Yeast harvesting from Coopers bottles with wort addition.

[Rocker1986]

You'll probably get better and healthier yeast if you use it from pale ale bottles rather than stout bottles and also build it up in low SG unhopped wort rather than high SG hopped up wort like stout. BUt if you are gonna use wort from the batch itself it might be better to fill the cube first so you can fill it properly before stealing wort for other uses. If you don't have enough for the yeast then you can just make some with DME and water.

 

[Barge]

All I know is that Coopers yeast cultured smells like yummy Fruit Salad. Compared to say US-05 that smells like fresh bread.

Coopers yeast throws banana like a deranged monkey when used over 18C.Keep it below that and it adds a nice bready/biscuity note.

It's hard to handle IMO. Before I had decent temp control I made some great beers with it and some shockers too. Imagine banana and mint together - that's what I got with coopers yeast and NB hops.

Now that I have temp control I've been thinking of giving it another go. From memory I used malt starters so I'll probaby just do that again.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Coopers yeast throws banana like a deranged monkey when used over 18C.Keep it below that and it adds a nice bready/biscuity note.

It's hard to handle IMO. Before I had decent temp control I made some great beers with it and some shockers too. Imagine banana and mint together - that's what I got with coopers yeast and NB hops.

Now that I have temp control I've been thinking of giving it another go. From memory I used malt starters so I'll probaby just do that again.

I'll start it at 17c then finished at 20c over 4 days its done then let it sits for a few more days. Chill, keg, on tap in 4 weeks.
It is my favourite yeast but I cant buy it :unsure: other than a pleasurable coopers session and yeast culture brew session etc.
Coopers really does smell like fruit salad when every other yeast I've experienced smells like bread yeast variants. Not that that is bad at all.
If anyone can name an easier but equal yeast alternative to Coopers then point the way please!

 

[Midnight Brew]

I cultured up some Coopers yeast the other day that Ive been putting off drinking since January. So I got old mate to drink them, poured carefully to keep the dregs and then reseal the bottle for me.

Yes, may be a bit old and I wasnt sure it would work but hey, I had some wort around and time so I had a shot. That night I made a 100ml starter of 1020 wort and decanted the yeast dregs into it. It sat for about 4 days with a swirl here and there. After 4 days there were clear signs of fermentation so I tipped the whole lot into a 1040 1L starter and put on a stirplate. Less then 24 hours later it had past high krausen and visibly transformed. Put the flask in the fridge to settle and there looks to be a good 50-75ml of yeast solids in there.

Imagine if I had fresh bottles.

A little update that was worth a post.

I fermented this on a spare 11L Cube (Thanks DJ lethal) of wort that was intended for lager. 90% Schooner malt, 10% Cane sugar, flavored and bittered with cluster. Went from 1043 down to 1005 making it 5% and 88% apparent attenuation. Way out of my usual preference FG. It has been kegged for 1 week.

The aroma of this beer is amazing! Its bready but still enough esters to compliment the malt. It doesn't taste dry at all and it clearly has body and flavour. I'm really happy with it as I wasn't going for a coopers clone because Im usually not a fan of coopers, but this thing is the ****. The only let down of this yeast is the lack of flocking attribute but time may work for that because its just as cloudy as a coopers.

Not bad for what was cultured from almost 12 month old bottle dregs. The simple grain bill compliments this yeast and does it justice IMO.

Culture on :beerbang:

 

[Wolfman1]

I've just finished a couple of brews with coopers yeasts with mixed success. First was a citra smash that somehow started out at 1060 OG. Yeast from 3 tallies got it to 1020 after 10 days and it just stuck. I tossed a US05 on top and it cleaned it up nicely. Really fruity brew but the attenuation is shocking. It's fully translucent but very good.
Take 2 was with a rye Amber that got 6 stubbies worth and it's done much better. 1056 to 1010 in 7 days and I'll leave it for another 10 or so. Smells and tastes pretty good on the test.
On my small sample size the six pack works better and I was happy using sugar and water mixture rather than wort. I think it's starting me on the slippery slope of yeast acquisitions