Festival Golden Stag Summer Ale Review

[Maffa]

I brewed the Summer ale kit last month and couldnt beleive how tastey this was. This was only my second kit and WOW :) 2 weeks in the fv (dry hops in after 7 days) readings were 1040 and 1008 coming out at 4.2% a bit less than the stated 4.5% but with this being so nice who cares. Another 2 weeks in the warm (wrapped up in airing cupboard) and 2 in the cold (un heated downstairs shower room) and BLIMEY - what a brew.

Approx 28 pints in a plastic keg and a dozen swing top bottles done. It has a frothy head, well carbonated and clears really well. A great aroma, nice strong citrus' twang and a good bitter finish - If you brew one of these, youd better set your tastebuds to defcom one cos this one will really blow the cobwebs away.

Not tried the bottles yet, but the keg has been wellied into and is nearing its end :

This is defo on my list to do again - Gotta love that homebrew :thumb:

 

[el gringo]

All these replies are pointing towards a cracking pint.

Which is good as i have a Golden Stag Kit sat on my desk in front of me waiting to be put on later hopefully.

Which would anyone recommend Keg or Bottle? I've always used a keg up til now, but have never got the level of carbonation i really want, especially from the lighter ales i've done.

It would be the 2 litre pop bottles i've saved rather than nice glass ones for this first go.

I presume for the priming sugar it would be a pro-rata'd amount from the supplied sugar? Weight divided by litres to get gms per bottle?

Cheers

Chris

 

[Maffa]

It carbonated well in the keg for me but I haven't tried the bottles yet and yes they do tend to carbonate better.

Priming in bottles, tend to be a general level teaspoon per 500ml bottle. There's plenty of threads about it and one that went deep into technical territory viewtopic.php?f=30&t=36579

 

[MadrikXIV]

Finally got the Cellar 7 red wine into my alternative bucket, so time to get this one on the go, been itching to start it, my kegs are almost dry, and one needs to be 'Christened'.

Looking forward to this one

 

[muddy90]

I presume for the priming sugar it would be a pro-rata'd amount from the supplied sugar? Weight divided by litres to get gms per bottle?

Cheers

Chris

If you follow the instructions for priming it's really simple. Add ALL the sugar supplied to a second vessel & siphon the beer into it, gently stir to dissolve the sugar, then siphon into your bottles. Guaranteed to be the right amount per bottle.
I used to struggle before I got into Festival kits with priming the bottles, this way is simplicity itself.

 

[el gringo]

I presume for the priming sugar it would be a pro-rata'd amount from the supplied sugar? Weight divided by litres to get gms per bottle?

Cheers

Chris

If you follow the instructions for priming it's really simple. Add ALL the sugar supplied to a second vessel & siphon the beer into it, gently stir to dissolve the sugar, then siphon into your bottles. Guaranteed to be the right amount per bottle.
I used to struggle before I got into Festival kits with priming the bottles, this way is simplicity itself.

Cheers Muddy

I think i'm going to keg this one, thinking about it it makes more sense. I've only got the one vessel at the moment so batch priming will be a bit more complicated.

I'm away on honeymoon from the 21st so i want to get this one in something to start conditioning before i go. When i get back i may get another starter kit with another vessel, little bottler and some proper bottles.

I'm a bit OCD about stuff and pop bottles wasn't really doing it for me in my own head

Cheers

 

[MadrikXIV]

Put my hop pellets in yesterday, why didn't anyone tell me how good they smell?

I was hooked at sniffing the pack, even took it to work for people to erm sniff

I could smell a grapefruity smell to them, many people sniffed and kinda went eeuurrgghh, but then would attempt a couple more sniffs, then came round at, yup that smells good

 

[Maffa]

Put my hop pellets in yesterday, why didn't anyone tell me how good they smell?

You wait till you smell the beer :grin:

 

[peelman]

Tried a pint of this last night from out of a cornie and it really is fantastic. I'm trying to save this until the summer (if we get one) but it's going to be very difficult!

This has got to be THE best kit I have brewed to date. I have started AG brewing now but I WILL be doing this kit again for sure!!

:thumb: : :clap: :drink:

 

[muddy90]

Peelman, Put another one on now, it WONT LAST TILL SUMMER!!!!!! :drink:

 

[peelman]

Peelman, Put another one on now, it WONT LAST TILL SUMMER!!!!!! :drink:

I think you're right!
:drink:

 

[spacemonkey]

Brewed this kit on the 21/3 (OG 1040). Only my forth kit, hoping it will be a step up from the previous kits I have so far brewed. Added the hop sachet 5 days into fermentation as per the instructions. Fermentation was complete after 13 days (FG 1009). Syphoned into a king keg along with the 110g of supplied priming sugar. Put it in the cold yesterday after 10 days sat in the warm at 19-21°, a small taste today and I'm very impressed, the hops certainly come through, very citrusy and surprisingly very clear already. Can't wait to try this again in 2-3 weeks, should be a great beer. :

 

[Double Bob]

Hi all,
I've just joined the community, although I've been reading the boards for a few months now and it's been a pretty invaluable source of info!

