Coopers Ale Yeast review

[Newton]

A while back, I brewed a pretty standard special bitter...I believe the recipe was more or less straight out of Brewing Classic Styles (all grain). All the brewing targets were hit and I pitched a full packet of rehydrated Coopers Ale yeast in the beer. This yeast purchase was completely compulsive...I was planning on using S-04, but went with Coopers at the last minute. I've read mixed reviews of this yeast, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The fermentation went well and the FG was what I was hoping for with the S-04. The beer beer sat in primary for 2 weeks @ 65, and then another 2 weeks in the keg @ 65 with priming sugar for natural carbonation. Its been in a keg for 4 weeks now @ 38.

The first 2 weeks in the keg, this beer was as cloudy as a heff with yeast. It had a really yeasty taste, so I put a few grams of rehydrated knoxx gelatin in there and it cleared the beer in 3 days.

Coopers is supposed to have a fruity and earthy taste and I do definitely get that in the beer. Those notes are far in the background however, as the overriding taste in this batch is buttery toffee. Very buttery. Did I mention it tastes buttery? In fact, this beer doesn't really even taste like a bitter, it tastes like butter beer. The batch is drinkeable, but in 40 batches of beer, I've never produced a product with so much diacetyl. I never do diacetyl rests with my ales, but if I were to use Coopers yeast again, I would definitely incorporate one.

 

[jonmohno]

Hmm maybe 65 is too low for Coopers then, i used it in the peak of summer when i couldnt get temps much below65,Im having a OrangeRyeIpa, i made with Coopers,its hard to tell exactly how it is but it seems dry and woodymaybe somevery slight funkyness in mine,but it could be the recipe maybe i used too much rye its a very dry finish, i think it may have turned out better if i used 04 or something though.I probably would have to use it in an amber or something more simple to really tell. So far it seems dry,woody and somewhat neutral. Not shure if this yeast was a good pick for a rye ipa though or maybe any ipa.

 

[Clementine]

Being and Aussie and starting home brewing when in college years ago, I'm very familiar with how the coopers dry yeast was selected and what the yeast main purpose was... to make beer no matter how drunk/stupid the users are (no I'm not calling you stupid). Coopers designed the yeast to attenuate well no matter how the user pitched it and it does its job, I'm just not a fan of the flavors left behind. I have never noted Diacetyl when using coopers yeast I more get the earthy (AKA Funky flavors).

Clem

 

[jtejedor]

I mostly use it as a bottling strain on beers that have been aged a really long time or are very high in alcohol. In this regard it has never failed and is by far the best deal on a packet of yeast to use for bottling. I usually don't even rehydrate it, I just sprinkle in the bottling bucket before I start bottling and let it dissolve in.