is there a significant difference between US 04 & US 05 in regard to flavor?
For me there is.
S-04 (not US 04) is an English yeast and US-05 is a neutral American yeast.
Agreed. I use S-04 in most of my stouts and porters (sometimes Nottingham) and US-05 in the rest of my ales other than wheat beers.
Yeah, to me there’s a difference. To me, S04 is bread while 05 is fruity, peachy
I just used S-04 for the first time yesterday and I’ve never seen a yeast take off so fast. Way faster than US-05.
Is that blastoff common for S-04?
I found that S-04 starts and finishes fast. …but I get a ‘twang’ with it which I attribute to the English strains that I’m not really into.
Interesting. I’ll keep that in mind when the beer finishes up.
I finally got around to tapping an American Wheat that I made with 05. I was forewarned of “Peach” but if its there, I can’t really detect it.
Just brewed a Best Bitter saturday and wow did it take off fast! Only 4th batch so ive not tasted the difference yet
Both yeasts are cold-tolerant and fast. S-04 attenuates less and is more fruity/minerally than US-05 at low temps (58º F - 64º F). US-05 is much cleaner at moderate ale temps (65º F - 69º F). Both are consistently poor performers warm (≥70º F); US-05 giving a weird canned peach flavor and S-04 getting tangy and “homebrewy” in the worst sense. S-04 will flocc out better.
The “twang” that I get from S-04 isn’t so much the ester profile I look for from English yeast strains, but a yeasty/bready/doughy flavor that I’m not a fan of in my paler English beers. I’ll use it in stouts and porters, but not in milds and bitters.
The only dry yeast that I’ve gotten an enjoyable English ester character from is Windsor, which I co-pitch with Notty for attenuation. I do plan on trying the new Lallemand New England strain in a bitter soon, though.