Festival Summer Glory Golden Ale

[Graz]

Got this underway last night. Quite an extensive kit, two pouches of malt + a bag of dextrose for the main brew, 10g English ale yeast, bag of sugar for priming, and dried elderflower and hop additions.

Brewed as per the instructions, came in around 1.042 - 4, hard to say exactly as I couldn't get rid of the froth in the trial jar The dried elderflowers get lobbed in at the beginning.

Had a bit of trouble with the last Festival kit I did, two kettles of boiling water left the final temperature a bit higher than I'd have liked but it was okay, this time though I used less and kept checking.

Still not entirely convinced by these pouches they supply the malt in, so much easier to rinse out a tin.

Looking forward to drinking this over the later part of the summer (assuming it returns). Will update this as things progress.

It's now sat in the brew fridge at a steady 20 degrees.

 

[Bigjas]

I do like the Festival kits, I have drunk a Golden Stag kit and currently fermenting a Razorback. I don't mind the pouches that much, I use part of the 3 litres of boiling water and put it in the pouches for a few mins to loosen the syrup from the pouch and swill it around. The pouches end up pretty much clean :thumb: I'll be following this thread as Mrs Bigjas likes the summer ales.

Jas

 

[pms67]

Its a lovely drop, may be an acquired taste due to the elderflower but i love it.
I have made it twice but the second time I only added half the dried elderflower so i could use it in another Ale i was brewing.
Enjoy

 

[Slid]

Good move on the Elderflower. Very much an acquired taste, especially at the amount I bunged in a Wherry kit. Six months later it was still a bit much. Managed to drink it, though :lol:

 

[Graz]

Despite feeling pretty rough thanks to my daughter giving me a nasty cold (man-flu) this got transferred to the pressure barrel last night six days after adding the hops. Was going to do it on day five but felt even worse then. I was amazed by the final gravity reading, it had got down to about 1.007 and that was before I added the hops. Did taste quite sharp / dry at that stage so hopefully it will mellow. Very light coloured ale and looked nice and clear already when syphoning. Should be sampling this in about six weeks.

 

[pms67]

Going to get this kit done tonight, only 25 grams of hops?
Wow, I must have annihilated my palate with hops over the years as that won’t be near enough, need to dig out 100g of something

 

[Ale House Rock]

This is one of my favourite kits. I made it as per the instructions. I have made other kits with larger amounts of hops as I do enjoy a hoppy IPA but I didn't think that the 25g with this kit was too little.

 

[Graz]

Funny that this thread has got resurrected as I've got one of these on the go at the moment!

 

[Bragwr]

I’m about to get one of these in the FV tomorrow or the day after. After reading this thread I have a couple of questions though.

How much of the elderflower pack should I be putting in?
and
What fermentation temperature should I be aiming for? I notice the kit advises 20-25 C but I usually try to ferment ales cooler than this.
Any tips from anyone that has brewed this kit before would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

 

[Graz]

I’m about to get one of these in the FV tomorrow or the day after. After reading this thread I have a couple of questions though.

How much of the elderflower pack should I be putting in?
and
What fermentation temperature should I be aiming for? I notice the kit advises 20-25 C but I usually try to ferment ales cooler than this.
Any tips from anyone that has brewed this kit before would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Well that probably depends how much you like elderflower. I've only made this kit the once and admittedly it was quite a long time ago (2016 I started this thread!) but I don't remember the elderflower being over powering and I put the whole lot in. I did the same this time around. If you're not so much of a fan of floral flavours or have more sensitive taste maybe add 1/2 to 2/3 of it.

I have fermented this kit at 20°C pretty much the same as any other ale kit I make. Ale yeasts don't like it too cold and below 18°C might become inactive.

 

[Bragwr]

Thanks for the advice
I just finished brewing it around midday. I have to say that having all the ingredients included in the kit made for a very 'faff free' morning and the malt pouches were easier than I expected to empty cleanly too.
I'm good with the idea of the floral elderflower notes so I included all the dried elderflowers, save for a teaspoonful which I'm going to rehydrate so as to compare rehydrated elderflowers with my memory of the real thing.
I set up the blow off pipe and stuck the fv in the water bath at 20°C like you (and the instructions) advise so everything should now be good to go.
Cheers again for the heads up

 

[Hagafan]

Despite feeling pretty rough thanks to my daughter giving me a nasty cold (man-flu) this got transferred to the pressure barrel last night six days after adding the hops. Was going to do it on day five but felt even worse then. I was amazed by the final gravity reading, it had got down to about 1.007 and that was before I added the hops. Did taste quite sharp / dry at that stage so hopefully it will mellow. Very light coloured ale and looked nice and clear already when syphoning. Should be sampling this in about six weeks.

Can you remember what gravity you got down to when you were ready to barrel /bottle. This is my first kit I'm at 1.006

 

[Ale House Rock]

Can you remember what gravity you got down to when you were ready to barrel /bottle. This is my first kit I'm at 1.006

I was at 1.009 which is bang on what what the instructions say. Sounds like you are good to go.