Cwtch hop pellet question

[TenaciousG]

Hi all, long time lurker first time posting...

I bought a cwtch kit at the weekend, not starting til next week but I was wondering about the hop pellets as they're a little new to me.
Been reading quite a lot but as I understand a lot of people get a lot of sediment with the cwtch kit because of the hop pellets.
I was thinking about doing the first lot as it says with the boiling water in the FV but the second lot that are added later, could I put these in a Muslin bag? First lot will have plenty of time to settle but do I just stick them in the bag then float the bag? And remove before bottling? I don't have a secondary FV to rack it in to prior to bottling.

James

 

[RichardM]

You want the bag to sink, not float, so you could add some marbles or stainless steel weights to it.

 

[Poochops]

As you're going to have pellet sediment anyway off the first addition you might as well just put the second lot in loose in my opinion. What I did with mine was rack it off into my bottling bucket through a mesh bag and I could have bottled it then it was ok, but I decided to use finings as well, dropped another layer of mainly yeast out judging by the colour. The ale in the bottle had hardly any sediment at all. Cracking brew too!

 

[Tanzanite]

If you can afford it buy a bottling bucket they are around £15 with bottling wand air lock etc, theres a way to make kits that you wont find on the instructions, most kit instructions are fiction. Make up your kit as instructed ferment and add the hops as instructed but leave for 2 weeks to make sure its fermented out. Then, rack through muslin into the bottling bucket, and leave 1-2 weeks to clear and let the yeast clean up the off smells and flavors, then bottle and condition for 6 weeks before trying. i leave ten weeks at least , you will then be drinking good beer

 

[Jakeyboi]

I have this kit on at the moment. I will be bottling this week, I threw the hops straight into the fv as instructed. I left in the fv for 3 weeks and then a few days ago I racked it into a secondary fv being carefully to leave the sediment behind. I was quite surprised on the clarity considering, and I now have it at 0.5C. I have no doubt that a week at that temperature it will be very clear. Basically give it time, rack it off, and cool it down once fermentation is completely finished and it will clear up nicely, if you don't have a brew fridge just putting it out in the shed this time of year for a week will do wonders. Oh and it smells bloody amazing I cannot wait to drink this so enjoy!

 

[TenaciousG]

Obviously it's worked for you lot but the instructions actually say to bottle from primary which is strange as most others say to transfer to secondary so that was the other confusing thing.
Think I'll just do as it says leave it long enough for everything to drop out and see what sediment is left haha

 

[TenaciousG]

On second thought my primary has a tap and what not so I can buy a basic bucket to brew it in then transfer to my current primary and I can batch prime then too.
Do we all batch prime with normal sugar because the kit is so tasty as is, or would spraymalt make it nicer? How much sugar also if I do it to the 36 pints stated?
Cheers

 

[TenaciousG]

I've decided to batch prime and stick most in the PB and a few in bottles, it's reached 1.010 after 7 days so just dry hopped the other 2 packets of hop pellets, how long should I leave them to do their magic? 3 days? Don't want the flavour to be lost too much
Cheers

 

[Jakeyboi]

I've decided to batch prime and stick most in the PB and a few in bottles, it's reached 1.010 after 7 days so just dry hopped the other 2 packets of hop pellets, how long should I leave them to do their magic? 3 days? Don't want the flavour to be lost too much
Cheers

I've just bottled this, here's how I brewed it
13/1/17 brewed and pitched yeast
20/1/17 dry hopped
28/1/17 took sg reading 1012
3/2/17 racked into secondary and cold crashed 1C
10/2/17 brought into house temp
18/2/17 bottled, batched primed 130G granulated - it tastes fantastic, hop flavour is fruity and full on. It's pretty clear too.

My advice is to be patient and not to read into the instructions too much.

Jake

 

[Braindead]

Agreed
Ive made this several times, also made it into a black ipa.
Never used a muslin bag yet. Just left for at least a month to clear up.
Yes you will get lil yeasty sediment at the bottom of the bottle due to conditioning but just don't pour that in.
\Its an awesome kit, although I think I've killed my last kit by adding a lil too much chinook for bitterness

 

[Poochops]

I've decided to batch prime and stick most in the PB and a few in bottles, it's reached 1.010 after 7 days so just dry hopped the other 2 packets of hop pellets, how long should I leave them to do their magic? 3 days? Don't want the flavour to be lost too much
Cheers

At least a week, don't be shy with the dry hop there's no rush and you want the addition to shine through as the beer is actually quite quite bitter.

 

[TenaciousG]

The other thing is that it's been in the warm now 2 days after dry hopping. I was thinking of leaving it til tomorrow or day after then cold crash, will the hoppiness still come through even if it's in the cold? Don't want it to lose the hop aroma and flavour by leaving it too long but also don't want to have hops in my keg

 

[willycoolj]

If I do a beer with hop pellets in I put a nylon hop bag over the end of tap and transfer to secondary, does good job


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Meza]

Hi guys, resurrecting an old one here looking for some advice on brewing the Cwytch kit.

It's my second kit, currently in the FV in my fridge coming up to the two week mark. I'm not sure how long I should leave it, and if it needs a cold crash (and what the steps would be)?

Day 0 - SG 1050, yeast pitched at 22-24°C
Put in fridge set at 20°C
Day 4 - 1015 - looking like swamp water, good krausen
Day 5 - Added 2nd batch of hops loose
Day 11 - 1010, airlock infrequently bubbling now
Tasted ok, but rather bitter.
...now not sure what next...

Heard that it can be quite cloudy, so wondering how to minimise this, and how to get the best brew I can of course! I will be batch-priming in a bucket and bottling in glass, not keg or pressure barrel.

1. How long should I leave in primary?
2. Should I rack into a secondary FV, when and for how long?
3. Should I cold crash? At what point, what temp, and again for how long?
4. How will I know when to bottle?

thanks all, seen a few messages with various suggestions and they all conflict with what the kit instructions say of course!

 

[Poochops]

Did this kit twice. Personally I'd cold crash it now to drop the hops, then rack it into my bottling bucket, syphoning through a mesh bag, then I'd crash it again and bottle it after a few or more days. I'd prime the bottles to avoid disturbing the remaining trub. I can't be doing with anything more than the slightest sediment in my bottles so I think it's worth the extra effort.

 

[Meza]

Cheers. How long would you crash for?
Reason I was going to batch prime is I'm a cheapskate and all my bottles are different sizes- feel like it might be impossible to work out and measure different amounts of sugar.

So may be I'm better with one crash in primary then rack to 2ndary and bottle straight from there?

 

[Meza]

Also which end of the Syphon does the mesh bag go?

 

[Graz]

If you can cold crash it save a lot of hassle regarding dry hop additions.

Between cold crashing and using one of these I no longer have any problems: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M74BJW3/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Before sorting this method I used to dread any brew with a load of hop pellets added, the sock thing over the siphon end really doesn't work and would continually clog up causing me to swear a lot

I'll always move it to a bottling bucket though if I'm bottling but otherwise straight into the keg.