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Petermur

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Dunno how it is an expensive way to get yeast. I use it a fair bit and when i want to start afresh paying 15 bucks for 3 pale ale tallies gets you 6 nice beers + 3 good bottles which can withstand high carbonation + a very nice yeast which makes great beer. Paying for WLP009 costs 12 bucks anyway and you will need to do a starter on the vials regardless. 

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10 minutes ago, Nannaspeed said:

Hi All,

Being a time poor/tightarse brewer with two young boys, a full time working and studying wife and heavy house-hold commitments, I had a thought while bottling a Belgian Strong Ale this arvo.......kinda similar to Coopers CCA but stronger and added cloves perhaps? Was a 8.5% Av amber coloured brew using Mangrove Jack M31 which I really like. So I grabbed a small jar of the top yeasty slurry to use with a spare pack of Coopers kit yeast (have Ale and AC + L plus US-05 in the fridge). So a smaller than usual pitch rate of bananas M31 and a kit pack to make up the numbers and hopefully reduce the full on Belgian Tripel aroma and flavour.

I'm keen to do a 2017 Coopers Vintage, have Denali and Calypso in the freezer and hope the above yeast butchery blend might get close without the buying of beers and time involved. Any opinions would be great.

Cheers, Sam

Brewing a shedload of belgian style beers has taught me one thing. Temperature makes a massive difference. What temperature did you ferment at mate? They react very differently with different temperatures. I start at 20c for first 3 days using WY3787 then rise 1c per day till 25c to finish. If you dont have temp control try your best to keep at 20c for the first few days then let it free rise.

That will give distinct smooth tripel flavors. If you go high at the start expect strong and alcohol flavours that will take many months in the bottle before they subdue.

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G'day Greeny,

first couple were also M31 at 21 deg, next at 22 and this one at 23 deg and tasting the best so far at hydrometer readings and bottling. If I try this blend for a "Coopers" yeast style brew, I would think 21 deg would be the go so the Belgian influence would not be over the top. Yes temp controlled brew fridge.

I agree that it is not an expensive way to get a cool liquid yeast, and I grew up on Coopers beers, still love 'em even being a Vic and now WA bloke, more the time and energy factor. 

PS, big thanks to King Ruddy and Black Sands for video work de-mistifying BIAB. Love your work!

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So I made up some CCA yeast as per the Cooper's instructional video yesterday, using dextrose. It's being stored in an Esky out in the garage at around 23 degrees. How many days does it take to be ready to pitch? This morning I found it had some trub on the bottom of the bottle but no Krausen yet, gave it a good shake. I plan to brew on Monday. Will it be right by then or will I have to put it in the fridge at some stage?

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19 minutes ago, karlos_1984 said:

So do you just tip the whole lot in? Or do you put in the fridge to settle in similar method to a cold crash, poor off the wort then just add the slurry?

Depends when you pitch it. If you make a starter and pitching it while it's actively fermenting then you pitch the whole lot. If you let it ferment out fully and start settling out then you fridge it for a day or two and pour off most of the spent wort, leaving a little to be able to swirl up the yeast, and then pitch that.

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Righto. Forgive my ignorance, 1st time having a go at this. But how do u know when it's fermented out or not? It's not like I've taken gravity readings. If I made it yesterday (Wednesday) and plan to brew Monday, would it be still going and just chuck it all in? Or should I fridge it for a day or 2 and brew later next week n pour away the spent wort like u say?

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Wednesday was two days ago but in that case it would likely have fermented out by tomorrow (Saturday), so you could put it in the fridge tomorrow and decant and pitch it Monday. Don't worry about warming it up first either, it can be pitched cold.

I don't take SG readings for yeast starters, it's not critical with them in my view. Normally they sit on the stir plate for 24 hours or so, then I turn it off and leave them for another couple of days. The look of it usually is a pretty good indicator, the foam dies off and the starter starts clearing up.

