Festival - summer glory advice

[shd]

Hi again all
I’m after a little advice regarding a festival summer glory brew that I kicked off on Sunday

It says after five days to add the contents of the Hop pellet sachet, but not to stir and then to leave for a further five days before bottling, obviously after checking the fermentation has stopped

So :

1 - I know we’re only talking about an extra few days but typically the approach if a brew says it’s ready to bottle in 4 to 6 days is to actually leave it two weeks
Would this be the advice for this particular brew also based on the instructions and timings I’ve mentioned above ?

2 - the adding of the pellets…. I’ve always read and understood the introduction of oxygen can affect the brewing process. Can anyone confirm please that taking the lid off won’t affect the brew ?

3 - The instructions then imply I should siphon into a separate barrel and at the priming sugar and then leave for a further 14 days. Is this correct or can I bottle at this stage like I normally would?

I’ve had a couple of photos showing the instructions

If anybody could confirm, please, it would be much appreciated

 

[Stu's Brews]

I'd always take the instructions on a kit as recommendations rather than strict rules to follow - there are a lot of variables that can impact the duration of the fermentation process and you will need to adapt accordingly to get the best end result.

Answering your questions:

1. If you have a healthy fermentation, then there is no reason why it couldn't be complete and ready for bottling after 10 days. However, you are the best judge of when your fermentation is complete - do not bottle until you are confident it is ready, irrespective of what it says in the instructions.

2. If you add the pellets towards the end of fermentation (as airlock activity is slowing down, which would roughly be day 5 as per the instructions) then there will be sufficient CO2 in the headspace of the fermenter to limit the amount of oxygen being introduced. Any oxygen that is introduced will then be absorbed by the yeast, as they will still be active.

3. No need to do anything different with regards to bottling. If you normally bottle straight from the fermenter, then you'll be fine doing it with this kit.

 

[soupdragon]

Don't forget to put the little sock over the syphon inside the fermenter when you bottle or you will get hop bits in your beer. Apologies if I'm stating the blindingly obvious but I'd rather that that have anyone risk (possibly) mucking their beer up

Cheers Tom

 

[Clint]

I found some Festival kits to take a bit longer to limp to the suggested final gravity.
I'd leave it a full 2 weeks,check fg. If it's done,bung the hops in. The suggested 5 days won't harm it. You could check it at 10 days though as like said it might be done.

 

[soupdragon]

I found some Festival kits to take a bit longer to limp to the suggested final gravity.
I'd leave it a full 2 weeks,check fg. If it's done,bung the hops in. The suggested 5 days won't harm it. You could check it at 10 days though as like said it might be done.

I've had a Festival Britfire in a fermenter for 12 days now and it's still going. Started at 1.046 and is on 1.013 now. Not far to go but It's not in any rush to finish. It's been at or around 20-21⁰c for most of the time too

Cheers Tom

 

[shd]

I found some Festival kits to take a bit longer to limp to the suggested final gravity.
I'd leave it a full 2 weeks,check fg. If it's done,bung the hops in. The suggested 5 days won't harm it. You could check it at 10 days though as like said it might be done.

Thanks for the reply @Clint

So the manufacturers instructions that says add the hops after five days, That’s because in their mind the fermentation should’ve stopped then it seems ?

 

[Clint]

Some kit instructions can be a bit "off"...Festival kits are good and I expect following the instructions to the letter won't make you a bad beer. However,if it's not finished when you bottle it you'll have a bad result if you're new to brewing. The result would still be less than ideal to an experienced brewer but there's things best avoided in the first place!

 

[shd]

I'd always take the instructions on a kit as recommendations rather than strict rules to follow - there are a lot of variables that can impact the duration of the fermentation process and you will need to adapt accordingly to get the best end result.

Answering your questions:

1. If you have a healthy fermentation, then there is no reason why it couldn't be complete and ready for bottling after 10 days. However, you are the best judge of when your fermentation is complete - do not bottle until you are confident it is ready, irrespective of what it says in the instructions.

2. If you add the pellets towards the end of fermentation (as airlock activity is slowing down, which would roughly be day 5 as per the instructions) then there will be sufficient CO2 in the headspace of the fermenter to limit the amount of oxygen being introduced. Any oxygen that is introduced will then be absorbed by the yeast, as they will still be active.

