Brew day - back in Aus... Coopers "family secret" amber ale

[ChefKing]

Hi All,

Been awhile since I have posted and put a batch down.

I Just put down a batch of the Coopers family secret ale with a can of amber malt and using safale -us05.

I poured in to much hot water and didn't have any bottles sanitised and full of cold water because they already full of star san.... Need to get a bigger stock of empty soft drink bottles for next time!

After everything added (except the yeast) it hit.... 36.8c.

I sat it in an ice bath to for an hour hoping to drop the temp. ice melted pretty fast. So I put it back in the brew fridge... to finish dropping down. Which took about 3 hrs before I could pitch the yeast. Fingers crossed it wasn't too long waiting to pitch the yeast. I read if you wait to long to pitch the safale, the natural yeast in the wort can start fermenting first and can effect the over all brew... Fingers crossed again.

OG = 1.0057

Seemed a little high to me, but it all is a learning curve...

 

[AJS2154]

Sounds like a struggle Chef......the joys of homebrew no matter where we are!

I use a plate chiller to cool my boiling wort (all grain). During summer in Sydney the water direct from the tap can be around 24 degrees and I end up with wort into the fermenter around 26 degrees.I cool it in the fridge before pitching too of course. Sometimes 3 hours. Providing the fermenter is clean and sealed you will be OK.

As Charlie Papazian says "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew (RDWHAHB)". As another very wise man (me) says "what's the worst that can happen?". If its crap tip it out and have another go. Nothing worse than that will happen.

BTW.....who would have thought Thomas Cooper would have had a family secret?? Looks like the marketing teams have had their ponytails together again and named a few extract cans.

 

[ChefKing]

You are totally right AJS... It is a total stress watching your wort cool down at a really slow rate before you can pitch your yeast.

Lesson learnt, I will have extra sanitized soft drink bottles & fill em up with water and pop them in the fridge the night before.

4 hrs waiting for the damn wort to cool down before you can pitch is STRESSFUL as f*ck.

Though I sanitized with star-san thoroughly & literally everything that would touch the brew and didn't open the FV throughout the whole "cool down wort process"...

I will update as the process goes, just hope a long cool down period of the wort before pitching won't affect the over all brew....

 

[Mr B]

Looks like your sanitisation is excellent, I wouldnt worry too much about the delay.

Sure it will be good

 

[ChefKing]

Day 2.... yeast has been pitched at 18.4c with a good stir. Has been 12 hrs no activity as of yet... Is that normal?

 

[wereprawn]

Day 2.... yeast has been pitched at 18.4c with a good stir. Has been 12 hrs no activity as of yet... Is that normal?

Totally normal mate. Just because you don't see signs of fermentation doesn't mean hasn't begun .

 

[pcmfisher]

Fortunately you used US05 because if you used the kit yeast there is a good chance it would not have worked if you had one of the affected tins.
Coopers had trouble with the new Family Secret Amber, Bootmaker Pale, and Brew A IPA. A lot of the yeasts did not take off. I assume they are in the process of fixing the problem.

 

[Colo]

I used US-05 in my last brew which was also an Amber. Takes longer than 12 hours to get going, by 48 hours you should see some activity.

 

[Brewsta]

I put down a CFSAA about a month ago just as you have with a bit of steeped crystal, there was a similar thread on "yeast adding temp" not long ago which i had posted the same problem of trying to cool the wort. I feared the same as you and ended up pitching at 29 deg c after about 6 hours. I wouldn't recommend it….next time if i have this issue i'll risk waiting until the morning to pitch at a much lower temp. Mines got a flavour that is bitter & yeasty, hoping that time will help but i doubt it…will still drink it though!

 

[ChefKing]

Yeah at the 24 hr mark now and no real considerable difference to the wort... Though if I am not mistaken there seems to be a slight Krausen forming....

Though like Colo mentioned above his didn't really start kicking until the 48hr mark....

So i will sit patiently and wait and let you all know how it is going.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

It has definately started mate.

 

[livewiremjk]

Buy yourself a bunch of 1.5L bottled water from woolies. Cool it in the fridge overnight and dump it into your fermenter when you are topping it up. re use the bottles for your next batch. Use as many as you need to get the temp down. In any case the delay in pitching yeast shouldn't be a prob If the wort was all sealed up in your sanitised fermenter.

 

[ChefKing]

We have lift off... Exciting stuff!

 

[jackgym]

I've just finished drinking a batch of Family Secret. It's a nice dark brown beer with a tasty bitterness. I used the US-05 yeast also and it only rose about 20mm of foam with a brown crust around the edge. The other times I've used this yeast it has worked the same. It's best to leave it in your FV for 14 days before bottling.

 

[ChefKing]

I've just finished drinking a batch of Family Secret. It's a nice dark brown beer with a tasty bitterness. I used the US-05 yeast also and it only rose about 20mm of foam with a brown crust around the edge. The other times I've used this yeast it has worked the same. It's best to leave it in your FV for 14 days before bottling.

Yeah I am gunna dry hop it on day 5 or 6 with 25gms of cascade... Will let it sit for another 5 days and take a hydrometer reading around then to see what is up...

BTW Jackgym, what was your OG reading?

 

[jackgym]

Yeah I am gunna dry hop it on day 5 or 6 with 25gms of cascade... Will let it sit for another 5 days and take a hydrometer reading around then to see what is up...

BTW Jackgym, what was your OG reading?

I didn't bother taking a reading, the foam was disappearing and after 14 days the ferm. was finished.

 

[GNU]

I frequently leave my wort to cool in the FV overnight before pitching yeast and haven't had an issue. Forget the multiple bottle approach for cooling. Get yourself a 15L cube (Fresh kit) and chill that the night before brewing or clean and sanitize your FV the day before and half fill with water and chill it.

 

[Gigantorus]

ChefKing,
With ales I work on 14 days/2 weeks in the fermenter before bottling is a safe bet. Ales will generally complete fermentation in about 5 to 7 days (maybe 10 days for bigger AVB brews). Lagers need an extra week generally (i.e. 3 weeks in the fermenter).
Cheers,
Pete

 

[Morrie]

I have a spare FV which I drop about 20 liters of water in and chill down to about 8ºC in the brew fridge.
Sounds like the Family Secret is nice. I want to do one the same with an amber LME also.

 

[ChefKing]

Yeah had my first my sip today straight from the hydrometer.... Already starting to taste great!