Australian Pale Ale Pitch To Pour 10 Days?

[Bribie G]

Although I've been back to brewing for over a year this is the first time I've cultured up the venerable Coopers for an Aussie Pale. It's for a mini comp and I took my plan from the BYO magazine article about how to brew a Coopers sparkling type ale using the cultured yeast, where they state that the primary fermentation should be done and dusted in four or five days, and they describe it as a 'pitch to pour in 10 days' brew along the same lines as a Hefe.

So on Friday 12th (11 days ago) I brewed and cubed an Aussie with a grain bill around 6kg and 300g sugaz (came out around 1056) and polished off a couple of sparklies tallies, carefully pouring and just drinking the bright beer, then put sediment in Schott bottle with LDME and a little dex and kept at 22. Textbook. By Monday I had a magnificent krausen going and pitched into well aerated wort. It took off like the clappers and by Thursday (5 days ago) it had been blooping every five seconds and I was looking forward to attenuation by the weekend, bottle around Sunday and bring it into the comp Thursday ... It's a comp being run by a micro and as I understand it, sampling wouldn't be for another few days so pitch to pour ten days, perfect.

Yesterday, after seven days she's still blooping every 5 seconds. Didn't take a hydro reading but gave it a good rousing with my slotted spoon which I figured would help attenuation, still plenty of activity to flush the headspace. This morning (8 days) it's blooping every 4 seconds.

Temps: 19 for the first few days till thursday last week, then bang on 20.5 for the rest. It shows no signs of slowing and I would guess it will keep going till late in the week. So I've definitely missed the comp but it tastes awesome and will put it in the Club big comp end of July. Shouldda taken that gravity reading, I know.

No loss as it's actually still going into a comp, However it's a total pissoff as I was using that BYO article as a guideline. What sort of timeframe are other forum members getting out of Coopers style brews?

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hey BribieG, I've found with this yeast that the first use/generation/pitch tends to ferment along the same timelines as most other yeasts.
However when pitching from a yeast slurry/second generation it will ferment out in 3-4 days.
I'm not sure if it's because of the larger yeast volume or because the yeast cells are healthier, but it is remarkably different.

Andrew

 

[Bribie G]

I'll try that, when I bottle this batch I'll grab a good amount of the trub and do a Coopers Pale Ale (as opposed to the heavier Sparkling) and see how that goes, should also be right for the July Comp so I'll have 2 to choose from, hopefully.

Somewhat off topic, my kegs arrived just now and I'm considering honouring my first keg with the Sparkling. Is this a suitable kegging beer? I'm thinking about the yeast here, would the keg need shaking regularly to avoid the beer becoming too bright and losing the signature yeast character? They serve it cloudy on tap at pubs and I wonder how they manage that.

 

[AndrewQLD]

My CSA usually stays cloudy in the keg for a couple of weeks and then drops pretty clear, although it does carry a bit of haze.
I generally don't worry too much about the yeast dropping out, the flavor is still pretty much the same, you could always give the keg a rattle if you want.
I think this is a great beer on tap, especially at this time of year.

Andrew

 

[Bribie G]

Cheers Andrew, your avatar says it all :lol:

 

[Pollux]

They serve it cloudy on tap at pubs and I wonder how they manage that.

I personally used to roll the coopers kegs every second day when I was working in a cellar....We would go through one every two days so I would just roll the fresh one to the head of the bank and then roll the half empty one and hook it up behind.


We always got lovely cloudy beer, although the crap that came off the lines on line cleaning day was almost enough to make you want to vomit....

 

[bconnery]

I would have thought that without taking a reading, and relying on your airlock, you dont' actually know that it wasn't finished within the timeframe? Still bubbling could have referred to CO2 escaping?
Probably not at that rate though...
I would sugges that perhaps the amount of yeast built up in your starter from just two tallies and just a few days growth, wasn't sufficient to get the fast fermentation?

I made an Aussie pale doing a similar thing, two tallies, , one of green and one of red, with a bit more timeframe on the starter but the same initial yeast, and it slowed right down. I ended up finishing mine with US56.

It was still kegged within 8 days though, and ready to drink in 10...

Next time I will either build up the starter even further first, or start with more bottles...

 

[Kai]

The main thing above all else here (as bc says); never rely on your airlock. Take an SG reading.

But, whenever I do a beer with coopers yeast I rarely have it from grain to brain in ten days. The ferment will quite often finish in that time but I would always get diacetyl in bottle for the first 2-3 weeks.

 

[AndrewQLD]

The main thing above all else here (as bc says); never rely on your airlock. Take an SG reading.

But, whenever I do a beer with coopers yeast I rarely have it from grain to brain in ten days. The ferment will quite often finish in that time but I would always get diacetyl in bottle for the first 2-3 weeks.

I've never noticed any diacetyl Kai, but then I use massive starters so perhaps the yeast is not stressed as much, also come to think of it I usually keg only and it's normally a couple of weeks before it gets tapped so the yeast could well be cleaning up the beer before I get a taste. I'll have to bottle a couple next time for comparison.

