Golden Stag (Festival) kit form Brew UK

[Hairy_J]

Hi All,
I was given a gift of a festival ales golden stag summer beer kit from brew Uk, with FV, keg pressure barrel, tap, syphon etc. Very happy, so I started the brew almost straight away and all seems to be going ok .
Initial OG 1.044, after 1 week 1.010 when I added the hop pellet pouch , so this weekend will siphon to the keg pressure barrel (after checking for stable hydrometer readings)
- now here’s the questions and I have 2
1 hydrometer readings, does everyone sterilise a jug, take a sample to put in the measuring tube , then throw it away or is there a better way? Can you sterilise the hydrometer and test in the FV? Or does that expose it to too much air??
2 in the kit was a red plastic small gas bottle holder and gas pellet to use to pressurise the keg. When would I use that? As soon as I have siphoned the ‘brew’ from the FV and added the sugar, or after some period of time. It’s not mentioned in the instructions??
cheers
Hairy

 

[NotSure]

Hi Hairy,
To answer your questions:
(1) Nowadays I use a trial jar for hydrometer readings and discard the beer afterward. When I was starting out though, I'd put the hydrometer directly into the FV. I think for starting-out the latter is fine.
(2) If you're adding sugar to what sounds like a pressure barrel, I'd give the yeast time to carbonate the beer. Once they're done, then I'd use the gas to maintain the pressure once the beer begins to be consumed. At room temp, a week to 10 days or thereabouts should be fine to let the yeast carbonate the beer from the sugar you added.
Enjoy your kit!

 

[damienair]

For point 2, the carbonation needs to be done at room temperature (20-22 degrees).
I have a tap on both my Fermentation buckets so I pull a sample into the trial jar and take a hydrometer reading. Afterwards I take a sample from the trial jar to taste and throw what’s left down the sink. I don’t sanitise the hydrometer or trial jar unless they are in direct contact with the beer on inside of the fermentation bucket.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. I’d be interested in giving this kit a go.

 

[Hairy_J]

the hydro readings stabilised from initial 1.044 to 1.006, so I siphoned it into a pressure keg with the next sachet of sugar and put it on heat mat with the temp set for 21deg. I checked it today any its totally flat beer, no pressure in the keg. ( it’s got a co2 port on the screw lid. I had put some Vaseline and didn’t over tighten) so a bit puzzled. I Sterelised a long spoon to check and all the sugar has gone so I’ve added the co2 and put it garage (cooler)
what do you think the chances are for a drinkable result

 

[NotSure]

Sorry to hear that! My only suggestion is to maybe add some fresh yeast and triple-check the seals. As long as it doesn't taste off, you're still OK at this point. When you say "the sugar has gone", I'm guessing you mean it's dissolved.

Admittedly, I'm a bit puzzled by the 1.006 hydrometer reading since that's a bit on the low-side, but shouldn't have negatively affected carbonation (in fact the opposite).

I started-out in brewing use pressure kegs and found them to be nothing but problems, so you're not alone. Maybe others have better luck or skill using them. If you put it on CO2 already, you can still back-out and try the above. If it's a seal leak, you're not going to carbonate. If your seals are good, you'll get some and I couldn't say if it'd be enough.

 

[Hairy_J]

Yes I sugar had dissolved (I wondered if it was just sat at the bottom hence the check with the spoon)
what type of yeast would I need and how much, and would it need more sugar if it had used it all and gone flat already??
I’ll check later on if the co2 has retained any pressure in there by way of checking the seals

 

[NotSure]

If you check the gravity with the hydrometer again, it should tell you if the sugar is still there. If the hydrometer reads 1.006, the sugar has been eaten by the yeast and you have a leak. In this case, if you can fix the leak, adding the same amount of sugar should do the trick because the yeast are still there. If the hydrometer reads above 1.006, then all the sugar hasn't been eaten. In this case, use the same strain of yeast if possible.

 

[Polcho]

This was my first kit, on the advise of the chap in the home brew shop.

It was very nice

The temperature control was a nightmare though. So much so that I decided not to do it again. Then I read about the Grainfather temp controlled fv

The second one I tried was the festival Razorback IPA. Perfect in the fv. Not over impressed with the taste though.
Monday I did another Summer stag.

This time the kit had two packets of yeast, no bag for the pellets and this red thing has not been in either kit.
I called the home brew shop to see if two packs of yeast this time was ok to use in one batch. He just said if it’s there, use it.
I have to say, I was hoping for a better answer, one in the first, two in the second, could be a packing error. Let’s hope it goes ok.

 

[trummy]

If I were you I would reprime and bottle the beer, its no good pumping CO2 into the PB if its leaking, the beer should be ok. Re taking hydrometer reading I run a drop of beer off into a hydrometer 'cylinder' take the reading then dispose of the cylinder contents - by drinking it (waste not want not). I actually brew in the PV which has a high level tap so its easy to run off a small quantity of beer without sterilizing any thing and it keeps the risk of contamination to a minimum with its smaller neck. For years I brewed without a hydrometer - just used to take a sip and use mouth feel to check for any yeast activity.

 

[Hairy_J]

I got a replacement lid with co2 port which didnt leak out of the inlet port but didnt seem to keep the pressure in the keg after a day or so. So have gone down the Corny keg route - just waiting for delivery anytime now, then I'll see how that turns out. Seeing as they were delivering anyway I have a razorback IPA and a Father Hook coming to brew, so it will be interesting to see how these turn out.
Also I will be boring and fitting a tap to the bottom of the FV - is it possible / worth / practical to add some kind of filter on that so I dont get any hops etc moving from the FV to the keg? I was as careful as I could be syphoning and still got bits coming through so expect the tap to be similar?

 

[Hairy_J]

Just thought I would update:
I used a corny keg and co2 and left it for a week or so and I now have (see pic):

It appears to be getting clearer the more I drink. It is also tasting pretty good. Considering the temp control and the amount of air it was in contact with it seems all good.
Going to start another Festival kit after I’ve drilled and installed a tap in the FV and try for better temp control and less air