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Swirl and wait. If I remember correctly, the lag time was around 48 hours for mine.

It is at about the 48hr point now, if now is the norm if it hasn't fired up in the morning (approx 60hrs) when should I give up on it & look at using a packet yeast instead?


I was hoping to put it down today but Thursday it is by the looks of it.

Cheers
Ash

After 60 hours with no action sounds like it's pretty dead.

Well, I bought my 6 packs at opposite ends of town, from bottle shops that are in no way related, and both look to be duds!

I am going to give mine until tomorrow morning, if there is still no activity I am going to write coopers and explain the situation and see what they think. They must have some reasonable quality control measures one would think!

just about grabbing yeast from the bottom of coopers sparkling ale bottles, i told a friend about it and he said that a brook who works at cooper told him they filter out the yeast flash heat it then put the yeast back in

rahne wrote:just about grabbing yeast from the bottom of coopers sparkling ale bottles, i told a friend about it and he said that a brook who works at cooper told him they filter out the yeast flash heat it then put the yeast back in

But it still manages to carb the bottles? So there must still be enough live yeast to get a starter going one would think. It must be a problem between Coopers and the bottle-o!

rahne wrote:just about grabbing yeast from the bottom of coopers sparkling ale bottles, i told a friend about it and he said that a brook who works at cooper told him they filter out the yeast flash heat it then put the yeast back in

I can't imagine that being true, what would be the point?

The bottled yeast is the same strain as the primary, so there would be no point in filtering it down to any significant level (by filtering I mean back to zero yeast).

The beer would have to get pretty hot for the yeast to be killed in transit, and at this time of year, it's just not possible.

Pale_Ale wrote:

rahne wrote:just about grabbing yeast from the bottom of coopers sparkling ale bottles, i told a friend about it and he said that a brook who works at cooper told him they filter out the yeast flash heat it then put the yeast back in

I can't imagine that being true, what would be the point?

The bottled yeast is the same strain as the primary, so there would be no point in filtering it down to any significant level (by filtering I mean back to zero yeast).

The beer would have to get pretty hot for the yeast to be killed in transit, and at this time of year, it's just not possible.

I realise this, but what could cause it?

Doesn't appear to be an isolated case!

i mean they flash heat the yeast carb the beer in kegs then put it back in the bottles with the dead yeast for cosmetics

It says on the label that it is naturally bottle conditioned, I'm sure they don't want a false advertising suit!

Ash wrote:It says on the label that it is naturally bottle conditioned, I'm sure they don't want a false advertising suit!

Yeah, there would be some seriously pissed of customers if they were doing something like that! I doubt Coopers would want to risk their loyal customer base by lying to them and doing exactly what it is that makes them different, and keeps customers buying their product over all others

Coopers ferment their ales with huge amounts of yeast at 16C in 4 days flat. They then centrifuge it to strip out all of the yeast and then add fresh yeast to bottle/keg condition. The yeast isnt there for looks and its the same strain (well, technically its 2 strains) in the bottle as the fermenting yeast.

The 'filtering' step is to remove the yeast which have been stressed by having to ferment large worts in 4 days.

Thats what the Coopers people have told me.

I've managed to get it to grow. 33% strike rate though.

1st time no worries (CSA Stubbies)
2nd time Stunk to high heaven, think I left it for too long (CSA Longie)
3rd time it did not go nor stink (CPA Stubbies)

Cheers

Boonie

Oh you poor thing, having to drink all that Coopers...

Once you have done a brew with it, make sure you harvest some from the trub for next time. I did that recently with a WYeast 1056 and it worked a treat. There's a thread on yeast washing around here somewhere.

I had to pitch the CPA clone, it went bad and smelled really off like olives or something.

The starter finally took off, checked it this morning and it is fermenting well, I am assuming it is the CPA yeast because it smells alright and looks like it should etc.

I have pitched it into a toucan MSPA fermentor topped up to 23L @ 26C so we will see how it turns out! Will be cooling to 16C over the next 24 hours, by the time it goes off it should be at temp...I hope!

maybe it was like that in the past then i was just inquiring because of what the bloke said maybe the bloke that told him didn't know a thing

Perhaps the yeast in the bottles (even if it is the same strain, which I am sure Coopers would not lie about) is conditioned to a normal temp like 26C, and the yeast they use to ferment is conditioned to 16C? This could be why we are having a hard time getting the yeast to start at 16C (or 18C even), just a thought...

The starter I did was kept at about 24C, and though it did take 60 hours, it was quite active when I pitched it!

Interesting, I'd just replied to the other thread that mine took about 60hrs to start too, though that was 17-18*c initially & 24*c after the 60hr point to give it a hurry up (which certianly helped)

So is the general concensus to ferment the starters a bit warmer then?

I believe so, I am going to freeze a few vials of this yeast once it has fermented out, I will have plenty of time to experiment and I will post a guide at that time.

By chance, a simple recipe I recently made has come up very close to the Coopers Sparkling Ale

1 Coopers Australian Pale Ale
500g Dry Light Malt
500g Light Coloured Honey (Capillano)
Recultured Yeast from a Coopers Pale Ale longneck
made up to around 19 litres

OG = 1040 FG=1010

PS : I think Coopers use honey in some of their beers as they owned the Leabrook Farm honey business previously

Cheers!