Andrew

 

[browndog]

OR maybe Michael you should not be like those budding Chefs on Masterchef plating up your beers with 10 seconds to go !


cheers

Browndog (who kegged his entry last friday )

 

[Bribie G]

Yes I tend to forget than some people prefer their beer to be conditioned more than a week in the bottle. Bloody perfectionists. My kegs arrived this morning. Ha

 

[kram]

OR maybe Michael you should not be like those budding Chefs on Masterchef plating up your beers with 10 seconds to go !


cheers

Browndog (who kegged his entry last friday )

...still in the fermenters

I better get started on the BABBs annual comp beers eh?

 

[Bribie G]

Yup, the Bohemian Pilsener is getting a bit of krausen on it as we speak.

 

[sm0902]

I've just had my first go at using the yeast from a couple of tall Sparkling Ale bottles, both used to create a starter.

I followed the recipe from [topic="29058"]here:[/topic]

Aim OG 1045 and FG 1005 (My OG was 1044 and it's at 1005)

Yeast pitched late Thursday night and it's basically finished as of yesterday (... 5 days in primary). Tried a sample yesterday ... seems close to the real thing. Looking forward to a blind tasting after kegging.

 

[Bribie G]

Thanks for link. The airlock is now down to a bloop every eight seconds (still at 20.5 degrees) so things are attenuating nicely. As soon as this batch is kegged I'll immediately pitch a good amount of the yeast into a brew made to the recipe in the link, and that should get things nicely nailed down for the upcoming comp as I'll have a choice of two ales plus plenty of kegged drinkables of course

Doing a bit of research on Pale / Sparkling I would guess the long fermentation has been a result of the pretty high gravity and maybe a bit of an underpitch originally. sm0902, how long did you culture your starter from, what ingredients and what temp? And then what temp have you been doing the primary at?

 

[Ross]

Bribie,

I'm kegging my entry tomorrow morning whilst brewing my last brew for the BABBS comp...was going to keg tonight but will be well oiled in front of the Footy - nothing like leaving things to the last minute

Cheers Ross

 

[Bribie G]

Bribie,

I'm kegging my entry tomorrow morning whilst brewing my last brew for the BABBS comp...was going to keg tonight but will be well oiled in front of the Footy - nothing like leaving things to the last minute

Cheers Ross

BABBs comp.... wow I'd better get some brews planned for that one :icon_cheers:

 

[beersom]

It's for a mini comp ... being run by a micro and as I understand it, sampling wouldn't be for another few days so pitch to pour ten days, perfect.

No loss as it's actually still going into a comp, However it's a total pissoff ...

wouldn't worry too much mate... get your entry to us as soon as you can ( before we finish all the other entries so as we can make your sample anonymous) and it should be sweet.

Mind you this isn't a justification for all entries to be late as we don't want a heap of straglers but you have a week or so if there has been dramas
cheers
Ian


edit for seplling

 

[Bribie G]

wouldn't worry too much mate... get your entry to us as soon as you can ( before we finish all the other entries so as we can make your sample anonymous) and it should be sweet.

Mind you this isn't a justification for all entries to be late as we don't want a heap of straglers but you have a week or so if there has been dramas
cheers
Ian


edit for seplling

Thanks for that Ian, if you want to PM me with an address and whatever labelling requirements I'll bottle in PET 750ml I'll post it next week.
Cheers
Michael

 

[Fourstar]

We always got lovely cloudy beer, although the crap that came off the lines on line cleaning day was almost enough to make you want to vomit....

Ha, Reminds me of a pint of Hargraves Hill ESB i got last saturday night. I wont know the palce, but some in Melbourne might pick it up. "2 pints please" i requested. I put them side by side because something looked wrong when the barman put them down and slowy yet unsurely backed away with my money. My mates was hazy orange with some yeast in suspension, mine was Yeast Cake Kahki Grey. You could cut it with a knife.

I took them over to the bar lady as her and a fellow bar staff was tasting beer from that same ESB tap. I held them up and said "i think the kegs run dry on mine". Instead of, "oh ok, ill re-tap and give you antoher". I got a "No No, its supposed ot be like that... The guys over there are drinking it like that. We behind the bar love it that way, its a personal taste so if you dont like it i can pour you something else" <_<

What!? :unsure: Not a "oh really, yes it looks like we need to retap it because it should be a bright yet slightly hazed fireburst orange."

To tell her how bad it was and shouldnt be served, I took a sip of it. it was like drinking a pint of slurry. Seriously, a pint of slurry. My next batch i will bottle some up and serve it to her. i tried to tell her thats not how an ESB should taste, let alone be served to the punters like that. They should really re-tap it. I even did the (i hate to be like this but im going to have to) "I KNOW BEER..." Don't pass me off as a pint by pint VB is all i drink swiller. So i took a pint of Artic Fox Lager instad.

If i was Hargraves Hill i would be quite upset they are selling those end of keg dregs to the public.

The next day i had already prebooked tickets to a holgate 10th birthday lunch/tasting/beer matching. I walk in to see them re-tapping the HH ESB.