More US-05 Questions

[Parp]

I pitched a rehydrated pack of US-05 yesterday at about 6pm.

S-04 Would have shown signs of activity before bedtime but US didnt, nor did it at 2am.

However this morning it had a thin filmy head and had lifted some limited trub to the surface.

I skimmed this with a metal spoon and gave the mix a light stir - it kicked up and gave a foamy head, within about 5-10 mins it had settled to this ;



I then gave another mini-stir and this was the result ;



This head didnt stay either (edit)

Is this normal behaviour for this yeast?

Is it one of those weird 'middle-fermenters" ?

Or is it just way slower than S-04 and is still reproducing?

Any help greatly appreciated - am just wondering wether to repitch something else.

[Parp]

Cheers for the reply.

I'm having second thoughts about S-04.

The beer I had in Keg #1 - the bodged Lions pride, now has a really full palate and is reminiscent of fullers ESB!

Am going to bottle the remaining gallon or whatever to free up the keg.

Still hasnt cleared that protein haze, if thats what it is, but it's less opaque.

Cheers

[monk]

Yeah, I think the s-05 just needs a little more time. It usually makes a big fat yeast head on my brews.

[Parp]

Like this ?

[Parp]

I racked this into a secondary bucket on thursday.

Since then it's shown no visible signs of fermentation (The only indicator I have is the lid billowing, or not)

So today, I'm going to Keg it.

Very little yeast has settled out compared to other fermentations.

US-05 seems to be the only genuine top cropper I've encountered in dried form.
All of the others just form a fluffy krausen which disappears.
The US-05 head was there all the way, it would have been an excellent slurry to repitch as well, clean looking and smelling.

The beer itself smelled great, the crystal malt aroma had been preserved and shone through, although not a massive amount of hop aroma at this stage.

Is anyone using this as a house strain?

Anyone found they've had to rouse or drop in the reproduction phase?

Anyone repitched the head ?

The proof of the pudding will be in the drinking I suppose.

[Whorst]

I use it from time to time in a West Coast Pale. I've found that it starts pretty quickly and then goes nuts. Love it with Amarillo and Simcoe hops.

[Parp]

Hmmm

I found it quite sluggish compared to S-04.

Perhaps its because I hydrated then didnt pitch for nigh on 6 hours.

[awalker]

Like Whorst I use it in Amarillo ales and lighter beers that I want more aroma from.

Never repitched the yeast as its nice and cheap from Barley bottom

[Parp]

What's it like on maltier beers ?

Say a malty english bitter, with a good dollop of crystal malt.
Is the malt flavour muted, or does it come through clean ?
And in the same beer would hops come through too much ?

I plan to use it as a house strain for my first 6 (return to) AG brews.

[awalker]

Not sure about malty beers Parp

As I usually use S04 or a liquid yeast for them

[Parp]

I've just used US-05 again in a Brupaks kit.

In 2 weeks time, I start mashing again. I'll keep on using this yeast and I'll give a report on different beer styles and how it affects them.

My brewing calender has been filled out for the next 7months.
So far there's an Ordinary Bitter, a couple of best bitters, an IPA, a better bitter, an eight bob and a brown porter.

[coatesg]

Just racked my Townes IPA into keg from FV after 8-9 days. There was a lot of yeast settled at the bottom of the FV, as well as a fair lot remaining on top that I skimmed off before racking.

There's still a lot in suspension as it's very cloudy, but I've fined using two part Kieselsol and gelatine finings ("Kwik Clear"). Hopefully that should sort it out, plus the 6 or so weeks it should have to sit untouched.

[TC2642]

What's it like on maltier beers ?

Say a malty english bitter, with a good dollop of crystal malt.
Is the malt flavour muted, or does it come through clean ?
And in the same beer would hops come through too much ?

I plan to use it as a house strain for my first 6 (return to) AG brews.

I've used this yeast on an APA (and have another one maturing at a lower OG) using cascades through the boil, if you give it time it can really dry up a beer, I used 500gms of Crystal 120 in a 23ltr batch and far from being a syrupy mess was very well balanced (going from 1048 to 1006), the hops and malt really come through.

But I've only used this yeast for APA's, IPA's and barley wine, I'm not sure how it would come out using a bitter recipe.

[Parp]

Thanks for the info.

I'm going to use it across the board and tailor my recipes to suit.

The drier side of things will be good for the summer months.

Any ideas how it handles carapils and caramalt ?
Hopefully it'd give the same balance as crystal

[Parp]

Yet again this yeast seems to be giving a weird fermentation.

Quite a weak flimsy krausen with a few floc's here and there.
It's definately fermenting as there's a good CO2 prickle coming out of the lid-hole.

It hasnt formed the pancake head that it did last time either.

Unless the pancake head marks the end of fermentation with this strain ?