Coopers Kit's past their best before date

[DCLavs]

Danstar Nottingham...3 of the sachets are that...just checked and all are out of date.Must get some fresh yeast and hops.Take it from there then.Thanks again all.

[Will_D]

If you don't have old yeast sachets then reach for the Marmite!

Check where its made: "Burton-on-Trent"!

Guess what B-o-T is famous for: Beer!!

What is a by product of beer making: Autolysed Yeast!

So thats it !

A pinch of Marmite equals skillions of sterilsed, boiled up, pressure cooked yest cells containg all the nutrients that our fresh little offspring are looking for!

When ever someone has said "Oh thats a difficult yeast to cultutre: I just add a pinch (like tip off knife blade to 250 mL of sterile wort) and never had a problem.

[DCLavs]

On the question of dry hopping....could you recommend which hops would be best for the stouts and which for the ale and the blonde?

Gonna try and get these all going at once.

Does the hops get added at the start or near the end?

[irish_goat]

When it comes to adding hops to a kit you have a few options.

You can make a hop tea i.e. add hops to boiling water, leave to sit for 15 mins and then add the liquid when you're making the kit. A coffee cafetière works well here but you can use a pot and a colander as well.

Or you can simply throw dry hops in, either at the start or after (or even during fermentation).

As for varieties I would recommend starting off with a classic like cascade. It works well in IPAs but you can also add it to stouts and porters. I've plenty up here in the house if you want some, will be in the social club tomorrow too if you want to chat.

[LordEoin]

Those hop teas are great. Simple and effective.

Throwing them in loose works fine, but can get messy. pellets will break up, float, then sink into the trub. leaf will do the same but are more prone to clogging the tap or syphon. you can avoid it with leaf easy enough by using a muslin bag (boiled to sterilize) weighed down with a few sterile marbles. with pellets i don't usually bother.

I like fuggles or east kent goldings for stout, cascade/amarillo for pale ale, anything at all for the blonde. Bramling cross is another favorite. I've heard great things about mateuka and willamette but not tried them yet.

This page is great, letting you choose a style and listing popular hops:
http://byo.com/resources/hops

[Eoin]

Something to do with the contents of the yeast sachet being a mix of yeast and nutrient.

From what I understand it's simply that old yeast cells will provide the building blocks, being made of the same thing, for new yeast cells.
I think the nutrient might help, but it's not key to the affair.

[Bubbles]

While I wouldn't disagree with any of the science imparted in this thread, if I was the OP I wouldn't bother chucking a packet of dead, 2 year old yeast into my nice beer. A fresh sachet of yeast will give you everything you need to ferment your beer cleanly. Best place for those old sachets is the bin.

[Eoin]

While I wouldn't disagree with any of the science imparted in this thread, if I was the OP I wouldn't bother chucking a packet of dead, 2 year old yeast into my nice beer. A fresh sachet of yeast will give you everything you need to ferment your beer cleanly. Best place for those old sachets is the bin.

Old yeast is a perfectly good yeast nutrient and should go into the boil, it's not suitable in a kit beer, so realistically it's not suitable in a kit beer unless you do a boil.

If you look at servomyces which is produced by White labs, it is old yeast hulls being sold as a yeast nutrient.

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/white-labs-nutrient-wln10001-p-1248.html

[Ciderhead]

and it works very well

[irish_goat]

Old yeast is a perfectly good yeast nutrient and should go into the boil, it's not suitable in a kit beer, so realistically it's not suitable in a kit beer unless you do a boil.

Would adding it to the bucket when you're adding the boiling water and DME do the job? That should sufficiently kill it no? If not it'd be easy enough to do a small boil with the DME and add it then I suppose. Good excuse to do a boil so you can add extra hops or steeped grains then as well.

[Eoin]

Old yeast is a perfectly good yeast nutrient and should go into the boil, it's not suitable in a kit beer, so realistically it's not suitable in a kit beer unless you do a boil.

Would adding it to the bucket when you're adding the boiling water and DME do the job? That should sufficiently kill it no? If not it'd be easy enough to do a small boil with the DME and add it then I suppose. Good excuse to do a boil so you can add extra hops or steeped grains then as well.

I suppose to take a small bit of your overall liquor and add the old yeast to that and do a boil would be sufficient to make sure that the yeast was completely dead, would work.