimate 200-225 bl cells per rehydrated 11.5g pack. Two packs should be sufficient correct? Pitch rate calculator shows just over 300 bl required. Any other yeasts recommended for RIS? Thanks for all of the great info for new brewers like myself!
 
On the topic of 05, I am planning on using US-05 to ferment my first RIS with an OG of about 1.090 (5 gallon). Is it safe to estimate 200-225 bl cells per rehydrated 11.5g pack. Two packs should be sufficient correct? Pitch rate calculator shows just over 300 bl required. Any other yeasts recommended for RIS? Thanks for all of the great info for new brewers like myself!

A recent Brulosophy write-up http://brulosophy.com/2016/11/07/ye...-vs-overpitch-in-a-lager-exbeeriment-results/ states "While researching dry yeast for this xBmt, I discovered there seems to be some confusion over how many cells are actually contained in each pack. While Fermentis reports 69 billion cells per pack of yeast (6 billion per gram), counting exercises such as the one performed by Sean Terrill suggest a count closer to 230 billion cells per pack (20 billion per gram), which supports Jamil’s claim that Fermentis’ counts are a lower-bound guaranteed amount. I deferred to the latter for this xBmt." So it seems that new brewers and experienced brewers are all still learning. I think most brewers use the 20 billion per gram figure, but there are no doubt exceptions.
 
I use S-04 for my irish red. I get a flavor profile out of it that matches the style better in my opinion. It ferments a lot more like the other yeast you referred to though. Starts strong and can blow the lid off if not properly cooled at pitch, and takes a while to finish, but drops out much cleaner than S-05...
 
I use US-05 for almost everything. Great yeast. Never has failed me. I brew a lot of IPA's though which is perfect for 05.

On my stouts and Irish red, I use wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale. I did just use 05 on a milk stout that seemed to really be active on the second day. Lot's of bubbles coming through the airlock, so hopefully attenuation was good.

Some folks hydrate the 05 before pitching, but I have not had a bad experience just sprinkling it right into the wort.
 
Some folks hydrate the 05 before pitching, but I have not had a bad experience just sprinkling it right into the wort.

For me re-hydrating US-05 seems to speed up the time in which fermentation starts. Without re-hydrating it seems to kick off more slowly. Other than that I can't say I've really noticed a difference.
 
For your nut brown ale, I'd go with 04. Just did NB's Nut Brown Ale with 04 and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. As for the Irish Red, I'd honestly try WYeast 1084 if you're up for liquid yeast. I did NB's Irish REd with that and I racked it last weekend I'm very happy with the way that one turned out. I'll use 05 for pale ales and IPA's (sometimes I use Bry-97 too, actually, I prefer that for hoppy beers actually), but for the brown, I'd go 04 and for the red, I'd go WYeast 1084.
 
US-05 seems to work better than other ale strains when fermentation temps are higher than ideal, certainly better than US-04 when you're hitting 70 degrees. It gets a bit of peach flavor when the temp is too high but it's not a bad flavor.
 
Yeah, US05 can basically run the gamut for US ales, and many UK. Great for blonde, pale, amber, brown, porter, stout, IPA, DIPA, etc. Efficient, clean and reliable. Gotta love it. Always viewed US04 as the red-headed stepchild.
 
I have brewed a number of different beers with s05 and it is very good. Attenuates well, clean, does what it needs to. I haved recently switched to Nottingham for blonde ales and find that the yeast at the bottom of the bottle is much more tightly packed. This means if you give a bottle away to a noob they are less likely to pour chunks into the glass. Other qualities are similar.
 
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