3. No need to do anything different with regards to bottling. If you normally bottle straight from the fermenter, then you'll be fine doing it with this kit.

Thanks for the reply @Stu's Brews
unfortunately I’ve got a few further questions

To add the hops the lid needs to come off so introduces oxygen and then it gets left for a further five days
Then the instructions say to siphon into barrel or another container to add the priming sugar
I normally bottle but the instruction say the priming sugar is the perfect amount hence my thought was to put the priming sugar in the secondary container siphon the beer into it and then it says to stir again introducing yet more oxygen the benefit would be that the priming sugar is evenly distributed
And then, obviously to bottle

I’ve only done two kit form brews but I’ve done a lot of read up and the addition of oxygen seems to be a popular reason for brews going bad

Not sure if I’m overthinking this

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thanks for the reply @Stu's Brews
unfortunately I’ve got a few further questions

To add the hops the lid needs to come off so introduces oxygen and then it gets left for a further five days
Then the instructions say to siphon into barrel or another container to add the priming sugar
I normally bottle but the instruction say the priming sugar is the perfect amount hence my thought was to put the priming sugar in the secondary container siphon the beer into it and then it says to stir again introducing yet more oxygen the benefit would be that the priming sugar is evenly distributed
And then, obviously to bottle

I’ve only done two kit form brews but I’ve done a lot of read up and the addition of oxygen seems to be a popular reason for brews going bad

Not sure if I’m overthinking this

When you add the hops there is a likelihood some oxygen will be introduced. Adding them close to the end of fermenation does two things. Firstly, it ensures the headspace of the fermenter is full of CO2, which can act as a temporary blanket to limit the amount of oxygen which may be introduced - this does assume you are only opening the lid for a very short time to add the hops. Secondly, the fact the yeast are still active means that any oxygen that is introduced will be absorbed by them. If you were to dry hop after fermentation had completely finished (e.g. after two weeks) then the yeast won't be in a position to do anything about the oxygen as they are no longer actively fermenting.

Using a second container/bottling bucket is a perfectly acceptable approach for batch priming. I personally wouldn't give it much of a stir, if any at all, as the flow of beer entering the container should be sufficient to evenly mix the sugar (this can be aided by first putting the sugar in a 250ml of boiled water to make it into a slurry and making sure the beer is flowing into the bottom of the container). You don't really need to add any oxygen, however, as above, any that is added will be absorbed by the yeast during the secondary fermentation in bottle. That all said, I would personally stick with what you have done for other kits if you have found that process works well ('If it ain't broke, don't fix it').

 

[shd]

When you add the hops there is a likelihood some oxygen will be introduced. Adding them close to the end of fermenation does two things. Firstly, it ensures the headspace of the fermenter is full of CO2, which can act as a temporary blanket to limit the amount of oxygen which may be introduced - this does assume you are only opening the lid for a very short time to add the hops. Secondly, the fact the yeast are still active means that any oxygen that is introduced will be absorbed by them. If you were to dry hop after fermentation had completely finished (e.g. after two weeks) then the yeast won't be in a position to do anything about the oxygen as they are no longer actively fermenting.

Using a second container/bottling bucket is a perfectly acceptable approach for batch priming. I personally wouldn't give it much of a stir, if any at all, as the flow of beer entering the container should be sufficient to evenly mix the sugar (this can be aided by first putting the sugar in a 250ml of boiled water to make it into a slurry and making sure the beer is flowing into the bottom of the container). You don't really need to add any oxygen, however, as above, any that is added will be absorbed by the yeast during the secondary fermentation in bottle. That all said, I would personally stick with what you have done for other kits if you have found that process works well ('If it ain't broke, don't fix it').

Thanks again @Stu's Brews

My first kits didn’t have the need to add hops or used priming sugar either
I used carbonation drops for those hence these two elements in this kit are new to me and got me thinking, or overthinking as the case, maybe

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thanks again @Stu's Brews

My first kits didn’t have the need to add hops or used priming sugar either
I used carbonation drops for those hence these two elements in this kit are new to me and got me thinking, or overthinking as the case, maybe

Carbonation drops do the same job as adding priming sugar so you could add the sugar directly to the bottles if you preferred, but you would need to ensure you aren't adding too much to some and not enough to others.