St Peters Golden Ale review

[jphil123]

I dry hopped (late hop addition) St.Peters Golden Ale with Wakatu (New Zealand Hallertauer Mittelfruh) hop pellets. Cracked open a couple of bottles tonight after only a week to check on carbonation. I'm very impressed by the result. To put that in perspective: I do like hopped beers, but I'm not a total hop-head in the US craft beer (IPA) style, which to me is frequently over-the-top. To qualify the result further: this is the first beer that I got offered money for from people that I shared it with (which I declined, of course). My only concerns are that a) when this matures, it may get more dry making the hops even more profound and b) carbonation may not have completed resulting in excessively fizzy ale/bottle bombs over the next weeks.....

And here goes for the brewing details:
- Filled the FV to 20 litres and pitched the yeast at 24*C (no yeast starter). OG came in at 1.050.
- Let the temperature drop to 22*C and kept it very constant there for 3 weeks.
- Added 50g of Wakatu pellets in a muslin bag into the FV after 7 days.
- The FG dropped to about 1.013 and didn't move for a week, so decided to bottle.
- Made a mistake when toying with an online priming calculator and probably "over-carbed", using 110g of dextrose (brewing sugar).
- After one week: head retention all the way down the glass, mirco foam/bubbles, good body and great length of taste.

Lessons learnt/ hypothesis adopted:
- Leaving the brew extra long in the (primary) FV allows the yeast to 'clean up after themselves' and speeds up the bottle conditioning.
- Constant temperatures seem to produce very clean tasting beer.
- Dry hopping is a great way to tweak kit-brews to taste and add an extra 'craft beer' dimension. Time will tell how this turns out in a couple of months. Perhaps I need to try 25g/20 litres next time, just to be safe.
- Book a long vacation directly after bottling this one next time......

Disclosure: this is my 7th home brew kit and I have been brewing for about 6 months.

 

[marksa222]

Wouldnt worry about the hops. They tend to reduce in intensity over time rather than increase. Also its not a particularly high AA% hop and its not an excessive amount used.
If you're anything like me when it comes to apa's, you've really got to be in the mood. They can be ott, but the thing I find ott with them is the sharp bite of bitterness. Id imagine these will be down to high quantities of high alpha acid hops at the start of the boil. Dry hopping adds alot, but for aroma, which i've never had a problem with when it comes to apas.
As far as carbonation goes, maybe 110g is on the high side when it comes to this style of beer, but if you can keep hold of them until it gets warmer, i've always found a highly carbed, cool, light ale to be very refreshing :)

 

[Oakers73]

Hi All..A newbie here so please be gentle. I have this kit as my first ever brew, it has been in the Fermenting Vessel for 7 days but is still bubbling away every 40 seconds or so.... kit instructions say to bottle at 6 days..should I wait until it appears to have stopped fermenting? Have read it is Ok to leave in the FV for 2 weeks....can I screw it up by leaving it in? Thanks...

 

[jphil123]

Hi All..A newbie here so please be gentle. I have this kit as my first ever brew, it has been in the Fermenting Vessel for 7 days but is still bubbling away every 40 seconds or so.... kit instructions say to bottle at 6 days..should I wait until it appears to have stopped fermenting? Have read it is Ok to leave in the FV for 2 weeks....can I screw it up by leaving it in? Thanks...

Hi Oakers. I'm not all that experienced either, but my limited experience has taught me that leaving it (a little) longer in a FV is better. The instructions on kits seem insanely optimistic/unrealistic. Guess that is why most people on here don't even bother to read them anymore. I left mine for 21 days and it turned out great.

 

[Oakers73]

Great...Thanks for the response...its still chugging away so I am goingto leave it right where it is.:-)

 

[Oakers73]

Just tested this with hydrometer and had to swig the sample...its great already..and really golden. Exciting this brewing lark ain't it?

 

[Oakers73]

All bottled up with no real drama.....41 x 500ml bottles all gonna be locked in a dark warm place. How long in the warm guys? Was batch primed with 85 grams of beer kit enhancer...looked a bit cloudy but we'll see eh?

