Why Re-culturing Coopers Commercial Yeast?

[Nick JD]

I recultured CPA yeast once by pouring off the beer from a longneck and filling it back up with 60g of LDME and cooled boiled water out of the coffee kettle. Put some gladwrap on the top and left it in the cupboard.

Went into a 14L batch so it wasn't too much of an underpitch.

To be honest though, CPA isn't the world's best beer. POR and esters and mud? I wish we had a better "style" to offer the world...

 

[mikec]

You certainly can buy this yeast, in fact I have just received a shipment today that was manufactured 27/2/12.
Visit My Website - WLP009 Australian Ale
Platinum Strain, only available March/April
Cheers
Nige

I just did my first BIAB, a CPA, and I was looking at that yeast just last week. The description sounded very, shall we say, familiar!
But I figured a 6-pack of Coopers is about the same price, may as well drink the free beer, heh heh.
It's piss easy to culture the yeast, and as I am seeing this week, works well.

 

[Nevalicious]

The last lot of yeast I recultured was from part of a box I got given back in May 2011. The slab has been sitting in my bar since and pretty much forgotten about. It took a little longer and I used the dregs from a sixer to get it going, but it went fine. Fresh is obviously best, but old works just as well

 

[hwall95]

Bump..

I'm currently have some coopers yeast culturing, mixed around 70g of wheat malt extract with 700mL of water, brought to boil, cooled then poured into sanitised glass flagon and then added dregs from two coopers bottles. I was just wondering whether this will propagate enough yeast for 23L brew that I plan to do in a few weeks or whether 1 week prior to the brew I should add some extra malt extract to get the yeast growing again?

Cheers

 

[JDW81]

I'd say you've been a bit ambitious with your starter size. I've re-cultured a few times and my process usually starts with a 200mL starter in my small flask with the yeast from 6 coopers stubbies. I give this 48 hours then step to 400mL, then up to 1L, then up to 2L over the course of ~5 days depending on progress.

The biggest problem with reculturing from commercial beer is you can't guarantee the viability of the yeast, hence the importance of starting with small volumes and stepping so you don't stress the yeast.

In my experience if you don't start small and build up, then you end up with stressed yeast, which don't ferment the starter or wort as well as you'd like, resulting in stalled ferments and high FGs +/- odd flavours. I've actually stopped reculturing as I don't think it is worth the effort (based on my reculturing attempts).

If your sanitisation is good, then you can leave it for a week to ferment out. If it tastes and smells ok (and isn't sweet, indicating unfermented sugar) then pitch away, otherwise pitch that spare pack of US05 you (should) have in the fridge.

JD

 

[hwall95]

Okay if I do again ill start smaller then. I just based the starter size on a tutorial I found in my research but smaller makes more sense - less stress.

Yeah I normally just use us05 or notto however I wanted to get the distinct coopers pale ale/sparkling ale taste so I thought I better try to culture their yeast. So far it's going well, nice bubbles and obvious yeast growth which I have to keep swirling back into suspension due to the cool nights. I poured a small amount into a glass and it had a distinct coopers flavour and smells fine so no obvious infection I can detect.

I think I'll cold crash the flagon once the yeast is finished fermenting and then take it out a week before the brew (inspect for any infection) and then restart the yeast to ensure they're viable and alive prior to entering the brew.

Cheers for the advice

 

[JDW81]

I wanted to get the distinct coopers pale ale/sparkling ale taste so I thought I better try to culture their yeast.

Totally agree on the coopers yeast flavour, however I found I was getting inconsistent results from reculturing so I decided to not bother any more.

Hope it works out better for you.

JD

 

[hwall95]

Totally agree on the coopers yeast flavour, however I found I was getting inconsistent results from reculturing so I decided to not bother any more.

Hope it works out better for you.

JD

Yeah fair enough, thanks for the advice. I'm aiming to ferment 16-18 to prevent banana flavours, but apart from that it should be a good learning experience.

 

[jkhlt1210]

I would like to give this a go I reckon

 

[Bribie G]

I find that three longnecks of Coopers Sparkling does the job.

Firstly, put the bottles in the fridge for a few days so that the body of the beer is crystal clear, then very carefully pour into pint glasses while you drink. Tough job but somebody has to do it.
Clingwrap each longneck / tallie as you consume and leave a couple of cm of beer in each bottle.

Rather than stepping up I take the middle path and make up around 400 ml of 1040 wort from LDME in a 500ml Schott laboratory bottle (a 600ml clingwrapped passata bottle would be as good), swirl the beer bottles and tip the yeast dregs into the wort. It usually takes me about 3 days to breed up at 20 degrees for a good pitch . I've never had any problems with the subsequent fermentation or beer quality and have a couple of gongs on the wall for AusPA's in competitions.

