Disastrous Draught!

[Anna]

Now that's a great idea Doc! I'll just have to check out what the best way to send a bottle is at the Post Office tomorrow. Can you send me a private message with your address? Thanks so much for your offer. Anna

[Bum]

Taken from the Yucky Brews thread that you've referred to in relation to this problem.

I've just bottled the latest brew on the weekend and it's got the same taste straight out of the fermenter. Hard to explain - I would say it tastes a bit like sour milk

Keep blaming the yeast, Anna. You're doing everything fine.

[Anna]

Got me! I guess that earlier one tasted different then, 'cause I wouldn't say sour now (maybe my taste buds were off that day!). It's hard to put a taste into words - that's why I think I'll just send the Doc a bottle and let the expert be the judge.

[warra48]

Are there any other brewers in your local area? Most brewers are more than willing to help another brewer. I guess DrS' suggestion is a good one if you can't find one locally.

Trying to describe flavours or characteristics of a brew can be difficult, particularly with "off flavours".
Without tasting the brew, we are all making somewhat of an educated guess (more or less) as to what the issues are.

[Anna]

I'm the ONLY home brewer in my local area that I know of! LOL. Strictly VB territory out here Warra! And I don't think I'd rush to the local HBS guy for advice! He'd just try to sell me more of his 'expensive' mixes. Anna

[Anna]

Just been trawling thru old threads and came across this one from a couple of years ago:

by NickMoore on Sunday Mar 26, 2006 12:47 am

thought this was interesting from the cooper's site FAQ section:

"We don't recommend replacing all of the sugar with malt exract when using our home brew ale yeast."

so you can't do an all-malt with the yeast under the lid.NickMoore

Someone else responded that you can do it but to use 2 packets of kit yeast.

Interesting.... kinda gives more weight to the "under-fermented" theory... Anna

BTW: Opened 2 brews on the weekend - one a Dark Ale with 500 LDME, 250 gm dex & 250 gm honey and re-used US-05; the other a Draught with BE2 and kit yeast. Both brewed around 22 deg.C and both are rippers! Exactly the same cleaning and sanitation process as the crook brews!

[warra48]

Happy to see your latest brews are "rippers".

[Anna]

From the Coopers' guy in response to my question about strange numbers instead of use-by dates on kit yeast packets:

"The code on the yeast sachet is a Julian Date, representing the date that the yeast was packaged rather than a “Use By” or “Best Before” date. e.g. a sachet with 25007 was packaged on the 7th of September, which is the 250th day of 2007. While the can of home brew containing this yeast sachet may have been produced on Thursday the 13th of September 2007, carrying a Best Before date of 13/09/09."

Think I'd better check the 3 kits I bought on the weekend. (Off to Google now to find a conversion chart...)

Wonder why they use a Julian Date?? (So you can't check it easily perhaps? ) The thot plickens.... Anna

[gregb]

Wonder why they use a Julian Date?? (So you can't check it easily perhaps? )

They're easy to program, and don't take a whole lot of formatting. They're also hard to misinterpret, unlike 02/08/20xx - is that 2nd Aug or 8th Feb ...?

[Anna]

Aha! Then why not on the can as well?

[Bum]

Because no one knows the Julian Calendar? And there are ISO and regulatory standards on how use-by dates are shown.

[Anna]

Well it still doesn't make any sense! Why one way on the can and another way on the yeast packet? Why bother putting it on the packet at all if "No-one knows the Julian calendar"?

[Bum]

Because the information is for them, not for you.

[bullfrog]

I'd also say that if they were putting their date of package down in a standard date format then most people would get confused and think it was a best before date. Obviously a situation that they would want to avoid creating.

[Anna]

Well, I finally got around to sending an offending bottle of my "Disastrous Draught" off to Dr Smurto - only hope it gets there in one piece! Doc, I'll be eagerly awaiting your opinion on whether it's just over-malted and under-hopped, under-fermented or - shock, horror - infected!!

Put another Pale Ale down on the weekend - still trying to get that "real" Coopers taste! This time I've "downed" the malt and "upped" the dex and, oh yeah, finally did the re-culture thing from 4 Coopers stubbies.

Can Coopers PA
1 kg No.2 enhancer (apparently consists of 250 gsm LDM, 500 gm Dex, 250 gm Maltodextrin - I'll put it thru BrewMate in a sec...)
Extra 300 gm LDM
15 gm POR boiled for 15 mins in 1 Lt + 100 gm LDM
15 gm POR at flameout
Re-cultured yeast from 4 Coopers PA stubbies

Fingers crossed!

Anna

[warra48]

Fingers crossed!

Anna

Cross your toes as well, and all will turn out just nicely.

Good luck with this one.

[Anna]

Oh, toes help??

(Right now I've got my legs crossed, 'cause I can't drag myself away from this forum to go......) Anna

[Planner]

Put another Pale Ale down on the weekend - still trying to get that "real" Coopers taste! This time I've "downed" the malt and "upped" the dex and, oh yeah, finally did the re-culture thing from 4 Coopers stubbies.

Must have been the weekend for it Anna, I finally put down a pale ale using recultured CPA yeast for the first time (after threatening to do so for 4 months)
Similar recipe:
Coopers Pale Ale tin
700 LDME
300 dex
10g PoR 40min
10g PoR 10min
23l

I also have fingers and toes crossed. Sneek peek early this morning shows that it has kicked off, albeit a little slow as the esky is only sitting at 16deg.

Planner

[Anna]

It will be interesting to see who gets closest to the elusive "Coopers Green" on-tap taste.

I was a bit worried about mine not kicking off for a day 'cause it wasn't blooping (OK, guys - no need for any response - I like the 'bloop'!), but trawling thru one of the Stickies yesterday someone suggested checking the tube of the airlock for rough bits causing leaks, and what do you know, when I checked it, sure enough it was rough-as. So I sandpapered it smooth, replaced it and bingo! It's going hell for leather now and smells fantastic!

Funny to think that only last week I was putting frozen softdrink bottles around the brews and this week I've got the heater pad on at night (which is keeping it around 20-22 deg. C). I'm so excited about being able to harvest the yeast from the bought beer. Now I think I'm so clever I've got plans for re-using this lot in my next brew - hell, I may never have to use kit yeast again!!! (Yes, I know guys - you're always advising that ... )

Anna

[drsmurto]

Ditching the kit yeast for a re-cultured Coopers yeast is the single biggest improvement you can make in your attempts to clone CPA using kits. Good to see a few more people on the case.

I would also not be adding any POR hops other than for bittering. No hop aroma in CPA, all that aroma comes from the yeast.

I personally would try to hold the ferment temperature back to 16C. I find it generates too much banana at higher temperatures. The real CPA has slight pear/apple esters.

Just my 2 c
DrSmurto