S-04 yeast??

[jamie72]

Took the lid off my fv tonight to take a reading and dry hop. Normally there is some foam or residual krausen. (Have been using us-05) This time there is fairly clear wort with congealed clumps of what I assume is yeast floating on or just under the surface.
Using s-04 yeast for the first time and wondered whether this was characteristic of this strain?
Hydro read 1016 after 5 days (og was 1050) so am happy that fermentation is going ok.
Not really worried about it, it's just that I have never really seen this at this stage. Cheers.

 

[Dads_Ale]

This is perfectly normal with S04. It usually goes much madder than US05 to start with then the head drops like a stone.
I have found it a good dependable yeast.
Gets quite lively with darker beers

 

[MyQul]

IT'S INFECTED!!!!!









Ok maybe not.All sound normal to me. Your floaters are more likely to be proteins from the trub or krausen rather than yeast. How did you brew? kit/extract/AG? If you did AG, I'd deffo say this is proteins carried up to the surface by C02 and then not sinking back down again. This happens on my brews quite often

 

[jamie72]

Thanks for the reply. I normally skim off any krausen at this stage and dry hop. This time I fished out some of the clumps, (some broke up) and dry hopped. So just going to give it 6 more days, take a reading and bottle if ready. Cheers Dad's_Ale!

 

[Dads_Ale]

Thanks for the reply. I normally skim off any krausen at this stage and dry hop. This time I fished out some of the clumps, (some broke up) and dry hopped. So just going to give it 6 more days, take a reading and bottle if ready. Cheers Dad's_Ale!

I skimmed on my first brew wit S04 and have never bothered since.
I use the metal tea bag balls for dry hopping and just chuck them in once the initial fermentation has subsided. I will need to weight them down more in future though as they were floating with the last brew.

 

[jamie72]

Yeah that's the thing. I skim because I just chuck the hops in and as they are leaf, tend to float on the surface.

 

[Dads_Ale]

Yeah that's the thing. I skim because I just chuck the hops in and as they are leaf, tend to float on the surface.

I use four of the mesh balls (think they are 3 inch) and get about 10g of leaf hips in each. I weight down with 10mm stainless ball bearing but the last lot were super buoyant so will have to use a bigger ball bearing

 

[jamie72]

Sorry MyQul missed your reply last night. Had a couple of homebrews!!
It's all grain so probably protein clumps then. Like I said not really worried just not seen it like this before. Still new to all grain brewing with only 6 batches under my belt so far.

 

[MyQul]

S0-04 is a really fast fermenter - can ferment out in as little as three days. I think what happens is, because it ferment so fast it kick out loads of C02 far more than slower fermenting yeast, as as mentioned all the C02 carries the break protiens to the top

 

[HisDudeness]

Similar thing happening with the partial mash brew I have on at the moment, it formed a very thick layer of sediment/protein when it first went in the FV but since the yeast has really got going most of this has been kicked back up into suspension. It is a different yeast (MJ M44) but does seem to be giving a similarly vigorous initial fermentation

 

[simon12]

I have found using to much irish moss results in yeast clumps floating about though its not been a problem ie beer is fine.

 

[Slid]

Similar thing happening with the partial mash brew I have on at the moment, it formed a very thick layer of sediment/protein when it first went in the FV but since the yeast has really got going most of this has been kicked back up into suspension. It is a different yeast (MJ M44) but does seem to be giving a similarly vigorous initial fermentation

All the PM's plus kit brews done so far have had this thick sediment feature - maybe 2L or so, but easy to rack the liquid away from this as it seems to pack very tightly after 2 weeks. I have ben using US 05 which does not start particularly quickly and hangs around for a good while before dropping, but gives very clear beer later on.