Yeast/Recipe Question

[Whorst]

Hello colleagues in brewing arts. I'm thinking about moving entirely over to dry yeast. Basically, I'm sick and tired of making starters. I already use Safale-05 for my West Coast styles. I'm thinking of using 04 entirely for my English beers. I have only used 04 twice, and I don't have enough experience with it to tell if it's to my likening. My next beer is the Timothy Taylor Landlord clone with copious amounts of Styrians. How does 04 work with a light colored English Bitter?? How will it treat the Styrians? I've basically heard it masks hops.

Whorst

[spearmint-wino]

In my experience it does seem to have a certain 'taste' associated with it though I wouldn't say it necessarily 'masks' the hops. Maybe that's down to how big your hop additions are - when following clone recipes I personally find slightly bigger flavour and aroma additions than the recipe calls for gets you closer to a 'fresh cask' version of a lot of english ales.

[Vossy1]

I very much echo your sentiments W with regards to liquid starters. It's hard enough to find the time to brew let alone molly coddle a yeast for x amount of time before brewing.

I know a lot of brewers who use S04 as a standard and like it, myself included. I also know a lot of folk who can't stand S04 or the taste it imparts.

I say use your own judgement. If your trying to make to style or clone, and that necessitiates a liquid yeast, then I'm afraid there's no way round it. However, if you brew for pleasure then I'm sure you can compromise.

[Stonechat]

Hello Comrade Whorst,
not sure if it's OK to use the word comrade in the land of the free, but you have so what the heck!
I have made the decision to move to dried yeasts on a trial basis after doing 292 AG brews with live yeast. The yeasts I'm using are S-04, US-05, Windsor and Nottingham (all supplied by Barley Bottom at very reasonable rates ). It's early days, but an Amarillo I did compares well with one made with live yeast.
I have also made 4 identical brews fermented with the above yeasts. The recipe was:

Maris Otter Pale Malt 4000g
Wheat Malt 200g
Start of boil
Cascade 70g
End of boil
Cascade 80g
Hops steeped for 30 mins before IC put on.

So far I've sampled the S-04 and the Nottingham and been pleased with both. All 4 beers were barreled, with 3 bottles set aside for sampling at the next CBA meeting.
Sorry I can't comment on the effect of S-04 on Styrians at the moment, but plan to use some in future brews. All I can suggest is give it a go, even if the resulting beer is not up to your expectation, I'm sure it will be very quaffable

[Whorst]

Yeah, I'm going to give it a go. I love 05, it's wonderful. Next weekend my summer ale brewed with 60/40 Maris Otter/Lager Malt goes on the engine. I hopped with Amarillo & Centennial. It's crystal clear now and tastes very nice. Pictures and probably another video to follow. Gotta give the 04 another shot.

[mr bond]

Hello colleagues in brewing arts. I'm thinking about moving entirely over to dry yeast. Basically, I'm sick and tired of making starters. I already use Safale-05 for my West Coast styles. I'm thinking of using 04 entirely for my English beers. I have only used 04 twice, and I don't have enough experience with it to tell if it's to my likening. My next beer is the Timothy Taylor Landlord clone with copious amounts of Styrians. How does 04 work with a light colored English Bitter?? How will it treat the Styrians? I've basically heard it masks hops.

Whorst

I too made the move to dry yeasts after the release of US56 a couple of years back.It really is an excellent strain with many possibilites.Liquids are a PITA which requires work prior to brewday and then washing slurry and sterilising of containers to farm them for economic reasons.
I've used Nottingham and liked it for it's neutral properties(even 1st placed with an APA with it.)I've made bitters with US05 and found the extra hop character pleasing to my palate.S04 has a had a revisit with my recent Ordinary Bitter.The beer in my primary at the mo is intended to be a Scottish 70/ "heavy",but for a twist I've used T58.I've had experience with this strain in the past and don't believe it to be belgian or wheaty in character.Anecdotally it is believed to be a very old English strain from strong ales that some Monks took back from a trip to England many years ago, along with Fuggle hops.If given enough time to condition and fermented at 18c and below it cleans up any of the faint phenolic/clovey notes and produces an interesting ale.hence my choice for a 70/.

k97 is a difficult strain that is more akin to wyeast 1007 than anything else.Ferment it cool (16c) and its great for an alt ,takes an eternity to flocc out and remains powdery and easily disturbed in the bottom of a bottle.

I've yet to try Windsor.

[Jymbo]

I've made a Styrian Stunner from the recipes section using Safale-04 and the hops shone through very well. Admittedly, this recipe is very well hopped, but the flavour and aroma was excellent.

[Whorst]

I've read so much about attenuating problems with 04. I mashed on the low end, and hit it hard with pure oxygen. Should know in a couple of days.