# repitch or ditch?



## nath-b (13/7/15)

hey, so im currently brewing the 'brewers selection five malts amber ale' fresh wort kit, 20L, i used the 11.5g s04 yeast rehydrated with a nutrient pack and 15g of amarillo.
with an og of 1040 on thursday pitched at 20-22c, other than a temp spike friday to 24-26 it has been sitting pretty well at 20-22. the thing is it took untill saturday to see any airlock activity and that only lasted a further 24 hours, on sunday the gravity was at 1020 and the airlock activity has dropped completly so i bumbed the temp up buy 2c over night and gave it a gental rock to see if i could rouse any activity,it does seem to be fermenting slowly i have a krausen ring on the bucket and gravity is now 1019 on monday, but only the 24 hours of activity and the fact that there must have been a seal on the fermenter to get activity at all makes me wonder if there was some cell damage in the rehydration cousing it to be unerpitched,it thickend into a cream nicley. so being four days into fermentation to late to repitch some more yeast and see it if fires back up again? any input would be greatly apreciated


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## mfeighan (13/7/15)

leave it another week, yeast may be a little sluggish. I wouldnt repitch yet.


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## mxd (13/7/15)

s-04 has a 1:020 issue, leave it alone, don't worry about the bubbles, have a look on sunday get the temp back to 18 to 20


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## Tropico (14/7/15)

nath-b said:


> i used the 11.5g s04 yeast rehydrated with a nutrient pack and 15g of amarillo.


Did you put the nutrient and hops in with the yeast when you rehydrated? If you did, the high concentration of nutrient may have put some pressure on the yeast.


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## dannymars (14/7/15)

Last time I used S04 it took 3 weeks to reach final gravity... slow as ****


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## nath-b (14/7/15)

not the hops as well as the yeast, just the nutrient then the yeast, the hops i had added to the wort with the 5lt of water and got it up to pitching temp. it seems to be dropping 1 point of grivity per 24 hours despit no airlock activitity still, it it now sitting at 1019.


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## shacked (15/7/15)

Check this guide: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/articles/article130.html 

Suggest you do the fast ferment test.


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## Rocker1986 (15/7/15)

Ignore the airlock activity, or lack of it. It is not a reliable indicator. Trust in your hydrometer. 4 days isn't that long though, I agree leave it another week or so. I'd probably keep the temp around that 20-22 though, dropping it back will only encourage the yeast to slack off even more.

A fast ferment test isn't a bad idea either.

On a side note I fuckin hate that yeast and won't allow it anywhere near my brewery ever again :lol: mostly for the constant issues it has of slacking off like this.


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## nath-b (15/7/15)

cheers guys, ill get a test going. does seem to be fermenting away dropping slowly ill just leave it to do its thing for a while. definitely wont be using this yeast again though.


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## mfeighan (15/7/15)

Judge the yeast based on tastes. Your beer will taste better if you leave it sitting on the yeast cake post fermentation for 2 weeks anyway. I now dont even look at my beers until 3 weeks after i notice fermentation start, 5 weeks for lagers. If you are in a rush, invest in another fermenter.


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## Rocker1986 (15/7/15)

I agree to judge the yeast on tastes - to a point.

There are myriad English ale yeast strains available. Now, I enjoyed the porters I've fermented with S-04, but unfortunately the pain in the arse of using it outweighs any taste benefit in my mind. I am sure there is at least one strain out of all the others available that will deliver a similar, maybe even better, outcome without all the nonsense of stalling and shit like S-04 does.