 

[jphil123]

Wouldnt worry about the hops. They tend to reduce in intensity over time rather than increase. Also its not a particularly high AA% hop and its not an excessive amount used.
If you're anything like me when it comes to apa's, you've really got to be in the mood. They can be ott, but the thing I find ott with them is the sharp bite of bitterness. Id imagine these will be down to high quantities of high alpha acid hops at the start of the boil. Dry hopping adds alot, but for aroma, which i've never had a problem with when it comes to apas.
As far as carbonation goes, maybe 110g is on the high side when it comes to this style of beer, but if you can keep hold of them until it gets warmer, i've always found a highly carbed, cool, light ale to be very refreshing :)

Thanks for the feedback, and you are very right, nothing to worry about. Just cracked open another bottle, and found it is more balanced now. I guess it is still way too early to drink, but so hard to resist.

What strikes me most about this kit is the length of the taste, it just lingers on for about a minute, has good body without being cloying or heavy. Wish I had more discipline in keeping this one until spring/summer, but doubt if it is going to last that long.

To summarise: highly recommended kit (with the 50g dry hop addition) that I will highly likely do again. Perhaps next time with a touch less dextrose, say 90g.

 

[jphil123]

All bottled up with no real drama.....41 x 500ml bottles all gonna be locked in a dark warm place. How long in the warm guys? Was batch primed with 85 grams of beer kit enhancer...looked a bit cloudy but we'll see eh?

Mine took just a week to carbonate. Now 2 weeks in the bottle and I am very happy. So, I would say, open one next week. However, I used dextrose, which is more fermentable than brew enhancer, plus I used more, so perhaps yours takes a little longer (but may have more body). I put mine in a cold space, and it is clearing up nicely. Not crystal clear, but acceptable.

Let us know how yours turns out. To me, this is my best brew so far. To put that into context, I brewed: MYO Mild, Brewferm Diabolo, Brewferm Tarwe, Brewferm Golden Summer, Coopers IPA and Brewferm Gold before this kit. Now drinking a Brewferm Pils ( to keep myself from opening another Golden Ale which is way better!).

 

[Oakers73]

Well as advised, I have opened one after a week in the bottle and it is Ok. ...A bit of fizz and some head. Flavour is still a bit sweet but getting there... but was surpisingly clear . will leave them in the warm for another week or so and then out to the garage...will try and post a pic of my first ever pint if beer I brewed myself....really really chuffed

 

[Oakers73]

After 2 weeks in the warm I had another taste tonight....really impressed.... cannot wait to try one after being out in the cold for weeks...

 

[Oakers73]

A week in the cold and I gave one to my Brother in Law tonight who wolfed it down and asked for another....Chuffed. ...

 

[jphil123]

I dry hopped (late hop addition) St.Peters Golden Ale with Wakatu (New Zealand Hallertauer Mittelfruh) hop pellets. Cracked open a couple of bottles tonight after only a week to check on carbonation. I'm very impressed by the result. To put that in perspective: I do like hopped beers, but I'm not a total hop-head in the US craft beer (IPA) style, which to me is frequently over-the-top. To qualify the result further: this is the first beer that I got offered money for from people that I shared it with (which I declined, of course). My only concerns are that a) when this matures, it may get more dry making the hops even more profound and b) carbonation may not have completed resulting in excessively fizzy ale/bottle bombs over the next weeks.....

And here goes for the brewing details:
- Filled the FV to 20 litres and pitched the yeast at 24*C (no yeast starter). OG came in at 1.050.
- Let the temperature drop to 22*C and kept it very constant there for 3 weeks.
- Added 50g of Wakatu pellets in a muslin bag into the FV after 7 days.
- The FG dropped to about 1.013 and didn't move for a week, so decided to bottle.
- Made a mistake when toying with an online priming calculator and probably "over-carbed", using 110g of dextrose (brewing sugar).
- After one week: head retention all the way down the glass, mirco foam/bubbles, good body and great length of taste.

Lessons learnt/ hypothesis adopted:
- Leaving the brew extra long in the (primary) FV allows the yeast to 'clean up after themselves' and speeds up the bottle conditioning.
- Constant temperatures seem to produce very clean tasting beer.
- Dry hopping is a great way to tweak kit-brews to taste and add an extra 'craft beer' dimension. Time will tell how this turns out in a couple of months. Perhaps I need to try 25g/20 litres next time, just to be safe.
- Book a long vacation directly after bottling this one next time......

Disclosure: this is my 7th home brew kit and I have been brewing for about 6 months.

