I exclusively use US05 in all of my beers. I prefer to brew mostly American styles with noticeable but usually not strong hop character. Most of my beers stick in the high 4-6% ABV range. My buddy brews a pale ale using ESB yeast and I am very impressed with how the yeast and the hops mix. I feel like I should experiment a bit with some more yeasts.
Honestly, I am looking for another very versatile yeast that has medium-high attenuation that I can use in a variety of beers from american wheats to porters. Any recommendations or feedback considering the beers that I prefer to brew? I do like dry yeast so I am considering starting with S-04 or nottingham.
I really like Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast. It can ferment down at 50 for a cleaner taste and higher near 70 for more esters. It works great in high and low gravity beers. It also clears well.
Well, if you like dry yeast and want something different than S-05 to play with, then I’d go with S-04. Works quick, drops like a stone, and has a nice English yeast character. If you’re going after something like your friend’s ESB, then this is the dry yeast I’d go with.
Nice ester profile, and ferments over a fairly wide temp. range.
I use it in my pale ale at 62F because I don’t like a lot of esters in that particular beer, but in an ESB I’ll kick it up to 68F to get that nice mix of earthy hops and fruity esters you spoke of.
Not a big fan of Nottingham. I get a weird “twang” flavor from it that I don’t care for. I love the ESB yeast, but I have not tried S-04.
Despite my dislike of Nottingham I pitched some in a 1.050 stout recently and it finished at 1.10.
ESB on my most recent pitch took a bitter from 1.044ish to 1.008. This yeast also gives me more hop presence than Nottingham on side-by-side fermentations. I can’t explain why that might be, but I’ve done several side-by-sides and it’s the same each time.