Safale 04

[RabMaxwell]

Hello all i have used safale 04 on & off for years. My god this yeast can flocculate it sinks like putty never once needed finning. But i think very high flocculation is part of the problem with this yeast. I continually got fermentation's stop at 10.20 & reading posts on different forums on the net many others have the same problem with safale 04.I now use less floculent yeast's Young's Yeast & Safale US 56.I now get complete fermentation's every time & it only takes 5 minutes to add some isinglass anyway. And before someone tells me that safale 04 needs lots of aeration. I used to aerate the crap out of it & it still didn't make any difference. Cheers

[Hoppkins]

Pretty soon im starting All grain and will be bottling the results since im doing the mini mash so there wont be enough for a keg.

I've recently started buying safale 04. After reading the above im dubious about wether or not to use it for bottling. Will the bottles clear?

[oblivious]

I find it practically stuck to the bottom of the bottle even with out any chilling, a very flocculate yeast in my opinion.

[Hoppkins]

I did some turbo cider with safale 04 and found the bottles had some goo stuck to the bottom!

[sparky Paul]

The sediment certainly sticks together.

The first time I used safale (in my limited experience) the sediment was one gelatinous cake in the bottom of the fermenter and the beer was very bright. I was so worried about the clarity of the beer when bottling, I added a tiny bit of the sludge to each bottle...

I'm sure now that it wasn't necessary, but I had visions of it not conditioning...

[Hoppkins]

Daab when you say 1 week in primary and 1 in secondary before bottling do you mean 1 week in the ferm bucket and then another week in another container?

I'm bottling soon so i want to be sure about how to do it Sorry for the dumb question.

[RabMaxwell]

I've never found the need to but did you try rousing the Safale?

Yes Daab i would try giving it a stir back into suspension. But as my fermenter is quite deep my stainless spoon only reached about half way. Tried circulating with a pump also once but i think the slurry was that compact on the bottom that not much moved. Don't have a problem now that i don't use safale 04 anymore. My current brew a Belhaven 80/- with safale US 56 started at 10.42 have just started to crash cool at 10.10. It would be good if you could buy a dry yeast that ferments like US 56 but drops like safale 04. Cheers

[Garth]

that's a clear looking brew there Daab, what is it and did you use anything to prime?

[Vossy1]

Vossy, I'm about to bottle a beer made with Safale, 1 week in the primary, 1 week in the secondary to clear. Initial samples show it to be virtualy clear already. (no sign of lumpy bits )

My ale is also very clear. The flocculent mentioned is always at the bottom of the fv or as usual, some floaters.
There is very little in suspension, as such.

Going to check a bottled sample of one of my latter brews

Another idiosyncratic trait of the V1 brewery

[Vossy1]

Just checked a couple of bottles and in the last 7 days it would seem the yeast has adhered to the base of the bottle

No more movement even when tipped

Also spotted what must have been less than clean bottles, as the yeast is sticking to the side of the bottle as well

[Boo Boo]

I too use a fair bit of S-04. I love the flocculent type yeasts, makes my beer so clear. I force carb in corny kegs so the less yeast the better. However those I do bottle carb up just fine also.

[BitterTed]

But as my fermenter is quite deep my stainless spoon only reached about half way.

That did occur to me as I typing,

Here's my latest Mini-Mash after 2 weeks (using Safale 04)



It may take a while to carbonate (i've put the rest of it in PETs so I can force carb with Widget gas).

Now that is one fine looking brew!! I'm having a hard time using this keyboard because of the splashing from my drool!! I wish I could get a taste by licking the screen!!

[bandit]

Daab, how do you force carbonate in PET bottles as I have some spare beer from filling my cornies. I dont have any bottles or a capper yet.

[johnmac]

Or see item 23, the carbonator cap:

ShortLink

[Gurgeh]

Hello all,
Like gnomy, i'm a long time brewer and first time communicator - and very glad to find someone who shares my experience. I've only done 4 AG brews, having only just taken the leap from LME.

My first beer fermented within 4 days but was rife with diacetyl. I left the beer 24 hours hoping the yeast would mop up the stuff naturally but to no avail so I added more S-04 and roused. Two days later still no joy, so chilled and bottled. Appreciating diacetyl can be an off flavour from infection I cleaned meticulously and tried again, adding S-04 again. Today is day four of fermentation and the beer is ready to chill except for the diacetyl again

I have used SO4 routinely with LME with the most delightful results - as have been discussed on this forum.
As soon as I moved to AG, my lag time with this yeast changed from under a day to a few days and the krauesen never really foamed up. the beer did attenuate as expected but the stench was unbearable.
This first 40pt batch is in the flowerbed.
My second wasn't quite so bad, but as it accidentally had an OG of about 1070 and was far too bitter I diluted it and ... I'll come back to that.
My 3rd batch took on the same smell again. (nearly tears in the shed) but I realised that this must be diacetyl and pitched another sachet of SO4. smell has... GONE!
so back to the 2nd and now diluted batch - pitched a load of slurry off of batch 3 into the pressure barrel. fermentation resumed (attenuation wasn't very good in the first place) and is now clearing again. significantly less diacetyl!

Batch 4 was started with a couple of ladles of slurry from batch 3 and a rehydrated fresh sachet of SO4. fermentation is on a far more familiar schedule - we will have to wait and see how it tastes but at least there is no diacetyl battering away at my senses!

So I guess that the lesson I have learned is that if i am to continue to use this yeast - which I liked with LME brews - I will have to pitch lots more of it or find some other way of reducing lag time.

I can't figure out what has affected this lag time - I'm on an OG of between 1040 and 1045, pitching at about 20 - 23 celsius, achieving a decent cold break, dropping the cooled boiled wort from boiler without a syphon for aeration, being mindful to avoid hot-side aeration... I've also switched from warminster maltings to a little malster called branthill farm from wells-next-the-sea.

All the best,
Gurgeh