Safale S-04 on the Pro Side

[Mills]

No. I wasn't rehydrating the yeast. I just know that I really liked the beers from the breweries that were using the yeast, but my flavor wasn't the same at home. I was wondering if there was a temperature problem or if I should be rehydrating. I'm not trying to question you, because as a homebrewer I'm naturally not an asshole by default, but why would rehydrating yeast make so much of a difference since when you pour it into wort when that is essentially rehydrating it? Is there a sweet spot temperature-wise for that yeast? I know it works well because I've tasted so many great examples, but I haven't had any luck at home.

Sorry if I came off weird in that post, I didn't mean anything like that by it. If I remember correctly that there is a significant number of yeast cells that die when they are pitched directly onto wort if they aren't rehydrated. I believe that rehydration with sanitized and cooled water puts them in the best condition for fermentation. There is a potential that rehydration will eliminate that flavor from your fermentations.

The other issue, and potentially most crucial may be your fermentation arrangement. What are your temp control capabilities?

Mills

[BeaverBarber]

Just finished listening to your show on the Session. Congrats on getting that brewery going. I have a freezer in my garage with a Johnson Controller. At the moment I'm fermenting everything with lager strains. I struggle to find the difference between WLP 833, WLP 940, and WLP 001 in most ale recipes. My preferred yeast strain is a blend of WLP 002 and WLP 001 so I get the flavor of 002 and then 001 finishes the job, but my garage is too cold for that and my house is too warm. I also like a blend of Wyeast 1469 and WLP 001 or WLP 007. Because of flavor and attenuation, S-04 may be a substitute for those blends. What temperature do you think is the sweet spot for a homebrewer for S-04?

[Monty Burns]

S-04 is the Dry Whitbred strain. S-04 is equivalent to wlp007 and wy1098. The Dry Whitbred strain is Stone Brewing's house yeast (for reference). It is basically an American Ale yeast in character. High attenuation, dry, few esters. I have used it in the mid to upper 60's and wasn't impressed. I much prefer WLP 051 (Anchor Liberty) for American Ales. It makes a clean ale with a hint of some the bready/fruity characteristics of English yeast that I enjoy and don't get in S-04. WLP 051 attenuates more like WLP005 whereas S-04 attenuates like Chico yeast.

[Mills]

Just finished listening to your show on the Session. Congrats on getting that brewery going. I have a freezer in my garage with a Johnson Controller. At the moment I'm fermenting everything with lager strains. I struggle to find the difference between WLP 833, WLP 940, and WLP 001 in most ale recipes. My preferred yeast strain is a blend of WLP 002 and WLP 001 so I get the flavor of 002 and then 001 finishes the job, but my garage is too cold for that and my house is too warm. I also like a blend of Wyeast 1469 and WLP 001 or WLP 007. Because of flavor and attenuation, S-04 may be a substitute for those blends. What temperature do you think is the sweet spot for a homebrewer for S-04?

I have had success with it anywhere between 60-68 degrees, ranging in styles from a Cal Common to an American IPA & IIPA.

Mills

[duckmanco]

Pitched this into what was supposed to be a Union Jack clone, and due to needing to use some already opened hops, instead of cascade and centennial, the beer got the same amount of hop additions, but changed to colombus and zythos instead. So, after cooling in to 72 or so, I put the bucket in the fridge set at 63 and let the beer come down to 63 prior to pitching a rehydrated pack of s04 to include 1.5min of pure o2. I then set the fridge to allow a 66f ferment temp, which let it free rise from 63f to 66f. Today is the third day of fermentation and the beer will see 1.5oz each of colombus and zythos and then be allowed to free rise to room temp.

Even though I have found zythos to be somewhat lame, I'm still awaiting this one quite a bit, and can't wait to see how well s04 does in a hoppy beer.

[Mills]

Nice! How has fermentation progressed?

Mills

[duckmanco]

Nice! How has fermentation progressed?

Mills

It plowed through the beer with anger apparently, I dry hopped it last night which was roughly 36 hours into fermentation and it appears as though the Krausen has already dropped out mostly... And as a typical brewer I'm half way wondering if due to maybe too much o2 it stalled and never really created a krausen or yada yada... Rdwhahb I know. I'll take a gravity reading at day 3 of the dry hop as that should be day 6 of total fermentation. I'll keep this thread updated too. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Hijack my own thread - And thanks for the cold room input too Mills, turns out money wise it appears to be a wash either way, so we'll have to decide if space is an issue or not.

[duckmanco]

Took a sample last night on 6th day of ferment, 3rd day of first dry hop. Hydro showed 1.009 nice and dry and the gravity sample was good and didn't show any additional need to allow further clean up at room temp. I'm crash cooling now and into the keg on day 8, which will also go right into the kegerator for force carbing and keg dry hopping. This has now also turned out to see what happens on the homebrew level when using a commercial type timeline of 14 day ales. I'm hoping using a proper pitch of rehydrated yeast, pure 02 at 2L/minute for 1.5min and crash cooling, that although it might be rough around the edges, it should be good and drinkable.... We'll see.