Cooper's Yeast saves the day ?

[cbucket]

I made up a Wherry kit on Friday evening. It was the usual routine:

1. Sanitise the FV
2. 2 tins in boiling water for 5 mins to soften the mixture
3. Add the contents to the FV
4. Swill out the residue with boiling water
5. 4 pints of boiling water
6. Topped up to 20 Ltrs with cold water
7. Give the mixture a good thrashing
8. Add the yeast.
9. Put the lid on and the airlock.
10. Check back in 24 hrs to see if it has started bubbling.

After 24 hours there was NO activity. I was a bit concerned about this as usually there is some activity by then (and with Coopers kits it's usually at the pyroclastic stage ).

I had 3 theories as to why this might be.

1. I had forgotten to re-hydrate the yeast, just chucked in it (not usually necessary, but with Wherry I think you are supposed to).
2. FV temp to low.
3. Yeast not working (dead ?).

I decided to do the following.

1. Move the FV to the airing cupboard (bit warmer).
2. Add some yeast from an earlier Coopers Batch that I had frozen into an ice cube.

Bottom line is that 24 hrs later it is bubbling away quite happily.

Anybody got any ideas on this ? Did I do the right thing ?

[Stomach]

Hi cbucket

a couple of things:-

Why have you only topped up to to 20l? and not 23l?
I only sprinkle the dry yeast on top and dont rehydrate which has been fine for the last two Wherrys I have done!

Mine is now 5 weeks conditioned and I think from next week it will be ready! I drank it cloudy last time and it was gorgeous! I am after a clear pint this time!!

Cheers.

[cbucket]

I only topped up to 20 ltrs (actually closer to 21) because I want it slightly stronger. This seems the best
method of getting a slightly stronger brew, and retaining the balance of the brew, based on most of the comments I have read here.

I have done this with several other brews and it worked out fine.

The original reason I did it was because I did a Ditch's Stout to 23 ltrs and it blew the top off the FV. I had been intending to top it up after the fermentation settled down but decided I liked it a bit stronger (at the cost a few extra, weaker, pints).

[boingy]

Your frozen yeast is unlikely to have been the saviour. Freezing wet yeast will most likely have killed it. I suspect the kit yeast was just being a bit slow to wake up.

Check the temperature in your airing cupboard. If it's much above 20C you will get a fast fermention but the beer will not be good. Generally airing cupboards are too warm to make decent beer.

But well done for choosing to reduce the volume to boost the strength a bit rather than adding extra sugar!

[cbucket]

Boingy,

I have now taken the brew out the airing cupboard to somewhere a bit cooler as it seems to be fermenting happily now.

Interesting info about the frozen yeast.

I will be making a batch of ginger beer soon. I will use another of the frozen 'ice-cube' yeasts for that to see it if works. If it
doesn't then I will know for sure and I'll just bung in some normal yeast.

Thanks for the info.

[Kev888]

I've been making wherry kits recently, whilst I spend time upgrading my AG kit. In quite similar circumstances too - I brew the full kit to make 19l to fit a corny, I always pitch the yeast dry (I usually do with any normal dry yeast, in fact) and whilst it may take 24hrs or so to really get going I've never had a problem. So maybe the temperature was a bit low or something as you suspected, and it just took a bit longer to get steam up; its the time of year for it, really.

Cheers
kev