Festival Landlord's Finest Bitter Newbie Questions.

[cajsparky]

First post on the forum so hi to all!
Ok so on my second brew now and after reading through some of the threads on beer kits I get the impression that you can achieve better results by leaving in the primary for longer than stated in the instructions.
Now for the Festival landlords kit it states to add hops at 5 days into fermentation and to leave for 5 days.
My questions are
1.If I wanted to leave in the primary for an extended amount of time for example 4 weeks as some people suggest, at what stage would I want to add the hops?
2. Would it be sensible to add the hops at 5 days in the supplied muslin bag and remove after 5 days or just add at 5 days and leave until bottling?
3. Will leaving the hops in for extended periods of time impair the taste of the beer?
4.After reading reviews of this kit some people were saying that it comes out overly bitter. I guess this could be down to conditioning time?
Any advice would be greatly recieved!
Many Thanks

 

[Beerlover]

Hi cajsparky,
I'm no expert but I've done a few of the festival kits, personally I would recommend leaving your beer in the Primary vessel for about 2 weeks and add the hops about 3-4 days before you transfer to either your secondary vessel or pressure barrel, also dry hop it, ie scatter the hops on top of the beer then use the muslin bag over the fermenting vessel end of your siphon if you're using one. Basically follow the instructions but give it longer in your primary vessel.
Good luck!

 

[cajsparky]

Thanks Beer Lover!
Its been in the primary vessel for 5 days today so I will take your advice and leave it for 14 and then dry hop. It worried me a bit when I had read about the beer being very bitter in other posts, and it seemed to me if you add hops after 5 days and whilst at the minute still very active, I would run the risk of having the hops in there for too long waiting for the end of fermentation.

 

[GHW]

IMHO the overly bitter flavours come from leaving in the hops too long (or adding them too early and having to wait for fermentation to finish). That's what happened with my razorback.

I'd wait til fermentation has stopped, then lob them in for four or so days. Or if you're going to bottle on a weekend and you think it's stopped the weekend before, chuck them in 4-5 days before you intend to bottle. Don't put them in while still fermenting, then you have no control over how long they are in for, and these kits seem to keep going for ages (mine still bubbled nearly two weeks in).