Muntons smugglers special ale

[Bombers hoppy ending]

Just put this on today. Interesting to see what it’s like. Hopefully a nice Xmas/winter drink.
Interesting thing was that the kit only came with 6g of unspecified yeast.
I thought this was a thing of the past and that even Woodford’s wherry comes with 2 packs now.
Fortunately I had a 10g pack of English ale yeast kept from another kit that I substituted for verdant.
So the smugglers for a 16g dose. Let’s see how that goes.

 

[Suffolk Supper]

I’ve brewed a couple of these and found it very drinkable , I did leave in the FB a further couple of weeks extra good choice

 

[VW911]

FWIW, Santa's Winter Warmer is Smugglers, just brewed short! 36 pints as opposed to 40.
(Both good, but why pay extra for a picture of Santa on the box?)

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

It’s gone off like a rocket. Hadn’t checked it since Wednesday morning to see it had already started after only 16hrs. Had a quick look in the fermentation fridge today and the Krausen has already dropped. Took a sample and checked the SG. Down from 1050-1018. Raised the temp by a deg to 20C just to aid it finishing. Will check it again at the end of the week and see if it’s down to the expected SG. Then sort out chilling before bottling.

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

So smugglers was cold crashed at 15 days to 4C. Having taken a sample on day 8 after the Krausen had almost gone and SG was down to 1.018. 2nd sample taken on day 14 1.016, so considered finished.
Bottled on day 21 using a beer gun and CO2 purging the bottles prior to bottling. Decided after doing a test on 5 of the previously bottled IPA, to not add any priming sugar and just rely on the dissolved CO2 for a lightly carb’d ale. However this time I bottled at the 4C to retain as much as possible.
Noticed that after the week at 4C, the pressure had dropped from 7psi down to fractionally positive. No signs of leak to I suspect the CO2 had been absorbed into the beer.
Used a PET bottle for one and squeezed out the void space before screwing the lid on. Just to check pressure increase when warmed up. After 24hrs at 20c the PET bottle is now plump and lightly pressured, so things appear ok.

SG was slightly down on expected @ 1.016 resulting in an ABV of 4.5. So still very acceptable.
I’ll give it another couple of days in the warm and then taste test. The sample seemed ok though.

Learning with the pressure fermentation adds another dimension.

 

[Suffolk Supper]

I’ve never bottled the smugglers, I have always barrelled at end of fermentation I have alway left it for a extra couple of weeks or so then added 160g of table sugar and put in a warm environment for approximately a further two weeks then moved it to a cooler area a left it for a further month .
How did your purge the c02 in bottles? And how clear is it ? L

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

I have a bottling gun that connects to the CO2 cylinder. Tip goes in the bottle, puff of CO2 the bottom fill.
Due to fermenting under pressure the beer already has some CO2 dissolved it so not wanting to over carb it.
Early days to see how clear it is yet. Only bottled yesterday. No reason to think it won’t clear as all the others have.

 

[Clint]

I’ve never bottled the smugglers, I have always barrelled at end of fermentation I have alway left it for a extra couple of weeks or so then added 160g of table sugar and put in a warm environment for approximately a further two weeks then moved it to a cooler area a left it for a further month .
How did your purge the c02 in bottles? And how clear is it ? L

What barrel are you putting 160g of sugar in?

 

[Suffolk Supper]

I think it will turn out fine ! I always use a normal pressure barrel then when it’s getting low I then inject a c02 cartridge

 

[Suffolk Supper]

 

[Suffolk Supper]