Coopers Best Extra Stout Recipe Help!

[lukemarsh]

I just bought a Coopers Original Series Stout can to make a Best Extra Stout clone.
I looked on the Coopers website at their recipe to make Best Extra and they recommend using these ingredients:

1.7kg can Original Series Stout
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Dark Malt Extract
500g Sugar/Dextrose
20L final volume

They also say that to get best results to use their commercial yeast culture... is this the same as reculturing Coopers yeast to make things such as Pale Ale? Because if it is, I don't see how this is possible with Best Extra, as you can't see a bloody thing in it!

If anyone has any tips on growing Coopers commercial yeast culture, or has any alternative recipes that make a great Best Extra clone, it would be much appreciated!
Cheers,
Marshbrew

 

[Phoney]

Ive posted up an extract clone version here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=914

 

[tallie]

They also say that to get best results to use their commercial yeast culture... is this the same as reculturing Coopers yeast to make things such as Pale Ale? Because if it is, I don't see how this is possible with Best Extra, as you can't see a bloody thing in it!

+1 on re-culturing yeast from their commercial brews to get that real "Coopers flavour". It is widely understood that Coopers uses the same yeast strain in all of their ales, both in primary fermentation and bottle conditioning. So no worries re-culturing the yeast from a Coopers Pale Ale and using it in the Stout.

In terms of reculturing the yeast, this is a good place to start, with more information here.

Cheers,
Kris.

 

[lukemarsh]

I've heard that you can't reculture a different style of beer yeast and put it in another beer? Because if you do, your beer will have flavours of the other style of beer in it and wont taste the same...

Should I just not bother with that and just use the cap yeast? Will this still taste as good? I prefer to brew easy at the moment and not get involved with complicated stuff yet, as I am still new to it all!
However, I will be doing a CPA soon using Pale Ale recultured yeast... so we'll see how that goes first I reckon.

 

[bconnery]

I've heard that you can't reculture a different style of beer yeast and put it in another beer? Because if you do, your beer will have flavours of the other style of beer in it and wont taste the same...

Should I just not bother with that and just use the cap yeast? Will this still taste as good? I prefer to brew easy at the moment and not get involved with complicated stuff yet, as I am still new to it all!
However, I will be doing a CPA soon using Pale Ale recultured yeast... so we'll see how that goes first I reckon.

That's kind of true, but not quite applicable here. If you were reculturing a different style of beer yeast, say a wheat, and putting it in a stout, that might not work (although it might), but what you are doing here is reculturing the same yeast.
It isn't a 'pale ale' yeast, it's the Coopers yeast, and it can be and is used across their beers and also by homebrewers across a range of styles.

That being said there are plenty of readily available yeasts useable for a stout, but if you are planning to have a go at reculturing anyway then it is valid to use it for this beer.

 

[tallie]

In addition to bconnery's comments

I've heard that you can't reculture a different style of beer yeast and put it in another beer? Because if you do, your beer will have flavours of the other style of beer in it and wont taste the same...

If you were to pitch a delicate/light/subtle flavoured wort on to the whole yeast cake of a previous strongly flavoured beer, then there's a chance that some of the flavour may come across. However, if you were to reculture the yeast in a fairly neutrally flavoured and unhopped wort, and decant the beer off the yeast before pitching it, then the relatively small amount of non-yeast related flavours shouldn't have any noticable impact on the new beer. In your case, I imagine the stronger stout flavours will overpower any pale ale flavours that are brought to the table.

Note that it is also possible to reculture the yeast from a commercially produced Coopers Stout (I have done it myself and gone on to make a great tasting Dark Ale clone, followed by a porter and a stout). It is arguable though that due to the higher alcohol content and lower turnover of the stout (compared to pale ale), the yeast will be less viable. There's a bit more discussion about it here: Utilizing Coopers Best Extra Stout Yeast

Should I just not bother with that and just use the cap yeast? Will this still taste as good? I prefer to brew easy at the moment and not get involved with complicated stuff yet, as I am still new to it all!
However, I will be doing a CPA soon using Pale Ale recultured yeast... so we'll see how that goes first I reckon.

In my experience, you will get a much more authentic and better taste out of using recultured yeast (providing you ferment it at the right temperature!). But it certainly does add a level of complexity when you first start out doing it. If you can, the best way to find out what works for you is to try both ways and compare the difference.

Cheers,
Kris.