About 1 month in the bottle now, so time for a quick update: quite fizzy, but not disturbing. Good head retention. The aroma of the Wakatu hops is more muted but definitely adds to the brew. Taste is lovely dry with a good bitter note. Balance and length. So lovely to drink now that it will be very hard to hold on to the remaining bottles to see how it develops from here (but I will try). I definitely return to this kit again and will brew it as close to the above as possible (with probably slightly less dextrose for priming). Other than it is not crystal clear, the perfect pint for me.

 

[Oakers73]

I have only got 4 bottles of this left....that cant be right surely? ;-)

 

[jphil123]

I have only got 4 bottles of this left....that cant be right surely? ;-)

I'm sure strictly friends and family drinking your brew, right? You just have the odd little taster bottle?
Same inexplicable phenomenon is happening here: somehow 15 litres have gone missing....

 

[jphil123]

I made this before Christmas and found it to be a very good kit, with one major drawback as far as I was concerned: it seemed to get worse with age! It started fine but flavour faded with increase in dryness. I'd need to try it again to see if it was my palette and not the beer before I recommended it.

I actually agree with you. Mine is now a little over 2 months in the bottle and to my palette it is losing it's appeal by turning into a hoppy, dry beer. It's okay to drink, but doesn't have the balance and length that got me really excited about a month ago (or could this just be a phase the brew is going through whilst maturing?). Still, will brew this again, to pretty much the same specifications, but will make a note to drink this between 2 to 6 weeks after bottling.

One final drawback: the yeast doesn't seem to compact much, which with my overcarbed batch makes it impossible to get a fairly clear pint.

 

[jphil123]

I started off another StP's Golden Ale and will brew this as previously (see earlier post). However, I seriously doubt if this will be anywhere near as nice. Reason is that the smell from the hop-sachet was very cheesy. Unfortunately, I was distracted when pitching this and didn't smell it before it was too late.......really unpleasant cheese/sweaty feet smell. I did check the use-by date which was 2016. Hope it disappears or I can mask it by dry-hopping, but I fear I'm fermenting something straight for the drain. Will keep you posted.

P.S. I did a dual brew tonight. The StP's IPA's hop-sachet had a wonderful hoppy smell (albeit very strong!).

 

[Arch41c]

Just having myself a sneaky sample of my Golden..

Been in the keg a fortnight, tastes quite reasonable for it's age and the fact this is my 1st homebrew...

Wish i'd left in the house for more than 48 hours to allow it to clear but it's going down well as it ...

 

[jphil123]

I started off another StP's Golden Ale and will brew this as previously (see earlier post). However, I seriously doubt if this will be anywhere near as nice. Reason is that the smell from the hop-sachet was very cheesy. Unfortunately, I was distracted when pitching this and didn't smell it before it was too late.......really unpleasant cheese/sweaty feet smell. I did check the use-by date which was 2016. Hope it disappears or I can mask it by dry-hopping, but I fear I'm fermenting something straight for the drain. Will keep you posted.

Update: I dry-hopped this batch after 9 days with 100g Wakatu, gravity was still at 1.020 then. I bottled after 24 days with 100g of dextrose. It came down to 1.010. Now it is about 3.5 weeks old. It turned out alright, so I was worried about nothing. Tastes lovely.

 

[Fore]

OG 1.049; 21 days ferment; FG 1.013 = 4.8% of a target of 4.7%.
56p/pint; a little on the pricy side due to the fact it brews only 36 pints.

Nice beer this.

I continue to work through all the kits that strike me of interest, this being number 13. My personal preference is for a cleaner flavour; not flavourless, just more hoppy than malty, and this hits the mark. As an ale it's still very flavoursome, but with less malt aftertaste. "Golden Ale" perfectly describes this; a summer drink for an ale drinker.

From a malt perspective this leans closer to Muntons Midas Touch without overwhelming with the extreme fruity flavour that comes with Midas Touch. Don't get me wrong, I really like what Midas touch offers, as it's so different and refreshing from most others I've tried. St Peters Golden Ale is of the same general type but retaining a bit of the maltyness and bitterness of other kits I've tried, while being more relaxed on the fruitines of Midas Touch. So as a summary, a well balanced beer likely to appeal to a wide audience.

I'm happy to class this firmly in my top 5 kits.