Broken starter

[Goodbeer]

G'day brewers

Just learnt the hard way not to leave a starter anywhere a 3 year old can reach...

Anyhow went to get my reserve bag of yeast, US05, and realised it it best before march just gone.

Rehydrated and pitched, under pitching as I have a 22L batch at 1060...only other option is a couple of 7g bags off coopers kits.

Should I just ride my luck with what I've done? Or drop some of the coopers yeast in? Have never used those yeasts, have read before they're not much good.

I don't have a lhbs nearby


Cheers

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Coopers dry yeast is very good in my opinion. If its the same as years ago when I used to use it. Its actually a fairly well respected yeast in the brewing world.

 

[Goodbeer]

Ok, that's good news.

It is coopers yeast I have, but meant more generally speaking that when starting out most everything I read said to get rid of kit yeast and get yourself some quality yeast, eg fermentis or the like.

 

[damoninja]

Expired in march will be fine don't panic.

I've used 5 yeasts which were all 4 years past expiry, did not expect them to work but 1 after the next they all did.

 

[droid]

imho 1 pack for 22ltrs would be OK if OG was 1048 and South and everything else being perfect for fermenting...but @ 1060? I'd chuck in a pack of the Coopers as well.

What is your expected FG?

 

[Goodbeer]

Was aiming for 1016, but was also aiming for OG 1056.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

If in doubt just toss in both the coopers yeast because its a higher gravity beer. You'll nail it on that brew for sure.

Better over pitched than under pitched.

The suspicions of the kit yeast is its shelved not refrigerated and the package date of the yeast is (deteriorated viability by age).

 

[Quokka42]

Coopers Yeasts are great, the only problem is you can only get them with Coopers cans. They ferment clean over a wide range of temperatures, with some nice ale notes at warmer temps. The only problem is they are medium-low attenuating, which is not ideal for your style, but if you add it and keep temps at say 18 it will speed up the lag period and the US-05 should finish it out OK.

BTW, I have an Irish Export Stout on tap at the moment, started with an O.G. of 1.064 and two coopers kit yeasts - bloody beautiful!

 

[peteru]

For a 1.060 OG beer, I'd go Cooper's yeast at 18C for about a week, then raise temp to 21C for up to another week. Throw in as many Cooper's packs as you have. ;-)

The Cooper's yeast can take a while to finish the job, but it does give a nice flavour profile that works well with higher gravity or darker beers.

 

[Goodbeer]

Thanks all.

Put the coopers yeast in with the usO5. Was a bit slow getting going, raised from 19.4 to 20, flying along now

 

[Weizguy]

Well done there. Don't always believe what you read and only half of what people tell you.
I used to really enjoy a Coopers pale clone brewed with the Coopers packet yeast and some Coopers Real Ale can and hops and... Yum.
Brewed it once accidentally with a weizen yeast. Came out better than weizen pitched with Coopers bottle reculture liquid yeast.

Please keep us posted with imminent results.

 

[Goodbeer]

Just bottled my stout, got down to 1020, gives me 66.4% attenuation, 5.5% abc, so not such a bad result.

Tastes great. Generally use US05 for my ales. Couldn't really notice much difference having used the coopers yeast also.

Will report back once conditioned

 

[Goodbeer]

Ok slow post for results...kids are really inconsiderate when it comes time for beer related things.

The stout has turned out great. My palate isn't overly sensitive but can't notice the difference with the added coopers yeast compared to other similar brews using US05.

All in all success. Is a milk stout but if brew again will up the IBU a bit, give it a bit more bite

 

[Rocker1986]

Just on the topic of the yeast being past its best before... I've just done a microscope slide tonight of some Nottingham yeast that is 3 and a half years past its best before date, stained with trypan blue for viability testing. It had sat in the fridge unopened for all this time. I took about 10 pictures but so far only counted cells in one which came out at 83.7% viability. Obviously no idea how healthy the live cells are, but I don't think you'd have to worry too much about it only being a month past the BB date.