I've now brewed 2 of the Festival kits - Golden Stag first and now got a Pilgrims Hope in the FV. PH has been in for 2 weeks and looks like fermentation is finished.

Slight issue is that both Festival kits seem to finish with a fairly low ABV compared to the suggested on the box. I’ve followed the instructions completely, although I actually brewed the Pilgrims short by 1litre as I thought this might help avoid what happened with the Golden Stag. Made sure I got all the extract out of the pouches.

I think the Golden Stag came out about 3.5% (4.5% on the box). Pilgrims had OG 1.040 and now down to 1.014 consistent for the last few days, which is 3.5% according to the ABV calculator (5% on the box). FV has been kept at fairly consistently 21-22c, although it did drop to around 17-18c a few times over night at the beginning (I’ve left the brew belt on all the time since then!).

I’m not too bothered about a low ABV as these kits still seem to turn out such cracking tasting results (the Pilgrims smells great and already should be good based on the samples I’ve tasted), but I would like work out if I’m doing something wrong or if there is something I should do differently! Any ideas??

I'm going to leave it in the FV for another week anyway as no time to bottle until the weekend, so maybe it'll drop a bit more between now and then. Should I agitate it a bit or is that a real no no?!

I’d love to move on and have a bash at extract brewing but I would like to know I can get the kits right first!!!
Cheers guys.

 

[Maffa]

Hi bob, I think the general consensus if a brew is stuck, is to give it a gentle stir to reactivate those lovely yeasties. Not too vigorous though as you want to keep the layer of co2 on top of the wort. I would say that at 1014 it may be finished, but you never know, it may just work!
Let us know how you get on.

 

[Double Bob]

Hi bob, I think the general consensus if a brew is stuck, is to give it a gentle stir to reactivate those lovely yeasties. Not too vigorous though as you want to keep the layer of co2 on top of the wort. I would say that at 1014 it may be finished, but you never know, it may just work!
Let us know how you get on.

Thanks Maffa. I will give it a gentle stir this evening and see how it reacts.

I do wonder if maybe I've not been completely accurate with my OG readings and perhaps that is having an impact on the ABV calculation. It's taken me a while to get to grips with reading the hydrometer properly!!

 

[Maffa]

I know what you mean, I totally misread mine the first time and thought the opening reading was 1.005 - turns out I was reading the wrong scale!

Also worth pointing out which is always raised is making sure of mixing properly before any yeast is added, and when adding your water, drop in from as high as possible to make a good froth as this creates oxygen in the wort that the yeast feeds on.

 

[MadrikXIV]

Well mine is standing in the bucket now, the frothy hoppy head has died away, took a reading and it's giving me 1.01, which is down from 1.042 so at around 4.2%, BUT, as I had read the early posts in this thread (whilst looking at reviews) I only brewed it to 20/21 litres (Unless 2 litres have evaporated)

 

[el gringo]

Kegged mine Sunday using the supplied sugar, down from 1.040 to 1.010 which works out as about 4%,

Temp fluctuated a bit during fermentation but didn't drop below 20 i think. Brewed to the full 23 litres.

Smelled pretty damn good going into the keg. Pulled a little sample from the keg yesterday evening to check for pressure build up (as you do, ahem.....), quite bitter but i guess this will mellow out with time and very very hoppy which is really nice.

I have to say even at this early stage it tastes better than any of my previous kit attempts so i'm hoping this is going to be a good one in a couple of weeks

 

[Brewbob]

Hi, I'm just off to my LHBS, and after reading the reports here I reckon I'm going to put one of these on.

Thinking about these low ABVs, y'know when you prime and keg/bottle won't there be a little fermentation then as it conditions, not a lot but might it give that extra 0.5%? I'm just thinking because when I worked in the pub we used to get RCH Santa Fe which is listed at about 7 -7.2%, but if we were to rack it then it was quite sweet and gacky, so we used to leave it for 6-8wks to condition a bit further and it would dry out considerably, and I think would be a bit stronger, I mean 7.2% is pretty headbanging anyway, but do you think this is right..?

 

[Maffa]

I may be mistaken but i think you only add 0.1 to 0.2% when conditioning. I read it here on one of the forum posts somewhere.