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I'v just been going through a two stage starter and cold crashed last night after 4 days - 1 for first stage, 3 for second.  And the comments above all agree with my observed experience; by the end of day 4 the foam had settled and there was some sign of clearing.  I'm going to split the starter - half into the brew and half will be harvested, washed and stored.
It's  first time for me with CCA so it's all very interesting.

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So should this thing start forming a krausen or what? I've been shaking it every morning and night as per the instruction video. I just took this photo tonight as it was when I got home from work. No Krausen, but the bottle is tight. I've let some pressure out the last couple nights. I'm concerned this might be a dud batch. There's only a miniscule bit of trub at the bottom. If I were to fridge then drain some and only pitch that trub it wouldn't be enough for a 22 lite batch surely?

20181104_000108.jpg

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The shaking up is to keep the yeast in suspension, the foaming is due to the C02 that is present coming out of solution (like shaking a bottle of soft drink) The opening of the bottle is to release the build up of C02 & allow oxygen back into the bottle that yeast love.

When the yeast is ready to pitch just swirl the bottle around a few times (rather than shake) to draw any settled yeast back into suspension & then pour into your main brew wort.

Cheers & good luck with the brew,

Lusty.

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On 11/2/2018 at 10:55 AM, Greeny1525229549 said:

I usually make a starter 4 days in advance. 3 days growing and 1 in the fridge to settle out. I have done it faster on ocassion though and have pitched the whole starter 2 days in as well.

I like pitching active starters where I can & just plan ahead. Although there is certainly no harm in putting it back in the fridge it does seem a little unnecessary unless work commitments etc. make that difficult with the timing. The 2 full day starter through the re-activation process & pitching while still active seems to work well for me.

Cheers,

Lusty.

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Well I let the CO2 out last night and again this morning. I opened it again just a bit, heard a hiss, gave it a swirl and just chucked the lot into the batch I made this morning. I dunno if this will work. I made the starter on Wednesday last week, have been shaking it every day but didn't let a lot of gas out until a couple days ago. The bottle was very tight so it's obviously been fermenting. Hopefully there's enough yeast in there to do the job.

In the event that this CCA yeast doesn't get up n going, can I just chuck in packet yeast to save the beer from being spoiled n dumped?

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Fermentation appears to have started. There's a layer of white foam formed.on top of the wort. There's also very fine brown spots on top of the foam. Is this normal? Is this yeast quite slow when actively fermenting? Bubbles forming are quite tiny and not a huge amount of activity

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Hey Karlos,

I started Cooper's Vintage Ale '18 on Sunday with CCA starter and the yeast from the Coopers Bootmaker kit.  And here's some observations on my brew:

  • Fermentation started well and was bubbling within 24 hours.  It is continuing to bubble strongly but is not vigorous.
  •  Krausen maybe 1.5-2cm.  I'm brewing at 17-18 degrees
  • Had to put the cooling on Monday till today, Wed, because fermentation was driving the temperature up, but the foam didn't get thicker.
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11 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

Fermentation appears to have started. There's a layer of white foam formed.on top of the wort. There's also very fine brown spots on top of the foam. Is this normal? Is this yeast quite slow when actively fermenting? Bubbles forming are quite tiny and not a huge amount of activity

The brown spots are normal. As for the slowness of the yeast. Depending on the pitch size it's usually fairly rigorous. In my opinion and others might disagree the CCA yeast is a yeast that needs to be slightly overpitched. I found that a normal yeast pitch gave me a long ferment and too many pear like esters for my liking. By long ferment I mean down to 1020 from mid 1040s in 5 days then about 8 days for the last 8 points. It just chugged along the last 8 points or so. A slightly higher pitch and she was done in 7 days with a better result IMO.

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, Smashed Crabs said:

Just done 600 ml with 70g LDM poured 6 stubbies worth in to a vessel... will leave a few days n hope for the best ... going to use this in a session ale clone or something similar.

I did a session ale "clone" with my CCA yeast as well. It was a slow starter and didn't look like much was happening. But it turned out awesome.

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