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## Danscraftbeer (15/7/15)

Have said before and seen others say the same. I wont use s-04. It struggles to get under 1.020. Even after 3 - 4 weeks??? its just no good for me compared to other easily obtainable ale yeasts that easily brew out much betterer, attenuation -_-


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## Rocker1986 (16/7/15)

Danscraftbeer said:


> Have said before and seen others say the same. I wont use s-04. It struggles to get under 1.020. Even after 3 - 4 weeks??? its just no good for me compared to other easily obtainable ale yeasts that easily brew out much betterer, attenuation -_-


Exactly. Ales should be fermented out in a week. Hell, even my lagers are fermented out in 9 or 10 days. Advisable of course to give it some conditioning time before bottling it, but an ale yeast that takes 3-4 weeks to reach FG? They can keep it. B)


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## Danscraftbeer (16/7/15)

I wonder though. Adding a second yeast is a fairly common practice usually added to secondary. Main purpose to clean up Diacetyl but it could finish your beer off to were you want it. I don't think it can hurt at all. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong. Could just make the difference between being a good drinking beer or one you tip down the sink from dislike. In hindsight I wish I did that. Mine finished at ~ 1.019 and had far too much body and never carbonated in the bottle properly either, Too sweet and syrupy. I ditched most of it from memory.


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## Rocker1986 (16/7/15)

It could I suppose but diacetyl isn't really an issue with ales anyway. Transferring to secondary also isn't necessary for either diacetyl clean up or pitching a bit of extra yeast to finish the job. However in this case I'd give it more time first. 4-5 days isn't that long.


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## nath-b (19/7/15)

s-04 has a 1:020 issue, leave it alone, don't worry about the bubbles, have a look on sunday get the temp back to 18 to 20

so it managed to get down to and hover at 1.011 for making it around the 4% i can live with that so ive cold crashed it and ill let it sit there for a week or so and see how the end result is. 
ive got another amber following closley behind but i used the danstar nottingham ale yeast, holy shit its powerfull, probably 2.5 hours to start up and it was going off like chiniese new year fireworks!


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## Danscraftbeer (19/7/15)

Yeah Nottingham kick arse and has been responsible for some of my best beers. Usually finishing lower than expected. Strangely enough the only yeast I've tried that beats it (as a dry finishing yeast) is the coopers dry yeast you get with the kits. Its actually beaten the Nottingham in low fg and made my best beers including All Grain. As far as I know you cant just buy the yeast. So I do a Coopers Pale Ale kit then recycle the yeast cake which is enough to make at least another 4 brews.


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## Rocker1986 (19/7/15)

The CPA kit comes with a mixture of ale and lager yeast, perhaps that's why it finishes lower.


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## BradG (19/7/15)

Does Windsor yeast have the same 1020 problem? My red ale (didn't turn out very red by the way) was at 18c for a week, once bubbles stopped raised to 21c for another week. I bottled anyway assuming it was finished. Have left the hydrometer in the test tube and it is still at 1020 after another 10 days (although at 12c ambient)


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## Yob (19/7/15)

Always had good results with Windsor


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## manticle (19/7/15)

Bottling on assumption is never a good idea.
Glass?


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## Danscraftbeer (19/7/15)

Rocker1986 said:


> The CPA kit comes with a mixture of ale and lager yeast, perhaps that's why it finishes lower.


Also. It changes too. Different years, Seasonal whatever etc. The last brew had a sulfur like lager like smell that I haven't got from the ale yeast usually.
Still good results though.


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## Rocker1986 (19/7/15)

Danscraftbeer said:


> Also. It changes too. Different years, Seasonal whatever etc. The last brew had a sulfur like lager like smell that I haven't got from the ale yeast usually.
> Still good results though.


The kit yeast in the CPA tin is always a mixture of ale and lager yeast, I guess it's 50/50. I don't know whether they change the strain of the lager portion of the mix or not. But yeah I always got good results with it too.


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## Engibeer (19/7/15)

BradG said:


> Does Windsor yeast have the same 1020 problem? My red ale (didn't turn out very red by the way) was at 18c for a week, once bubbles stopped raised to 21c for another week. I bottled anyway assuming it was finished. Have left the hydrometer in the test tube and it is still at 1020 after another 10 days (although at 12c ambient)


Sounds very dangerous.

I assume your bottles are at 12C too? You could have bottle bombs shortly, particularly if it warms up.


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## BradG (19/7/15)

Yes glass, yes 12c. 
I going to put them in one of those cheap plastic tubs with lid from bunnies.


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## manticle (20/7/15)

Just remember it's your face.
Hydrometer, not bubbles, knowledge not assumption.
Signed
Grandad


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## BradG (20/7/15)

[emoji17]


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