Malter White Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) Hi Kids. I was about to reactivate the yeast from a 6 pack of Coopers Pale Ale today as per the DIY Beer video but got called away from home. This was to be my first attempt at such a task. I made a syrup from 60g sugar and 600ml boiled water but never got to drink the 6 pack to extract the yeast from and add to the syrup. So I poured the warm syrup into my sanitised 1.25 litre bottle and put it in the fridge. My question for you smarties out there is: If I get the 6 pack into me tomorrow and bring the syrup up to room temperature as well, do you think it will be OK or should I just do another syrup and sanitise the bottle again? It's not a major cost issue, I'm just a lazy b***** and didn't want to start again but I'll do the work if it means I'll get a good result. Edited October 5, 2019 by MUZZY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 It shoukd be ok but if its me i tip it into a saucepan and boil it again. Rinse out the bottle and resanitise. Cool the wort and then pitch in the dregs again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 9 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said: It shoukd be ok but if its me i tip it into a saucepan and boil it again. Rinse out the bottle and resanitise. Cool the wort and then pitch in the dregs again. Thanks Greeny. I was hoping for the lazy solution but I'll start over again tomorrow. Appreciate the reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Mate. Im 90% sure you would get away with the lazy solution but then you may have to buy another six pack. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 2 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said: Mate. Im 90% sure you would get away with the lazy solution but then you may have to buy another six pack. F*** that! This 6 pack cost me about $3,000. It was left over from my daughter's 18th party. Hahahahaaaaaaaa. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 2 hours ago, BlackSands said: Yeah cheers, BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 A nice relaxing day today. Watched a couple of movies at home, reboiled the syrup/wort, drank the 6 pack and have made the yeast whateveritis. Now all I want to do is check the cupboard it's in to see if anything is happening yet. It's been in there for about 12 minutes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus O'Sean Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 4 hours ago, MUZZY said: A nice relaxing day today. Watched a couple of movies at home, reboiled the syrup/wort, drank the 6 pack and have made the yeast whateveritis. Now all I want to do is check the cupboard it's in to see if anything is happening yet. It's been in there for about 12 minutes. Prolly good to do the important work before you get to the end of the six pack. I organised the syrup/wort. Decanted the 3 stubbies into the 1L Octoberfest stein. Left the three stubbies with their yeast dregs in the fridge. Drank the stein. Next, decanted the next 3 into the stein. Sorted out the syrup/yeast mix as per the Coopers video. Then drank the last 3 from the stein. Could not be stuffed how the reactivation was going by that stage. Decided to have a few more beers. Good night. Two days later the reactivation is going well. Slight hissing from not quite tightened soft drink cap. I will check it tomorrow. If a reasonable mini-krausen has formed, I will pop it in the fridge the preserve for next weekend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 8, 2019 Author Share Posted October 8, 2019 3 days later and the reactivated Coopers Pale Ale yeast smelt fruity/bready so I've added it to a 23 litre K&K of Pale Ale & BE2. These days I mostly make 46 litre batches to keep up with consumption demands but being my first try at reactivation I thought I'd keep things as simple and inexpensive as possible. The wort has changed colour already (about 2-3 hours after pitching) so it appears things are going as they should. I haven't been this excited since I bought my first Fleshlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 Good stuff mate. Yes you will find a fresh starter will get up and running pretty quickly once pitched. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 Day 6 in the FV. Coopers pale ale tin and BE2 and the reactivated yeast from the Coopers pale 6 pack. OG was 1037, now 1020. This seems high compared to what I'd normally have after 6 days using the kit yeasts. The krausen also is thicker than I've experienced after 6 days previously and the wort doesn't seem as clear as usual. Ferment temp has been mid 20s throughout. I don't have a ferment fridge. It has a nice, fruity aroma but that SG reading has me a little worried. Fingers are crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 5 hours ago, MUZZY said: OG was 1037, now 1020. This seems high compared to what I'd normally have after 6 days using the kit yeasts. I agree. I'd normally expect a 1.037 brew to be done in just a few days - especially at mid-20's temps! Sounds like the yeast is struggling.