Good old Coopers Yeast

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
30/4/14
Messages
629
Reaction score
254
I've been at this caper for many years now and just saw what WhiteLabs want us to pay for their yeast. I've had a go at all sorts of stuff and have more often than not used US-05 for it's convenience and reliability in ales. Then I twigged about what I've done so many times. Buy a 6-pack, enjoy the beer and build up a pitch of a bloody good yeast that's never failed me. Jeez I'm a dill at times.
 
Wish I could get her hold of Coopers yeast. Used to do exactly what you do when Saveur Bière were à propret Online bottle shop.
Haven't seen Sparkling Ale for years now.
 
Wish I could get her hold of Coopers yeast. Used to do exactly what you do when Saveur Bière were à propret Online bottle shop.
Haven't seen Sparkling Ale for years now.
In Deutschland kannst du Biere von Coopers bestellen, der Shop liefert nach Frankreich.

In Germany you can order beers from Coopers, the store delivers to France.

En Allemagne, tu peux commander des bières de Coopers, la boutique livre en France.

https://australiashopping.de/epages...angeAction=SaveLocale&ChangeObjectID=89047317
 
I'm just looking up how to decant yeast from commercial beer. Does Coopers use the same yeast for their Pale Ales and their Sparkling Ales?
 
Apparently they use the same yeast in the whole Coopers range.
If you are looking for healthy yeast best to go for a young (see Best After date) and a low/er alcohol beer. The Pale Ale is often a good choice, in theory the Mild would be better but its often got a bit of age on it.
Mark
 
I'm just looking up how to decant yeast from commercial beer. Does Coopers use the same yeast for their Pale Ales and their Sparkling Ales?
I remember someone on this forum (Bribie G?) did a tour of Coopers brewery many years ago and he asked one of the company brewers about the yeast they use.

My only recollection is that he was told that the yeast Coopers use in primary fermentation is filtered out before bottling and a different yeast is introduced to effect bottle carbonation.

So the yeast you harvest from the bottle is not the same yeast that made the beer.

Perhaps some old AHBer with a better memory can chime in.
 
That tour would have been a very long time ago. They had multi strain house yeast which also had a bunch of other bug in it. Eventually it went out of balance and became unpredictable. It was replaced with a pure strain selected from the mix they had. The blend might not have been too safe for a bottling yeast. This was back in the late 1980's maybe early 1990's if I recall correctly.
Since then they have used the same yeast throughout their beers and for bottling.

Mark
 
^ No, it was much later than the 1990s. I don't think AHB existed then (geez, the World Wide Web only came online in the early '90s). I joined AHB in 2009 and it was some years later that the post about Coopers yeast I mentioned was made.
 
I did the tour in 2016 and the tour guide was a homebrewer, he told me that the bottles at that point the yeast in bottles was the same as the primary strain
I also recall sometime around then that @DucatiBoyStu had done a Coopers beer dinner with Dr Tim and was told the same thing
 
Yes, I did the tour and asked the same question - same yeast.
Mark
 
No they don’t. Lagers do not have any yeast left in the bottle. You can use Pale, Sparkling or Mild and probably the other Ales but I have not tried the others. To harvest the yeast place at least 3 bottles of your selected beer in the fridge (6 would be better and you won’t be as thirsty.) and leave undisturbed for at least a week to allow the yeast to settle. Carefully decant the beer leaving about 15ml in the bottle. Swirl to resuspend the yeast and add to a starter. Drink the decanted beer. coopers yeast makes great beer. If you want the esters that are characteristic of Coopers Ales then use no pressure when fermenting.
 
Coopers like most 19th centrury breweries had many different strains probably five or six in their brewing slurry. The timeline is a little confused but it's believed they whittled that down to three in the mid 1970s, they got rid of their puncheon/coolship brewing system in 1979 and some of the strains didn't perform very well in the modern bulk fermenters and they might have changed the main strain, it's not clear. In the mid -late 1990's, they reduced it to one strain. I definitely remember the drop in complexity when it happened.
 
I couldn't leave beer to settle for a week in the fridge. I walked home with a 6pack from the bottle-shop the other day. My starter began soon as I got home. I sanitise around the cap and the opener, pour into a glass, leaving yeast in the bottom and reseal with a new cap. When I've got 6, I let them come to room temperature and tip them into the starter wort. After a couple of days, I step it up to a litre. I've done it with different strengths of wort and amounts. They've all fired up wonderfully.
 
I couldn't leave beer to settle for a week in the fridge. I walked home with a 6pack from the bottle-shop the other day. My starter began soon as I got home. I sanitise around the cap and the opener, pour into a glass, leaving yeast in the bottom and reseal with a new cap. When I've got 6, I let them come to room temperature and tip them into the starter wort. After a couple of days, I step it up to a litre. I've done it with different strengths of wort and amounts. They've all fired up wonderfully.

I couldn't leave beer to settle for a week in the fridge. I walked home with a 6pack from the bottle-shop the other day. My starter began soon as I got home. I sanitise around the cap and the opener, pour into a glass, leaving yeast in the bottom and reseal with a new cap. When I've got 6, I let them come to room temperature and tip them into the starter wort. After a couple of days, I step it up to a litre. I've done it with different strengths of wort and amounts. They've all fired up wonderfully.
You must live close to the bottle shop if you can walk home with ONLY six!
 
In the mid -late 1990's, they reduced it to one strain. I definitely remember the drop in complexity when it happened.
Used to be one of my favourites until they did that. Became a bit bland. The red now sort of tastes like the green used to and the old red was a good step above. Rose coloured (beer) glasses maybe.
 
You must live close to the bottle shop if you can walk home with ONLY six!
I do live close to a couple of bottle shops. Coopers Sparkling Ale is OK beer, but I only really wanted 6 for the yeast. I think it was better years ago, but then again, wasn't everything?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top