S-04 is super fast

[panzerd18]

US-05 taking over two weeks doesn't sound right. For an average gravity ale it's usually done in 3 - 5 days for me - as in finished fermenting. If you're talking about clearing then that sounds normal. US-05 takes a while to clear some times

Yes something was very wrong with the packets of US-05 I sourced from the same supplier. Maybe they had been mishandled and they had a low cell count or something.

 

[Matplat]

Both times I used S-04, it took 3 weeks to attenuate, and that was even when I pitched all the harvested yeast from the first into the second.... turned out a pretty good beer though!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I think that the 2 biggest mistakes that some homebrewers especially the new ones are make are, underpitching yeast, not calculating the number of cells required for the beer they are brewing, secondly carbonation, when bottling it is essential that when bottling get the right carbonation for the type of beer they have made, there is nothing worse than an over carbonated bottle of English style beer.

 

[takai]

I remember reading on the jims beer kit website under the yeast section a while back that the majority of English micros either use saf 04 or dried nottingham so it must be fairly decent as it's their livelihood.Went to loch brewery today near leongatha and he uses it in his 3 beers and they were nice,best bitter,amber and dark ale.Its great in dark beers,it's the old Whitbread brewery yeast.Pretty sure willie Simpson/seven sheds uses it and stone brewing in the states use it in their pale ale.

Most will probably use a cultured liquid yeast that is similar, rather than a packaged dried yeast, keeps the costs down. It might be the same strain though.
Stone state that they use WLP007 though, not S-04.

My experiences with S-04 have been terrible attenuation, and the dreaded 1020 stall. The latest one despite double dosing, and oxygenating with a medical O2 cylinder.

I now tend to use WLP007, or MJ British Ale instead.

 

[TheWiggman]

Cheers Tony...

You might find this article interesting Bill.

Should get a bit of the ol' agro thing going, ala 12th Man.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

All I can say is those who have been using S-04 and have not been happy with it have either used old stock or not enough, the only way you could try to compare 2 different types of yeast is to split the batch of wort to be fermented into two make sure you have fresh yeast of both types and pitch the recommended number of cells in both.