Brupaks, Fixby Gold Review

[fatbelly]

Put a Fixby Gold in the FV on Sunday 25th March. I brewed it short @ 22 litres but the OG came out low @ 1038. The instructions say bottle at 1012 or below, this would only give me a brew an ABV of 3.5%. The kit says I should get an ABV between 4 and 4.4%.

The airlock went mad about 20 hours in and kept going until late Tuesday 27th. I will put the Hydrometer in the FV tomorrow and see how its going.

 

[Pearlfisher]

I brewed their Linthwaite light a while ago , it took quite a while to clear but still tasted very good.
I filled 2 tap a draft bottles with what was left in the barrel and left it another fortnight, tried some last night ,it's now sparkling bright and tasted excellent.

 

[durhambrewer]

I am drinking 10 week old Fixby Gold and it is pure nectar very moreish. I do not think you can go wrong with any Brupaks kit.
Eagerly awaiting Woodfordes to unleash their Sundew....I was a big supporter of their Great Eastern.

 

[Aitch]

My Fixby gold is just in secondary, I think it will struggle to clear but I'm not too concerned about that. It was very very hoppy, more so than summer lightning or sundew. I think it will be right in 3-4 weeks, i bottled half and kegged half. I think I have high hopes but low expectations of this one, if I do it again I'll be easier on the hops.

 

[Aitch]

I kegegd half and bottled half. The bottled brew is 10x the superior of the kegged brew. I found the 'O' ring seal on the keg had split and the kegged brew had gone flat and started to culture somthing on top. It tasted rank and went down the drain. I lubricated the 'O' ring too, not sure why it spli? Anyhow, only got 19 pint bottles of this stuff now, nice pint though, v hoppy.

 

[Aitch]

I don't think I'll be brewing this again, got Woodfordes Sundew on the go and a Hoegaarden clone, that'll do for my summer ales unless I can get a recipe for green jack's summer dream!

 

[Fella]

I brewed this one, overdid it slightly but it tastes fantastic, even if it did take a very, very long time to clear...

 

[McMiroculous]

This is my second kit (the first being Wherry) and I've just opened the first couple of bottles. I copied the instructions to the letter and had it in the FV for 8 days. The first few days it went off like a train but the weather was warm and the temp in the FV was 22-24c but it settled down to 20c. Bottled it using spraymalt instead of sugar as I did with the Wherry and kept the batch at room temp for 2 weeks then garaged for a further 2 weeks. This brew cleared very quickly and it's turned out to be a good quaffable summer ale but could do with a slight more fizz and head. I reckon I'd do it again but use sugar instead. I'd rate it 7/10 but the Wherry does edge it.

:

 

[AndyBWood]

Hi All,

Just took a sample of this 5 ½ days into fermentation, constant 20°. Dropped to 1.12 so looks like we’re getting there and no problems with sticking around the 1.20 mark which I have read about. I didn’t, however, deploy the kit yeast provided but made up a reliable, for me, 300ml starter of S04.

Real bitter hop flavour at this early stage will long aftertaste of the same. Sure this will mellow out over time; high hopes for this one with such good reviews.

Around 8 weeks ‘till Christmas and would like this to be clear by then. In view of the; “it’s a bit of a ****** to clear sometimes” comments, would you suggest adding a little something to the keg or let Mother Nature take her course ?

 

[muddy90]

No reviews on this for a while.
I pick one up today & will get it on tomorrow. I fancied a change from festival kits.
I plan to up the og with brewing sugar & have some lightly hopped spray malt for priming.

 

[muddy90]

I can't get over the fact that it was bubbling within ten minutes of putting the yeast in!
I like mine hoppy & quite bitter so I boiled the hop tea bag in 5l of the diluted malt extract & left it for 40min then poured the extract back in, minus tea bag.
Does anyone think dry hopping this beer would improve it further?
I also think I over did the brewing sugar. og was around 5.5% :drunk:

 

[user 6139]

I've just bottled 40 bottles of this.

I also noticed that the O.G. was very low, so added 1kg of light spray malt on a whim.