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 I've given the FV a swirl to try and generate some activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlos_1984 Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Muzzy, not to burst your bubble, but I've brewed a can of pale ale with be2 and CCA yeast before. It's nothing special. I'm still finding bottles of it in the cupboard, can't seem to get rid of it as it's rather boring. I'd definitely recommend dry hopping it with something. Cascade, Citra or mosaic would be a good idea. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 1 hour ago, karlos_1984 said: Muzzy, not to burst your bubble, but I've brewed a can of pale ale with be2 and CCA yeast before. It's nothing special. I'm still finding bottles of it in the cupboard, can't seem to get rid of it as it's rather boring. I'd definitely recommend dry hopping it with something. Cascade, Citra or mosaic would be a good idea. Thanks Karlos. The pale ale, BE2 and kit yeast is nothing special either. The reason I was doing the K&K only was to determine the difference between using CCA yeast and kit yeast, as this was the first time I've tried reactivating CCA yeast. If I added hops etc and made a better or worse beer I wouldn't know if it was because of the yeast or because of the additions. Experimentation. With that said, the CCA yeast appears to have stalled fermentation at SG 1020, even with a swirling of the FV yesterday. So this morning I've added the kit yeast to try getting it going again. Back to the old drawing board for me and my experiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 It might be a good idea to grow the harvested yeast further before pitching into a batch next time. It was probably underpitched by a fair way just growing dregs in half a litre of dex/water syrup. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said: It might be a good idea to grow the harvested yeast further before pitching into a batch next time. It was probably underpitched by a fair way just growing dregs in half a litre of dex/water syrup. I guess this would mean harvesting it in steps, Kelsey? I.E. starting with 600ml of dex/water syrup, then adding more syrup a few days later. I'm thinking if I made 1 litre syrup with a 6 pack of yeast straight up, would it stress the yeast trying to consume so much sugar at once? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Yes, steps are the best way when starting with small quantities. I would do the reactivation as normal like you did this time, but for the next step up use a malt wort instead of dextrose. Make up 100g dry malt in a litre of water and pitch the slurry from the initial reactivation into it. Use an empty soft drink bottle or something. Shake the crap out of it then allow it to ferment. Leave the lid a bit loose or cover the top in foil, so it doesn't blow up. You can then either pitch the whole thing into your batch while it's in active fermentation, or let it ferment out, chill it for a day or two to drop the yeast out, then decant most of the clear "beer" off it, swirl it up and pitch the slurry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 @Otto Von Blotto That's great. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlos_1984 Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 I've reactivated CCA yeast on 3 separate occasions. All have worked brilliantly. However when I make mine up from the stubbies, I usually use the yeast from a minimum of 8 beers instead of 6, just to give it a better chance of getting started and avoid underpitching. I make my syrup up first and actually tip a bit of it into the stubbies and swirl it around before decanting the yeast in the bottom of the bottle. Seems to stop any of it being left behind stuck to the bottom. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 (edited) @karlos_1984 I used the syrup to extract my yeast from the stubbies but only used 6 as per the video. I suspect my problem might be the temperature may have been a bit low in the cupboard I tried reactivating in. It was a fairly cool week in Adelaide. I'll probably use more stubbies in future. Edited October 16, 2019 by MUZZY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malter White Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 So adding the a packet of kit yeast seems to have got things back on track. The first day or so after adding the extra yeast, a gluggy looking layer formed on top of the wort. That had me worried but it's gradually dissipating. Today SG is around 1008, ferment temp is still around 24C. The wort looks rather cloudy so I'll let it settle a few more days. Including the stalled time it's been fermenting for 11 days now. Two weeks in the FV isn't too much is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 Should be fine. 2-3 weeks is ok, and while it could probably be left longer without causing any issues, there isn't any benefit to doing so. Just get stable SG readings, give it another 3-4 days then bottle it. That's all the time it needs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 On 10/6/2019 at 1:57 PM, BlackSands said: Where do you get PA at those prices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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