using Coopers yeast for other styles

[kalbarluke]

I am in the process of making a Coopers Pale Ale clone. To do this I recently recultured the yeast from 12 Coopers Pale Ale stubbies, used a 500ml starter and pitched into my wort after 24 hours.
Anyway, it went gangbusters and made its way down to 1.010 after two and a half days. Hydrometer samples indicate that it also tastes pretty spot on.

Most people (AFAIK) use this yeast to make a clone of the Coopers Pale Ale. Has anyone used this yeast to create any other styles? Or even an American style pale ale? If so, how did the beers turn out?
I fermented at 17 degrees but I know it can throw off banana aromas if you go higher. How would this yeast go in a wheat beer (50% wheat, 50% pils)?
I just bought a carton and am keen to keep collecting the yeast but would like to use it in another way.

 

[Wobbly74]

Probably any pale ale. I just brewed a session ale clone but its lacking the typical coopers yeast notes and is a bit too clean. Fermented at about 19C.

 

[mattfos01]

Not a huge stretch but have used it in a few times in a foreign extra stout. Not a coopers clone but very nice all the same. I used it in a bitter a few years back, I needed to brew it again, but haven’t got around to it. Was trying to get the pear flavour out of the yeast...

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I've cultured it numerous times.
For pale ale like coopers PA balance I find the yeast is quite strong in flavor. A little too strong for my liking its a dominating flavor. It has a bitterness too it as well so the Coopers PA I get that it has just a small bittering addition of hop and the yeast is a lot of the total flavor. I dont get Banana though I ferment at 18c. The yeast culture itself can have a fruit salad aroma, at least when its done at my best controlled ways but not much of that in flavor of the beer. I guess I've always ended up at higher IBU and hop flavor so the bitterness gets forward instead.

IPA its been awesome. I think this yeast gets better for heavier flavored Ales.

Stout. My favorite. I made heavy hopped stout that the dark grains were cold steeped and added at the end of the mash. Low bittering hops, High late boil hops and a highish dry hop. That is my Stout!The best Stout I have ever tasted. Its not the first time for stout either Its a very nice flavor touch that is now in the back ground but works great.

The verdict for me is in Pale lighter flavored beer the yeast is very distinguishable as Coopers. Its an up front flavor. Great for megaswill profitability for there is a lot of beer flavor just in the yeast.
It reminds me of some yeast science were searching, using genetic modification to make a yeast that makes bitterness in alternative to hops. I'd say Coopers bred one naturally.
If I was to make a clone I'd add say Pride of Ringwood at first wort hop, or 60, to get ~ 27 IBU.
That the only hop addition.

 

[jackmarshall77]

If it works to re culture yeast from coopers, what would be wrong with re culturing from my own home brew stubbies. I get more sediment and could often work from fresher beer. I have about 5 common strains in the form of sediment in the beer I bottle. I have been reading up on maintaining a yeast library but it seems like a fair bit of space in the fridge and stuffing around. Why not just whip a bottle out of the cupboard when I need one and work from that, assuming that I can remember which yeast I used for each batch.

 

[Rocker1986]

If it works to re culture yeast from coopers, what would be wrong with re culturing from my own home brew stubbies. I get more sediment and could often work from fresher beer. I have about 5 common strains in the form of sediment in the beer I bottle. I have been reading up on maintaining a yeast library but it seems like a fair bit of space in the fridge and stuffing around. Why not just whip a bottle out of the cupboard when I need one and work from that, assuming that I can remember which yeast I used for each batch.

Because it's easier to just take it out of the fermenter trub after you bottle the batch. Fresh yeast that you don't really need to do anything with if you're using it again within a week or two (though it can be rinsed), just pitch it into the new batch. Yeast keeps longer in the fridge too so I wouldn't be storing it in cupboards.
I keep a yeast "library" of 3 strains, but my method is to overbuild yeast starters and harvest some from those for re-use later.

 

[jackmarshall77]

Fair point, and I have done so in the past, but I brew a fair way apart. It might take me a good few months to reuse a yeast. How long would it remain viable in the stubbie?

 

[Rocker1986]

Depends. It will still be viable to some degree after a few months if stored in the fridge, but it will probably need a starter to get it built up again. The more yeast you start with the more you'll have left after a period of time, hence the suggestion to use fermenter trub rather than the tiny amount you'd get in stubbies.

I did some stain testing on yeast last year and while it's not overwhelming evidence or anything, I did find that the viability dropped more slowly than yeast calculators suggest. It was sitting at around 85-86% after 45 days and 80% after two months, vs the calculator's suggested 68 and 59% respectively. That was yeast grown in a starter and stored under its own "beer" in the fridge. I'm not sure if the rate of death would be the same with yeast from fermenter trub but it's on the to do list to test it.

I have a small jar of Budvar yeast that I was using for viability testing last year, it's probably around 10-11 months old now just been sitting in the fridge the whole time, I'm thinking about doing another test on it some time soon to see how far it has dropped over that period.