It fermented very quickly, and my quality control samples during brewing all tasted really good. I left it 10 days in the primary, and a further week in a cooler secondary. It was exceptionally clear when I bottled it last night, and it's currently sitting in the airing cupboard to carbonate for a few weeks.

I've got high-hopes for this one... Hoping to get something like Kelham Island pale-rider :-)

 

[muddy90]

I couldn't wait any longer to bottle this, it was still bubbling after 24 days!!!! f/g was down to 1000.11 so good enough.
Had a sneaky taste out of the f/v & I can confidently say it's good enough to drink straight away. Not as hoppy as I was expecting but very smooth & nicely clear.
Primed with 110g light hopped dme & bottled.

 

[Underscore]

I'm now about a third of the way through one of these. I didn't originally order this kit but was offered it instead of the Golden Stag, which was out of stock. I made a hop tea with the hop bag, boiling it for 10 minutes, and fermented it for 14 days @ 20 degrees before kegging it. I'm guessing that it has been in the barrel for 2+ months now and it has turned into a very nice, moderately hoppy summer beer. In short, I would happily do it again - a good beer kit - though it doesn't stand out against the other good beer kits that I've done: I would put it very much on a par with the Wherry that I've just finished...

_

 

[Riddo]

This is a good kit and very much reminds me of Great eastern, the now defunct woodfordes kit. I made some of this earlier in the year with added hops for aroma. I'm down to the last few bottles but it's been a decent brew! Would possibly do again but having discovered the festival kits, i want to go with them as golden stag was, in my opinion, superior to fixby gold!

 

[Rolfster]

Hi

I got one of these on the go. It went into the VF on Monday with a little bit of a twist....
I heated 300g of crystal in 5.5L of water to 93 degrees, and removed the crystal, chucked in 20g of fuggle boiled for 20mins put in a tiny bit of irish most and 20g more fuggle and boiled for 10 more minutes.
Added this to the FV with the kit.

Fermentation temp was a bit low at 17c. Fermentation stalled on wednesday.
Moved it to a warmer place (18-19c) and heard a few bubbles Thurday.
Took a hydrometer reading today its at 1.020ish. I gave it a good stir at the same time.

Fingers crossed it gets it going again.

The hydrometer reading jar tasted very interesting, its got a nice initial floral taste and finishes with a bitter almost coffee taste. I guess thats the crystal mini-mash!

 

[foxbat]

A bump for this thread since mine has just become ready to drink.

I started mine about the beginning of October and left it about 3 weeks in the FV before transferring about 6 pints to bottles and the rest to a PV. No modifications were made to the recipe. It tasted very bitter indeed during the first few weeks in the PV and I was actually quite worried that it wasn't going to come out too good. Now, 6 weeks into the PV the bitterness has subsided and it's a very nice pint indeed. I prefer the taste from the PV to those in the bottles, it's more "pub-like" to me. I reckon I should have subtracted a couple of pints of water from the recipe to give it a little more body as I reckon mine's about 4% and I prefer the 4.5 to 4.8 range.

Colour-wise calling it "gold" is a bit of a stretch as it's quite dark. I was expecting it to come out lighter. I'll see if I can take a photo next time I pull a pint to show what I mean.

 

[ChrisM]

The Brupaks Fixby Gold kit is still available! I get mine from Wicked in Brighouse. A two can kit with a "tea-bag" of hops, and the slightly stingy 6g silver packet of anonymous yeast. In my experience the two cans don't contain the same thing, so best to brew all at once!

Very easy to get going. I used MJ Liberty Bell yeast which was fine but I'm tempted to use a more neutral yeast next time such as Safale S04. Fermentation can get stuck so checking with a hydrometer will ensure better results. Needs a good eight weeks of conditioning, but is then a strong (~5%) hoppy golden ale with good mouthfeel.



Came back to homebrew after several years in March 2020 (wonder what prompted that?!) with an out of date one of these! Don't do so many kits these days, but will likely brew one of these now and then.

 

[Graz]

Always found the Brupaks kits to be pretty good though I seem to remember I generally substituting the yeast for an Safale S-04.

Haven't made one for quite a while due to the large number of other kits that have come to market since but should revisit at some point, Home Brew Shop still sells them: Brupaks Home Brew Beer Kit