BeerBorg

So I just ordered my first recipes since Mr. Beer got taken over by Coopers. I never used the fromunda yeast before, and to be safe, i ordered so Safale S-05 for these two recipes. Has anyone tried the new Coopers yeast? Is it worth keeping? Or should I toss it?

I've used them for a few Mr. Beer/Coopers brews with no problems. It seemed to do it's job, attenuating well. I recall the yeast for the Winter Dark put out a sulphor smell for a few days but the beer was fine.
I believe it to be a better quality than the 'old' yeast but can't prove it.

Maybe I'll try to whip something up as a 5 gallon batch and split it. I'll try the S-05 and the Cooper's fromunda yeast and see which beer comes out better.

I really like the 05 and use it often with the 001 coming in second though they are basically one in the same. I'm not real sure what the Fromunda yeast is but I believe it has been discussed lots in their forum.

It has been discussed a lot in the Mr. Beer forum, and the consensus was that it was better than the old yeast and worked quite well.

If it works well that's good. I was never satisfied with the original fromunda. I think i'll still try my little experiment just to see what I get from it.

Any ideas for a simple recipe that would let yeast characteristics show through? I was think just a simple ale, nothing too hoppy or malty, and hopefully that would let the characteristics show. Everything else would stay the same, recipe, fermenter size and location, water source etc.

I have noticed some similarity between Fermentis S-04 and the new Coopers fromunda yeast. Has anyone else noticed similarities between the new fromunda and other yeasts?

I've got a packet in the fridge I was looking for something to toss it in. I might use it in a Maris Otter/Kent Goldings sMasH I'm planning for the weekend.

At the very least, if you don't use the fromunda yeast to ferment with, you can always use it as a sort of yeast nutrient for whatever strain you do use, added to your boil around 5 or 10 minutes to flameout.

FWIW, the old Fromunda was S-33.

I thought we were calling the new one "Downunda" since Coopers is Aussie.

I did notice similar flavor and behavior for the old fromunda yeast and S-33, including an incident where two side-by-side test batches to compare them had stopped fermenting until a short heat wave and they both re-started again, within several hours of each other. Now I am similarly wondering if Downunda and S-04 are equivalent.

Downunda sure packs down into a compact, firm cake at the bottom of the fermenter, like S-04. Makes you wonder...

I really like the Downunda yeast. It's a beast. Ferments fast, attenuates well, and settles like a champ. Can't ask for much more from a dry yeast.

Coopers own yeast strain flocs a lot like S-04, so I would not say it's S-04 just from that. I don't think it is. S-04 is good fermented @60, where I found that the DownUnda yeast really doesn't like it at 60, it threw out tons of Acetaldahyde at those temps for me in more then one batch. It doesn't seem to like it much below 64.

That said, the batched I brewed with it around 64-68 all came out quite good.

My wondering whether Downunda is S-04 came from a series of test batches using a simple pale ale recipe and varying only the yeasts, so I learn the yeasts first-hand. When comparing these, I expected Fromunda and S-33 to be similar, but was surprised by Downunda's and S-04's similarity. Brewed around 70, similar flavor, aroma, color, head, etc. There was a difference in time of opening them, so I will repeat that comparison and open them together. These ones were brewed at different times, so I may also repeat it by brewing them side-by-side.