US-04, US-05 or Notts for a Strong Mild

[Kev888]

I've got an unexpected opportunity to brew tomorrow - thought I'd re-try making a strong mild (my last one overattenuated and finished dry).

But I've only got US-04, US-05 or Notts yeast on hand, and I probably wouldn't have chosen these - any thoughts on what may be the best of them? I'm thinking S-04 for its flavours but am prepared to change if anyone has tried the others in a mild.

Cheers,
Kev

[oz11]

I'd go with S04. I've used it in weaker dark milds with good results, but never a strong mild but I don't think it will leave it too dry.

[Kev888]

Great - thanks. Its what i was thinking, but after my last debacle some verification is most useful!

Cheers
kev

[Rookie]

S-04.
I've used it in a regular mild, an imperial stout, and a best bitter with good results.

[barney]

I have just made a strong mild (1057) and used Gervin ale yeast, I havn't used it before in a mild so I have my fingers crossed.

[rossa]

Nottingham for me over s04 for a mild.

[Kev888]

Thanks all. I pitched some s-04 (before some of these replies) so fingers crossed. We'll see anyway - I think I may be cursed with milds, for some reason if I cock up its always with a mild recipe!

Yesterday was no exception - I couldn't get the sparge to run-off, so ended up digging out half the grain and doing two half-sized batch sparges in succession, needless to say my efficiency was less than anticipated so I added some LME to the boil to make up the difference. And then the damn boiler runoff stuck as well; I can't remember how many dozens of brews I've done, this was the 23rd even with the current setup, but I felt like an amateur again <sigh>.

Cheers
Kev

[seymour]

So, Kev888, how did it turn out?

[Kev888]

It seemed to go relatively well; I got just over 65% attenuation to drop from about 1.055 to 1.019, which was kind of what I was hoping for in a malty brew. I think Safale suggest it attenuates between about 73% to 78% so hopefully it didn't stall prematurely, but then I mashed at 67c and had 20% crystal malt in the recipe, so perhaps its not unreasonable. I don't seem to have a very good track record with milds..

Taste-wise, it seemed okay from the FV - you could taste that it was made with S-04 but it didn't seem massively out of place. It should be getting into condition about now though, so I'll have to give it another taste this weekend; I've been mislead by early tastings before!

Cheers
Kev

[orlando]

I've got one in the FV right now and I used SO4 as well. The thing I noticed was I went on holiday for 5 nights having brewed it the day before. Tucked it up in the brew fridge with a sealed lid and airlock. Came back from holiday and went and lifted the lid, nearly knocked over by the CO2 that came off of it and was really surprised to see it was only down to 1.020 from 1.040, I have had it down to nearly FG in the past by then.

What I think happened is that normally I would check the brew every day (SG and temp) so I can better understand the effects of temperature and time with different yeasts and know if I need to intervene in anyway. Obviously this means the lid is cracked open every time so any CO2 that hasn't gone through the airlock gets released. Not being here meant that there had been a build up and the lock somehow had not done its job. Consequently I think the CO2 interfered with the yeasts attenuation, anyway gave it a rouse and upped the temp and it is now down to 1.010 and pretty close to finishing.

Anyone else experienced this, quite a lesson I have to say.

[Kev888]

Interesting that - I only cover the FV relatively loosely so I can't really say from experience. I've heard that CO2 can impede yeast action, but I would have thought it would need to build up actual pressure - sufficient to keep it suspended in the wort rather than floating to the surface.

Cheers
Kev

[orlando]

And that's what happened. It's continuing to ferment albeit very slowly now, but again has taught me that it is very easy to rush to judgement that a brew is done. I could easily have decided it was done 24 hours ago and some vital clearing up would have been missed.

[Kev888]

Crikey - your airlock must be having some sort of problem! There shouldn't be enough pressure to inhibit fermentation (even people using breather tubes into starsan-filled bottles don't get that sort of problem). It may be best to leave the lid only loosely on unless you can sort the fault.

Cheers
Kev

[Aleman]

I mashed at 67c and had 20% crystal malt in the recipe, so perhaps its not unreasonable.

That might well be your problem, you may find it's cloyingly malty with that much crystal, assuming that it is a standard colour crystal. I have stopped using high colour crystal for milds in large quantities, preferring to use something like carapils/caragold they give a good malt flavour without being too thickening or cloying. I also use around 5-10% Munich malt to up the malt profile.

Colour comes from steeped roast barley at then end of the mash

Mashing at 67-68C will produce a high FG so again, a little cheat and some sugar brings that FG down a couple of points

Strong milds are difficult to really mess up too much, although you can end up with a cloyingly sweet over/under bittered beer quite easily, a well balanced low gravity mild now that is a whole other ballpark, and one of the trickiest beers to get right

[Kev888]

Thats useful, many thanks - I may swap out some of the crystal next time then; I'm quite a fan of munich. I wonder if the heavy use of crystal could have contributed to a slightly bitter after-taste I've been getting too?

I just tried this S0-4 version; I seem to have lost another couple of points whilst in the keg but its still at about 1.016 so thats fine - its the ones that over-attenuate I've not liked - they seem neither malty enough nor anything else then. Its still a few weeks away from its best IMHO, but is okay by now; the yeast tastes have become less prominent, though are still there, the mouthfeel is smooth and theres a decent amount of maltyness.

Its attenuated enough not to be too heavy, but it is a bit one-dimensional and I (again) detect a slight bitterness to the after-tase that isn't quite fitting. So I think I'll try some lighter grains next time and perhaps move some of the hopping schedule to be mostly later hops. I think I may also try the scottish ale yeast, as whilst the S04 is pretty decent I suspect it may be contributing to the uniformity of taste.

Cheers
Kev