Daniel's Review of

Cooper's Ale Yeast

Cooper's Ale yeast is a dry form of saccharomyces cerevisiae, the top fermenting yeast used to make ales and wines. Supposedly, it has an attenuation of 75%, that is, it will turn three quarters of the sugars in your wort into alcohol. Although, since the honey I add to my wort/must ups the specific gravity to such a high level, I'm more concerned with its alcohol tolerance, which in my experience is around 12% (I've never been able to find official figures on the web). Also, rather nice for me living here in the hot South, its optimal temperature is between 62 and 72 degrees, the upper end of which is a realistic temperature to keep my house at during the summer.

In my experience, it works very quickly with a highly active fermentation for the first couple of days and is usually clearing pretty well by the end of the first week. It's never given me any trouble with a stuck fermentation. The resulting brews have had a kind of citrus flavor but with no noticeable yeast flavor.