brewferm christmas ale question

[bomberns127]

last year i brewed brewferms christmas ale, it was at 1020 when bottled as per instructions with no extra sugar added, can this be done with any beer? i have bought some cheapie bitter and stout cans for £4 each and am thinking of making them my xmas brews, they will be here before the end of the week and was hoping to start them soon so they can be put away to mature for at least 5 months, anyone done this with any other brew(the no 2nd ferment sugar added that is) and opted for long maturation and if so to what success? btw the brewferm xmas ale turned out to be heavenly and i am drinking a glass now as i write :)

 

[BrewDan]

If these are from a website that I think they are I would be very shocked if you had them any time soon. Assuming it is from that company im pretty sure the cans come with no instructions, so you could be getting anything.

I would have thought adding sugar or not would depend on what OG you have when you mix the can with water, if you don't want to add sugar you may have to make a small batch up. I'm sure someone here will give you an OG to aim for.

As for maturing I bottled my Christmas brew about 3 weeks back, that's a brewferm kit, with any luck they will all still be there come December!!

Good luck :drink:

 

[bomberns127]

the most i will be making is 10 litres out of a can (depending on og) even if they turn up by august i will be happy, still leaves enough time, it was the 1020 bottling technique i am more interested in

 

[shearclass]

Does bottling at 1020 mean there is a lot of sediment in the bottles? I am going to start this kit sometime over the next couple of weeks.

 

[luckyeddie]

I did a long fermentation with no secondary sugar addition for a ginger beer in June last year.

12 months later, I had a dozen bottles of flat ginger beer. I tipped them down the sink last week.

I think the reason it works for the Brewferm Christmas Ale is that the yeasts do continue working, but veeeery slowly (could be wrong though). I did this kit a few times and there wasn't a huge amount of sediment - although I tend to tip the yeast in when I'm drinking Belgian beers anyway so wouldn't really care enough to notice.

The 1020 finishing gravity is probably due to a fairly high incidence of non-fermentable sugars in the brew. It's a typical Christmas beer, i.e. all malt, no sugar added either by Brewferm or the home brewer when making the beer.

 

[shearclass]

Cheers Eddie. I might as well start PM-ing you my questions, you've been so helpful.

Cheers.

 

[shearclass]

Has anyone else done the kit? How did it end up?

I bottled this kit at 1020 2 months ago. I am going to leave them until Christmas, but I had a first sample of one at the weekend.

I measured the gravity and was surprised to find it still at 1020, which is what I bottled it at. I thought this was supposed to ferment down a bit in the bottle? There had obviously been some fermentation taking place though, as there was a pronounced pop when I opened the lid. In fact it was fizzier than I anticipated.

The beer was very sweet, and I was not at all convinced it was that nice. Will the flavour improve? If so how? What happens to sweet/malty beers when left to mature?

If it will not improve, I may have to get another strong beer kit on ASAP, and bottle it once it has finished the initial fermentation as is traditional.

Any reassurance would be appreciated!

Cheers

 

[BrewDan]

I'd Say give it a bit more time, I should think come Christmas it will be a different drink. I have been trying mine(grand cru, bottled may 2011 I think) every now and then and it seems to taste different each time I have had it. Still quite sweet as of a week ago

As for your gravity, if it's got carbonation and sediment at the bottom of the bottle, I'd say does it really matter what the FG is? Maybe the liquid was measured at different temps, could affect your reading? Also did you give the hydrometer a spin, I've taken a reading before said one thing, gave it a spin and I had a slightly different reading. I'm not too sure, just my suggestions.

I'm sure someone else will give you some sound advice. Anyway, if you could let me know what you think of it come Christmas that would be great as I am thinking of buying one and getting it going for the following year

 

[shearclass]

You may need to remind me, but yeah I'll pass on myverdict.

I was hoping the gravity would drop in the bottles, as i thought it was supposed to be strong and malty. Instead it is just going to be weak and sweet, and quite expensive for what I get!

I'll try another one back end of October, see how it is then.

 

[luckyeddie]

The gravity may drop a point or two, but it's a typical Christmas beer and therefore it will be sweet and spicy. The majority of complaints regarding Brewferm Christmas is that it is 'flat' when people give in to the temptation and open one just 2 months after bottling. In my opinion, it needs at least 4 months.

Perhaps it's just not to your taste. As for me, I love the heavy sweetness, which is what I've tried to reproduce with 'Snappy' this year. It's now in secondary, having had another kilo of Candi added and a yeast re-pitch last week. If I can get that to finish around 1020, that'll be a result. It's more likely to end around 1010, but hopefully the cinnamon and nutmeg will cover up the missing sweetness.

 

[Darcey]

I have found the brewferms belgian beers tend to need 6 months + to condition in bottle. I did keg one once.. and what a mistake.. bottles all the way!

 

[shearclass]

I knew it would need longer, but i thought i'd try a sample as it's been 2 months.

I didn't really get the spicey element coming through, but maybe that will be more obvious after a few more months. By christmas it will have had over 5 months, so i hope this is long enough.

I normally prefer dryer beer, but i'm open to anything! Hopefully the flavour will be much better after another few months.

Ih ave got a trippel by brewferm that has been bottled for approx 2 months, maybe a little longer, but it doesn't taste great. I' m going to leave it another month before i have my next sample, as it tastes really sweet. Fermented to 1010, but the instructions said to add a load of priming sugar, so perhaps it needs a while to get through all that.

 

[shearclass]

Update - in case anyone is interested.

I had one litre of this in a PET bottle, which i tried at the weekend.

I was very pleasently surprised! It was very nice, it has improved remarkebly since my last tasteing in early September.

I could feel there was a lot of pressure in the bottle due to bottling at such a high gravity, and I was worried that as soon as I opened it all the yeast would get mixed up in the brew, but it remained compact.

Very pleased (and quite relieved as i had done two kits worth of the stuff)! Don't normally go for sweeter spicey beers but this was good. Long maturation isdefinately the key.

 

[BrewDan]

Excellent news, would you do it again, and how would you describe the drink now? I am brewing a stout for christmas. I may get this brewferm kit going around christmas ready for next christmas.

Glad you are happier with it though

 

[shearclass]

Thanks BrewDan!

I'm not really an expert , and I only started drinking real ale about 2 years ago, so I don't really know how to describe it. Next time i open one I'll think about it a bit more and let you know.

I guess it would probably be described as spicy, sweet, dark.... but like I say, I don't know the best way to describe it. personally, I don't know that i thought it particularly spicy, but it seems to be the kind of beer that would be described this way be experts.

I hope to start extract brewing in the new year as i have come across an old old old berco boiler that i found in my granda's greenhouse, but yeah i would still consider doing this kit again for next year. One thing i may do differently though is let it ferment out in bucket before priming and bottling. Instructions say that this shoudl be bottled at 1020, which was about 2 -3 days after i pitched yeast. not sure though, I assume Brewferm know better than I do.

I'll try and leave it alone until Christmas now... At least it's in my granda's garage and not mine, so i can;t be tempted! If i remember this post I'll provide more feedback in December.

 

[klaus]

Mine has been in the bottles for a month now ... and this thread made me open one!
Should have waited at least another month .... fizz is there but not quite enough. But the taste is amazing. Very strong and the sweetness is masked by a strong malt and hop flavour. I think I got a bit tipsy and in the morning had a bit of a hang-over. What will it be like at Christmas? Much better I am sure.
Cheers all.