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I pitched the dregs of 5 bottles of pale ale last night and 18 hours in there is absolutely no activity! Was this enough? I knew I should have made a starter, but I was lazy and thought "it is already started in the bottle" but forgot all the fermentables were long gone in the bottles DOH! I pitched at about 26C and cooled to 16C overnight.

Suggestions?

a mate of mine uses the dregs off the bottom of the fermenter, recultures it like a sourdough time and time again, but he uses a lot of it. so as a guess i'd say you havn't got enough. also, as it's been bottled (secondary ferment) does it still work?

forcetwelve wrote:a mate of mine uses the dregs off the bottom of the fermenter, recultures it like a sourdough time and time again, but he uses a lot of it. so as a guess i'd say you havn't got enough. also, as it's been bottled (secondary ferment) does it still work?

It will definately work, and people are using a single tallies worth of dregs commonly. I figured 5 stubbies would be plenty! It may take a few days so I will just wait and pray

Should I hold the 16C or raise it until the yeast takes off?

Give it time, i would say after 2-3 days if its doin nothing to maybe think of an alternative but 18 hours is a little early to give up hope

lethaldog wrote:Give it time, i would say after 2-3 days if its doin nothing to maybe think of an alternative but 18 hours is a little early to give up hope

Far from giving up hope, just making sure I have pitched enough and the temps are OK etc.

I never give up, if the brew doesn't kill me it is drinkable

I would give it a bit more time. I have had sucess with one long neck of pale ale but it tool about two days before it formed a krausen. I usually farm the yeast from the trub a few times after a succesful brew and I find this works well. I just swirl up the trub with some water, pour it into a 2 litre softdrink bottle, let is stand in the fridge for 15 mins, pour off the top 3/4 which should be creamy coloured, do it again, then pour of the top 3/4 into some cooled extract and water. After about 24 hours I pitch the lot into the next prepared wort. It has always worked well for me. I always sterilise everything first though of course

I have heard that the Coopers Sparkling is not as good as the Pale Ale for reculturing sediment. I'm not sure if this is and urban legend or not though.

it's true.. the sparkling ale has more alcohol in it, marginally less friendly to the yeast.

KEG wrote:it's true.. the sparkling ale has more alcohol in it, marginally less friendly to the yeast.

Makes sense, would the transport to QLD or age have anything to do with it? ie. time in bottle or heat/cold exposure?

only as much as those conditions would affect the pale ale yeast also

I'd think it might just be the temp is slowing it up - have another yeast to pitch on standby & if it hasn't fired by the 48hr mark, repitch

I checked it just now, 36 hours and no krausen at all! I will just keep it at 16C and wait for it to go off, it has to eventually right?

16C is fine for the Coopers yeast.

I would get a longneck of pale, make a starter, and have it ready to go in 48 hours if you want to chance the extra time. Either that or pitch a safale or something.

One question - did you drink out of the bottle before pouring in the dregs? If so you may have killed the yeast as bacteria from the mouth is enough to end it all. I know this is a silly question, but you never know.

Pale_Ale wrote:16C is fine for the Coopers yeast.

I would get a longneck of pale, make a starter, and have it ready to go in 48 hours if you want to chance the extra time. Either that or pitch a safale or something.

One question - did you drink out of the bottle before pouring in the dregs? If so you may have killed the yeast as bacteria from the mouth is enough to end it all. I know this is a silly question, but you never know.

The process I used was to take the warm 6 pack, put it in the fridge until it hit drinkling temp, pour the beer into a glass, and leave about a half inch of beer in the bottom with the dregs. I then poured all of the dregs from 5 of the bottles into the same container, and slowly added wort to bring it up to temp over about an hours time, I then pitched the whole mixture into the fermentor and continued to cool (it was at about 26-28Cwhen I pitched, and in the morning it was about 16-18C). I will make another starter just to be safe, I am thinking 500ml of this wort, 500ml of water and an inch from the bottom of a tallie (if I can find one up here!) in a 2L bottle. Room temp is about 22C which should help it move a bit faster I hope.

I only just remembered, I used a teaspoon of Ross's yeast nutrient in the boil (last 10 min), never used it before but could that be the problem?

If I am reading correctly - the yeast was at fridge temp, and you pitched it into wort @ +20C, that's quite a shock for the yeast to cope with!!

Pale_Ale wrote:If I am reading correctly - the yeast was at fridge temp, and you pitched it into wort @ +20C, that's quite a shock for the yeast to cope with!!

I slowly added wort over a 1 hour period to bring it up to temp. I can't find tallies at any of the local bottle shops so I will have to buy another 6 pack, and at $18 per 6 pack if it doesn't take off by tomorrow morning I think I may just pitch a couple packet yeasts

In future do yourself a favour and make a starter a day or so before, in the least case scenario you will know if its going to work or not

lethaldog wrote:In future do yourself a favour and make a starter a day or so before, in the least case scenario you will know if its going to work or not

I always make starters for my liquid yeasts, but it was sort of a last minute decision to do it, and I thought it would be OK

I bought a sixpack of coopers Pale (in Brisabane) last summer and tried to culture the yeast, but didn't get any action from it whatsoever.
On closer inspection the yeast appeared to be quite dark, almost brown in colour, not pale cream or off-white like rehydrated dry yeast.

I bought another pack, just a couple of weeks ago, and again the dregs in the bottles are a brownish colour. Again no result when I put some into a starter wort.

I suspect that the yeast is being killed by high temperatures during transport or in storage. The back of a semi travelling from Adelaide to Brisbane is probably not the ideal environment for it, and local storage warehouses probably aren't much better.

Maybe the yeast from your stubbies was dead and your brew will not ferment until you pitch some more (live) yeast.

Cheers, Deegee.

deegee wrote:I bought a sixpack of coopers Pale (in Brisabane) last summer and tried to culture the yeast, but didn't get any action from it whatsoever.
On closer inspection the yeast appeared to be quite dark, almost brown in colour, not pale cream or off-white like rehydrated dry yeast.

I bought another pack, just a couple of weeks ago, and again the dregs in the bottles are a brownish colour. Again no result when I put some into a starter wort.

I suspect that the yeast is being killed by high temperatures during transport or in storage. The back of a semi travelling from Adelaide to Brisbane is probably not the ideal environment for it, and local storage warehouses probably aren't much better.

Maybe the yeast from your stubbies was dead and your brew will not ferment until you pitch some more (live) yeast.

Cheers, Deegee.

I bought another 6 pack and pitched all 6 bottles into a starter last night. I used a kit can and made a mini wort to pitch it into, I slowly introduced the wort to the dregs over a 6 hour period, so if the yeast ever had any chance of going off, it will. But there is still absolutely no activity, and the yeast is snotty brown goo, not at all like I expected!

If it has not gone off by Tuesday I am gonna pitchg the wort and starter and go a different route!

I'm also in Brisbane and I did a starter from a longneck of CPA the other day. It only took a couple of days to get going, and now it's going beautifully in my sparkling ale clone.

I've never tried reculturing from stubbies - perhaps the smaller volume is more prone to yeast-killing temperature variations?