A short demonstration of re-activating the yeast from the Coopers commercial Pale Ale bottles.
Below are the instructions from the Coopers Brewery website in Australia:
There are numerous documented techniques, with varying levels of complexity, for re-activating the yeast in naturally conditioned beer. The method described below may leave some readers, experienced in growing yeast cultures, aghast. “What! No stir plate, no malt, no alcohol swabs, no nutrient, no way! However, for Coopers yeast, it works…
Method
- Buy a six pack of Coopers Original Pale Ale and place upright in the fridge for about a week for the yeast to settle.
- Mix about 600 ml of boiling water and 4 tablespoons of dextrose/sugar in a Pyrex jug, cover with cling-wrap and leave to cool in the fridge for about 30 mins.
- Open 4 bottles and decant the beer into a jug, leaving behind the yeast sediment – about a couple of centimeters.
- Pour the sugared water equally into each bottle, cover with cling-wrap and secure with a rubber band.
- Shake the bottles then place them in a dark spot at a temperature in the mid 20’s C or around 70 F
- Give the bottles a shake in the morning and at night to keep the yeast in suspension.
- After around 2 to 3 days the yeast should become active and begin forming a head.
- Pitch the active yeast into a brew immediately or store in the fridge for about a week. Just remember to pull it out of the fridge to warm for couple of hours prior to pitching.
Some additional points to keep in mind;
- – start with more yeast by using all 6 bottles,
- – buy beer with the freshest yeast (ie. latest “Best After” date),
- – lower alcohol content is better (mild ale or pale ale),
- – it’s okay to hold the culture at slightly higher temps to promote a quicker reactivation,
- – one sanitised vessel (approx 1 litre) may be used rather than separate bottles,
- – make sure the culture smells okay before pitching,
- – buy another 6 pack for each culture and
- – don’t forget to drink the decanted beer
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Never heard of this before. Got to try it.
Would it be fine to crown seal the bottles? Or do the bottles need to ‘breath’ a little?
@mikey you definitely don’t won’t to seal the bottles. The CO2 needs to be able to escape from the bottles or else you might have exploding bottles. When you shake the bottles to stir up the yeast, a bubble will form in the plastic wrap. Give it a go, it’s a great yeast to work with.
my 2 cents worth. every procedure you do adds a point of contamination. buying a package of yeast if you can, i sell coopers dry yeast is a safer way to go. experimenting is always fun and i recommend it, just remember yeast is fairly cheap if you can get it and the time put into making a great beer is not. if you use dry yeast remember to re hydrate it in 1/2 cup of 100 f water (just water no sugar), because the sugar interferes with the re hydration and you will not get as much culture and it will not be as healthy.
the really big mistake i heard on the video was do not use any sugar but malt sugar. if you use dextrose or sucrose the yeast loses the ability to eat maltose until it reproduces and then the off spring will be able to use maltose again. that has to do with lag time or time it takes to start fermenting after you pitch the yeast. the shorter the lag time the less chance of something you do not want in there to grow. good luck and happy brewing, drink a couple for me!!!!
art
art’s brewing supplies
salt lake city, utah
801-533-8029
p.s.
my starter recipe is called the quarter recipe. take one quarter gallon of de chlorinated water, 1 quarter teaspoon of yeast nutrient, and 1 quarter cup of dry malt extract (spray dried malt any color) bring to a boil cool to 70 f pitch re hydrated dry yeast ( re hydrated in only water or liquid yeast). re hydrate a 14 gram package or 2 7 gram in one half cup of 100 f for 10 minutes before pitching into wort of starter. if liquid pitch that into starter to build the population up before pitching into the wort. 12 to 14 grams of dry yeast is enough culture to pitch directly into the wort, just re hydrate it first to keep it healthy. sugar water wants to dilute its self and dry yeast will tend to concentrate the sugar water. it is a fight and the yeast will lose (not as much culture of as healthy).
Thanks for the comments Art. The White Labs Australian Ale yeast would replicate the Coopers commercial yeast. But it is fun and easy to activate the yeast from the Coopers Pale Ale. I have successfully done this 4 times and made great beers using it. Because Coopers uses yeast nutrient when bottle conditioning I am told by the brewery that dextrose is all you need. So far so good. Cheers!!
i am sure you make great beer, with the major breweries around it is not hard. heck you could not pay me to drink one.i have seen people make big mistakes and the beer turned out drinkable, also most people drink there beer fairly quick, sometimes so quick bad flavors do not have time to take hold in your beer. i could never get a bottled beer to store more then 4 to 5 years before it would oxides. most people that bulk prime will have that happen sooner because of all the aeration at bottling. i use 1/2 teaspoon corn sugar for a 12 bottle and 1 tsp for a 22 oz bottle. going directly from the fermenter into the bottles, also i think that bottling bucket is a contamination waiting to happen. the spigot and it’s attachment to the bucket are like big scratches which can harbor bacteria. i am going to piss a lot of people off with this one. the automatic siphon systems are an oxidizing nightmare. the venture effect states that if there is a leak in the siphon system it will suck air into it. those auto starters leak from the start and then get to the point they leak so bad they have to buy a new one. in the mean time they have oxidized a lot of home brew. using water to start it is better and when you have drained the water into a glass you can then dump the water and get a little or lot to try while you racking. the bottle filler will hold the water in for you while attaching it to the racking tube.
as far as the corn sugar verses dry malt it is a mater of lag time. you will get faster starts with malt sugar, because when yeast eats dextrose (corn sugar) it loses the ability to eat maltose once it buds the off spring will then be able to eat it again. that increases the lag time. the quicker the yeast start to ferment the less contaminantes will be in the beer. i recommend using dextrose for bottling unless you are going to make starters out of the dredges, if you are going to reuse your yeast use dry malt and unfortunately you will then have to bulk prime.any questions i would be happy to give you my take on how to brew just call. you can find my number in my catalog.i am not much of a typer, but you can find my number and email address in my catalog. artsbrewingsupplies.com.
opened in 1987 and was the first shop to sell used cornelius kegs in 1987. who knows i might be the last also.peace and good health!!
respectfully,
art
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