The trick is to use three tallies or six stubbies, and to get as much yeast out of the bottles by storing until the beer itself is VB bright.

Possibly the biggest reward is to end up with heaps of yeast cake that you can collect and store in the fridge under sterile water and crank out subsequent brews without having to molest the bottle shop every time you want to make an AusPA. Subsequent generations can end up quite estery - more pear if you can keep the brew under 18 degrees.

 

[barabool]

Excuse me if I'm am a million years behind the topic - (it got hard to read after a while)
If you buy a kit- use the yeast in a starter. Better to have the new yeast in a starter than old kit yeast in a re-starter (IMHO)
If you lash out and get a smack pack or a tube then yes, better likely hood to re-use, especially if you get a great beer.
I believe it has to do with the quality of the original yeast rather than using a crap yeast over and over again.
I still believe the experimentation on different yeasts at different times in an unexplored area of home brew but to get consistency - kit yeast should not be recycled. Get a good quality yeast to do that.
Cheers

 

[Yob]

if you buy a kit, throw out the yeast or better yet, put it in the boil...

...always use a decent yeast, what is under the lid aint a decent yeast...

 

[menoetes]

I've grabbed myself a few CPA tallies to give it a shot. Hopefully I'll soon be adding Coopers commercial to my slowly growing yeast collection.

Buying Coopers Pale Ale is such a good deal, for $16 (at my local bottle shop) you get 3 tallies (2.25lts) of a rather nice beer to drink, support an independant aussie brewery, get a new strain of yeast and three strong tall bottles for re-use.

What a bargain

 

[hwall95]

Well this is what my looked like after a woke up this morning:



So far it's been 6 days so I'm pretty happy with the yeast growth. I don't own a stir plate so basically just have to swirl the yeast back into suspension morning and night.

 

[menoetes]

A few weeks back I re-cultured the slurry at the bottom of a couple of Coopers Pale bottles and used it in my own pale ale partial-mash with some Falconers Flight and Galaxy hops.

Man, a lot of that famous Coopers taste comes from the yeast doesn't it? It is distinctly recognisable and happens to go very nicely with the fruitier hops. Jeepers but that beer is nice and will be eminently drinkable after another few weeks in the bottle.

 

[hwall95]

Yeah same here, very recognisable taste from the yeast. I fermented my English pale ale at 16.5 degrees and it still threw a few fruity esters as well which goes quite pleasantly which the beer.

 

[RobboMC]

Reculturing the yeast works quite well at this time of year. But in the summer and autumn remember that in the eastern states that beer
has crossed the Hay Plain in 40+ degree heat.
Chances are that the yeast is almost or completely dead.

As previously mentioned always look for fresh stock at the bottle shop.

Sometimes I find it easier just to buy a decent yeast sachet for my $6 and drink the longneck completely. Just lazy.

Of course if you really want the Coopers yeast then go for it. All part of the fun of brewing.

 

[menoetes]

Hey guys, I find myself returning to this topic again... does anyone know the range of temperature tolerance for this yeast?

Once again I found myself in a hurry at the end of a brewday and pitched it at a pretty high temp. Now I'm at work and had a chance to rethink this decision I regret it but I pitched at 28'c.

I know my brewfridge and I know I can rely on it to cool the wort down to around 20'c in the next 5 - 6 hours but I'm more concerned about having killed or damaged the yeast. I know these beasties are pretty hardy and real work-horses but 28'c is pretty damn high.

Anyone got any info or a official profile on this yeast? I think if I dont see action in the next 3 days I'm pitching a pack of US-05 I have spare.

 

[RagingBull]

Hey guys, I find myself returning to this topic again... does anyone know the range of temperature tolerance for this yeast?

Once again I found myself in a hurry at the end of a brewday and pitched it at a pretty high temp. Now I'm at work and had a chance to rethink this decision I regret it but I pitched at 28'c.

I know my brewfridge and I know I can rely on it to cool the wort down to around 20'c in the next 5 - 6 hours but I'm more concerned about having killed or damaged the yeast. I know these beasties are pretty hardy and real work-horses but 28'c is pretty damn high.

Anyone got any info or a official profile on this yeast? I think if I dont see action in the next 3 days I'm pitching a pack of US-05 I have spare.

Others can weigh in but try for 15-16degC anything higher i find too estery - pears and even more banana under stress.

 

[MartinOC]

^ Wot he said.

Coopers yeast WILL tolerate higher temps, but it throws all those esters if you go too high initially.

Remember, yeast will produce most of the esters & phenolics (something I actually enjoy from time to time!) in the 1st 24 hours of fermentation, then spends the rest of it's lifecycle trying to clean-up after itself.

If you can get the pitching temp down, any increase in temp after that won't have as dramatic effect as the initial.