Coopers Commercial Yeast culture

[stquinto]

G'day fellow brewers,

I'm trying out my first Coopers Commercial Yeast  collection to make a half-batch of Coopers XPA, so I followed the instructions and made a half-batch of yeast.

I kept the dregs of three bottles of Pale Ale in the fridge for a few days, with the caps still on, and added them to 30g of LDM hydrated in warmish water.

After three days there doesn't seem to be that much krausen, should there be a whole load more ? Can you tell if the culture is active enough to pitch ?

I started my steep of crystal 6 hours ago so hopefully I can pitch it later on today.

[iBooz2]

@stquinto I have harvested the CCA yeast many times.  I always use the Coopers Mild Ale Stubbies 375 ml as I presume the the low alcohol in these would not stress the yeast as much so maybe in better nick than getting it from higher alcohol versions of the Coopers stuff, say the pale ale or XPA bottles. 

I usually leave my bottles upright in the fridge for at least 3 weeks to maximize the settlement of the yeast at the bottom of the bottles.   Every few thousand cells extra would help.

If you have used three 740 ml bottles for the harvest it should be enough to pitch today while its at high krausen.  The first time I did this I only got a couple of mm of yeast sediment in the bottom of my starter. and was worried it was not enough.  Note I did not pitch mine at high krausen like you will be doing and mine was fine so yours would be better I think.  My first go was a little slow to start but it chewed through my brew no problems.

The only caveat on that comment would be the age of the bottles you used due to shipping, storage etc. What was the dates on the bottles you used.  Where they shipped all the way from Australia or was it bottled locally under license?

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by iBooz2

[iBooz2]

@stquinto sorry just re-read your original post.  You are making a 1/2 batch so your starter should be plenty depending on the OG not being ridiculous of course.

[stquinto]

5 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

@stquinto I have harvested the CCA yeast many times.  I always use the Coopers Mild Ale Stubbies 375 ml as I presume the the low alcohol in these would not stress the yeast as much so maybe in better nick than getting it from higher alcohol versions of the Coopers stuff, say the pale ale or XPA bottles. 

I usually leave my bottles upright in the fridge for at least 3 weeks to maximize the settlement of the yeast at the bottom of the bottles.   Every few thousand cells extra would help.

If you have used three 740 ml bottles for the harvest it should be enough to pitch today while its at high krausen.  The first time I did this I only got a couple of mm of yeast sediment in the bottom of my starter. and was worried it was not enough.  Note I did not pitch mine at high krausen like you will be doing and mine was fine so yours would be better I think.  My first go was a little slow to start but it chewed through my brew no problems.

The only caveat on that comment would be the age of the bottles you used due to shipping, storage etc. What was the dates on the bottles you used.  Where they shipped all the way from Australia or was it bottled locally under license?

 

Thanks for your opinion @iBooz2 

I used 3 * 375 ml stubbies - half of a yeast batch as I'm going to halve the recipe (I don't like to have a full batch of hoppy beers that should be drunk young - I made a full batch of Anarchy Ale and to begin with it was outstanding but the hoppy tastes dissipated into the brew afterwards: it wasn't bad but it wasn't half as good after a month or so).

The sell by date is 06/22 - they come all the way from Oz so they should be OK. The OG is 5.4° so it should be OK.

I'll brew later on today, will reply after a week to say if it fermented out.

Cheers,

[Tone boy]

Never tried that yeast method and am interested to hear how it goes. Good luck @stquinto

[stquinto]

@Tone boy cheers mate ! All was looking good until I had a boil-over, then when I opened the yeast it was all gassed-up and I lost half of the bloody stuff all over the kitchen. Cue teenage daughter and SWMBO "what's the stink in here ?" etc. etc.

I dunno, all of my artisan efforts are wasted on them.

In the end I chucked in the yeast with the kit in, hope it'll work out.

I'm going to make a half-batch of Ashes Ale, I couldn't find all of the required hops but I've got a freezer shelf full of different ones so I reckon I'll find a replacement.