Coopers Brew A - won't start - thoughts?

[alice-edmund]

Hi there - I made this mix up with 1kg of their enhancer B that I had lying around - but I can not get it to start fermenting after 2 weeks trying. SG 1.044. Temperature is good. Everything seems fine. I started the yeast off with sugar solution before hand and it was bubbling enough. Is it time to nip down to Wilkos and just try a bag of fresh(ish) beer yeast? Hope it works as I am planning on dry hopping some Cascade into it.

 

[Clint]

Two weeks? Is your hydrometer ok? It might have gone off after a fortnight without fermentation to protect it.

 

[Dutto]

Once you've checked that ...

• Your hydrometer is okay.
• Your thermometer is okay.
• There is no trub visible on the bottom of the FV. (*)
• There is no krausen visible on the top of the brew. (*)

... I suggest that you nip down to Wilco, get one of their Ale Yeast packets, take a smell at the brew (**) and then sprinkle the yeast on top of the brew, box it up again and don't touch it for two weeks!

(*) I've had many brews where the only sign of life is that the level of trub has grown and/or a krausen is present. This is usually because the FV has a leak somewhere and the CO2 escapes before it reaches the Blow-Off tube.
(**) If the brew stinks of vinegar then "Ooops!" it may be infected and time to wonder what went wrong and is it worth continuing. This is very rare if you have sanitised the FV and associated gear properly.

 

[alice-edmund]

Update - should have done this earlier - the SG is now 1.012 - so it has clearly been fermenting somewhere - though zero sign of it in the vessel, no bubbles, froth anything - never had that before. Quite a bitter flavour atm. But I reckon the vessel must not seal right. I do usually use other ones. Thanks guys.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Out of interest was the kit in date? Did you check the bottom of the tin?
Probably thrown it out now.

 

[alice-edmund]

Further update - just bottled 42 off 500ml - quite dark in colour; I dry hopped 50g of Cascade into it a week ago. It seems to taste OK atm; used 110g of molasses sugar as a batch primer. Clearly it was always fermenting - just must have been a vessel leak at the top somewhere - and no sign of surface froth etc. So lesson learnt about testing the SG more often.

 

[BridgeBrew]

I just wouldn't use the Cooper's yeast to be honest. Know a few people who have had trouble with it, I have recently done my first Coopers kit and had to re pitch after 24 hours no activity at all.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

I just wouldn't use the Cooper's yeast to be honest. Know a few people who have had trouble with it, I have recently done my first Coopers kit and had to re pitch after 24 hours no activity at all.

Coopers had problems with their yeast on some of the latest cans they brought out, but that was a while ago now.
Other than that I've never heard of anyone having problems with Coopers yeast

alice-edmund says the beer was quite dark in colour. I'm guessing it was an older can of goo.