Festival Golden Stag Summer Ale Review

[oldbloke]

Few bins seal well enough to need an airlock. Just as long as nothing can fall in, you'll be fine

 

[Tubby]

Thanks for the reply. I look forward to tasting this one. :

 

[davecullen86]

Sorry to dilute the review, but I'm doing this next! Cant wait after what I have read on here already - Might even warrant the purchase of another PB :-)

 

[gazkilla]

Bottled this evening. On Tuesday FG was 1012,so I stuck the warmer on underneath and got it down to 1010 from 1040. Hops had totally broken down and you can definitely taste the grapefruit at the mo. Looking forward to this one :thumb:

 

[the golden heap]

Would anyone can and email,a copy of the Festival instructions? Please

 

[davecullen86]

Finally got round to starting this today.

I notice the instructions say to pour the hop pellets directly in to the FV.

Has anyone else done that? Usually I use a muslin bag as I don't want all the floating rubbish in the wort.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I am using a Coopers FV from the DIY kit. It has a tap on the bottom which I usually connect my tube and bottling wand too... Hence the worry about the floating hops.

Do you think I will lose any flavour using the muslin bag for the hops?

Cheers guys

Dave

 

[peelman]

Exactly the same scenario as I had. I followed the instructions. But I syphoned it into a corny keg not using the tap on the Coopers FV because I was worried about the hops getting into the keg.
It was hard work as the filter bag they give you for the syphon kept clogging up.
Tasted great though! :drink:

 

[Trucker5685]

Finally got round to starting this today.

I notice the instructions say to pour the hop pellets directly in to the FV.

Has anyone else done that? Usually I use a muslin bag as I don't want all the floating rubbish in the wort.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I am using a Coopers FV from the DIY kit. It has a tap on the bottom which I usually connect my tube and bottling wand too... Hence the worry about the floating hops.

Do you think I will lose any flavour using the muslin bag for the hops?

Cheers guys

Dave

I put mine directly into the FV, the filter bag that comes with the kit worked a treat when I came to syphoning, didn't clog and filtered all the 'floaters' out :grin:

 

[gazkilla]

Finally got round to starting this today.

I notice the instructions say to pour the hop pellets directly in to the FV.

Has anyone else done that? Usually I use a muslin bag as I don't want all the floating rubbish in the wort.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I am using a Coopers FV from the DIY kit. It has a tap on the bottom which I usually connect my tube and bottling wand too... Hence the worry about the floating hops.

Do you think I will lose any flavour using the muslin bag for the hops?

Cheers guys

Dave

I put mine directly into the FV, the filter bag that comes with the kit worked a treat when I came to syphoning, didn't clog and filtered all the 'floaters' out :grin:

+1 for this. Filtered clear with the bag on

 

[davecullen86]

Thanks guys, I think I'll do this one by the book then and used the siphon instead of the tap.

Cheers - Knew you guys would fill me with confidence :)

 

[GavH]

Same instructions for the Razorback IPA. I put the hop pellets straight into the FV (actually the wife did - I was away) and found they either broke up and remained on the surface as a green sludge or dropped down into the trub. Either way, I racked straight from my Coopers FV via the tap and a length of tubing into a barrel with no obvious carry over of hop debris.

 

[davecullen86]

Same instructions for the Razorback IPA. I put the hop pellets straight into the FV (actually the wife did - I was away) and found they either broke up and remained on the surface as a green sludge or dropped down into the trub. Either way, I racked straight from my Coopers FV via the tap and a length of tubing into a barrel with no obvious carry over of hop debris.

Thanks Gav, guess I need to assess the situation before kegging then do what I think is safest! Cheers

 

[davecullen86]

Kegged today and decided to use the tap on the front of my coopers FV.

Connected the siphon tube to the tap and put the supplied bag over the other end that goes in the PB.

The bag did a great job of catching all the debris that came down the siphon tube.

Gonna leave it for 10 days inside now then stick it in the garage for as long as I can resist!

 

[davecullen86]

I've had PB issues this week... Went in to the spare room to find the tap had leaked! Lucking, I had the barrel in a large cardboard box with a few plastic bangs and a bit of tissue which seemed to take the hit. A little on the carpet but I don't think the Mrs noticed

The thread part of the tap has formed a large crack at the join to the body of the tap... Probably my fault for tightening too much maybe?

Anyway, forced to take it to the garage for this reason, I laid the PB on its back and replaced the tap with a youngs on from THBS.co.uk. Hopefully that should do the job.

While its in the garage, getting cold, it seemed rude not to taste. Its OK, taste so far is a bit bitter, I can definitely taste a strong hoppy flavour, I am a huge fan of hoppy beer but this is more of an odd hop flavour.

Being less than a week since barrelling im probably expecting too much from this sample. In this case, Ill leave it for a while.

Question? Now its been in the garage 3 days, am I ok to take it back inside to continue warm conditioning?

Usually I leave all of my brews inside for 2 weeks at around 18-22c before moving to the garage.

Will I need to re-prime as any pressure built up has long gone since the tap change etc...

I plunged in a Co2 bulb earlier and it seems I need to replace the screw lid gasket too, gas hissed right out the top of the threaded part / lid. Checked and re-aligned / lubed up the gasket and it got a "BIT" better. Not too impressed with these Wilko kegs to be honest with u!!

Any advice welcome :-)

 

[whiter shade of ale]

If you've replaced the tap then you will indeed have to re prime the barrel. Just move it back in to the warm once re primed and it will carb up again. Regarding the Co2, i don't use my PB that often but have found that quite a lot of gas escapes out of the top when injecting a canister. Although it always seems to pressurise ok.

 

[davecullen86]

sounds good. 80g of dextrose in the PB that has about 22l in it?

Cheers - Dave

 

[gazkilla]

Had a try of a bottle tonight after nearly 4 weeks and its way to bitter for me at the mo,hopefully from the reviews on here is that it mellows as time goes by. Think I'll leave it another month before I try again. Might have been leaving the hops in for 8 days

 

[davecullen86]

Just finished the bottom of my pressure barrel and thought I'd share some notes on this kit.

Its been around a month since it was first kegged and I have to say its a lovely pint. It has a very strong hop flavour so make sure you like the floral aroma and taste if you are going to do this beer. As the name suggests it is very golden!

I used the nylon siphon bag that comes with this kit and I must say it really does do the job. The beer was so clear almost to the end of the PB, There was around 1 pint left in the bottom before the sediment started to come in to the glad, I had to tip the PB up a lot to get the last drops of the clear beer out of the tap.

Fairly expensive, probably the most I have spent on a kit but I am glad I have tried it and would do it again. The quality of the beer is very high so you can see why you need to pay a premium for it.

Good luck to all those who are thinking of trying this kit, would love to hear if anyone else's experiences differ from mine - Cheers

 

[polypusher]

Little off topic, but have my wilkos FV and other bits I ordered in the sale at my local store now. Going to pick them up soonish
(in with spoons at the minute, finished work for the week this morning so treated meself to breakfast, three hours later still here......I blame this 5.5%Swedish IPA, lovely stuff)

Hopefully get me stag on the go when i get back. Really looking forward to this one! Got a nog on a week today aswell. Only started last week but seem to have accurate two barrels, two favs and three kits....hmm.....

 

[davecullen86]

Lol, kits and equipment seem to appear at my door and I don't remember ording it... must be the homebrew haha ;-)