St Peters Golden Ale review

[jobby]

brewed this one for the wife as she prefers the golden ale, its been over a month now in the keg and is a nice drink but with the hop bag used that comes with the kit a little to hoppy for my taste, i do prefer slightly darker beers, maybe use half the hops next time. bottled a few pints for the store as im led to believe this gets better and better with age.
i dont take any reading at the start but got this down to 1012 before kegging with 85 grams of normal sugar if thats of any help. :

 

[SE10PAT]

Hop bag!? I never got one with mine :-(

 

[jobby]

Hop bag!? I never got one with mine :-(

i got one in the ruby red lit too,
well the gold ale went well on saturday at my daughters 21st its all gone will defo be doing another very soon

 

[Slate Miner]

Made this ale as per instructions, my kit also came with a 'hop' sachet.

In the FV for 2 weeks, fermented ok, OG 1042, FV 1011, so an ABV of around 4.2 -4.3% (packaging says 4.7%) Ended up with 35 pints, primed with half a teaspoon of sugar. The bottles were then placed in a warm room for 1 week before transfering to the garage.

Last night I cracked open my first bottle (3 weeks after bottling) :drink:

My first words were "this good, this is very good"

There is quite a noticable caramel sweetness in the taste, however a moderate dry bitterness balances this out nicely, not particularly hoppy despite the 'hop' sachet. After only 3 weeks this is already tastes quite mature, will be interesting to see how it develops over the next fews weeks.

Early days but I would certainly recommend it, my gut feeling is that I'll probably really enjoy this as a summer ale, slightly chilled :shock:

:

 

[Jamthesun]

Put one of these on last night. Straight forward to do. It's now in the FV in the water bath and has a nice big white crust developing. I had a hop sachet too - that all went in. I do like a hoppy beer.

Will keep you posted.

 

[NathanJR]

I'm about to order one of these kits. I like the supermarket version (on offer in Tesco express : ) and the reviews for the kit seem to be very good.

One question - what is "dry hopping"? I've seen it suggested to do this instead of sing the hop sachet provided.

 

[LeffeFan]

I'm about to order one of these kits. I like the supermarket version (on offer in Tesco express : ) and the reviews for the kit seem to be very good.

One question - what is "dry hopping"? I've seen it suggested to do this instead of sing the hop sachet provided.

I think (sure someone with more knowledge will correct me) but dry hopping is putting the hops into the brew direct or "dry" rather than making a tea and putting the liquid in.

 

[fatbelly]

One question - what is "dry hopping"? I've seen it suggested to do this instead of sing the hop sachet provided.

Dry Hopping is simply putting Hops directly into the FV towards the end of the fermentation. I don't keg but I have heard of people putting hops directly in to the keg.

 

[Rambo perego]

Definitely want to do this one next, fingers crossed for Fathers day!

Thanks for the reviews!

 

[Slate Miner]

Down to my last 3 bottles now :whistle: and after 4 months in the bottle this brew is improving all the time, however it's taken all that time for the hops to really come through. IMHO not one to drink too early, it really is worth giving it a few months . :

The remaining bottles have been hidden away in a carboard box with a couple of bottles each of Wherry, Ruby Red, & BB IPA where they will remain until Xmas/New Year, improving with age (I hope) :nono: :hmm: :rofl:

 

[NathanJR]

Mine was bottled at the weekend - got 45 bottles full though so I clearly went a bit overboard. Hopefully it won't affect it too much.

Still got it inside (although it's probably warm enough in the garage). It seems to be fairly clear already!

Planning on leaving it until August for our camping trip, if I can resist.

 

[alr1970]

I'm currently brewing my third lot of this (one of my favourite bottled beers!). The first two were kegged with 80g of sugar when the sg was at 1.010 and the top clear of bubbles. But both generated so much CO2 that the kegs started to leak around the tap and the bottom was bowing out. I let some pressure out of the cap and the leak stopped.

The results are great, and it's the only brew I've done that kept pressure in the keg until the end without needing CO2 injection. The next lot will be bottled for a summer beer that can be chilled a bit in the fridge or taken away. But obviously I'm worried about bursting bottles after my experiences with the kegs. Clearly 80g was too much and I'll try 40g next time I keg it. Any suggestions for the bottled lot? I've just moved it to a secondary fermentation in another bucket and it's clearly still fizzing after 2 weeks fermentation. Any other way of checking if fermentation is finished? SG is currently 1.012.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[McMiroculous]

In the FV for 2 weeks, fermented ok, OG 1042, FV 1011, so an ABV of around 4.2 -4.3% (packaging says 4.7%) Ended up with 35 pints, primed with half a teaspoon of sugar. The bottles were then placed in a warm room for 1 week before transfering to the garage. :

What's the purpose of storing further in a warm room before finally placing them in the garage. My first ever batch several weeks ago went straight to the garage but remains a good pint (Woodfordes Wherry). Am I missing a trick?

 

[NathanJR]

Very pleased with this. I bottled mine about 5 weeks ago and it's just about there (tried a sample 10 days ago and it had me worried).

What's better, I let a friend try it with no explanation and he said "it tastes like the one you can buy in the fancy green bottles". That'll be St Peter's Golden Ale!!

I'm not sure how long the 40 bottles will last but I'm going to enjoy them!

 

[alanywiseman.]

Any other way of checking if fermentation is finished? SG is currently 1.012.

From what you discribe your fermentation was not quite finished. I think a keg should be able to take 100g or sugar for secondary fementaion (but i dont use them). For bottles go with 1/2tsp per 500ml bottle or 5g/litre if batch priming.

What's the purpose of storing further in a warm room before finally placing them in the garage. My first ever batch several weeks ago went straight to the garage but remains a good pint (Woodfordes Wherry). Am I missing a trick?

It is to allow secondry fermentation to take place then by putting the brew in the cool CO2 can be more easily absorbed into the brew as well as extend life-span of the brew :thumb:

 

[mike parsons60]

Put one of these on last night. Straight forward to do. It's now in the FV in the water bath and has a nice big white crust developing. I had a hop sachet too - that all went in. I do like a hoppy beer.

Will keep you posted.

hi as a newbie what do you mean water bath?
cheers mike

 

[Barticus]

Put one of these on last night. Straight forward to do. It's now in the FV in the water bath and has a nice big white crust developing. I had a hop sachet too - that all went in. I do like a hoppy beer.

Will keep you posted.

hi as a newbie what do you mean water bath?
cheers mike

Think he means he has put his FV into another container of water to help keep the temperature down.

 

[Drayman151]

i was very disappointed with this golden ale kit and it was well below the previous kit of St peters ruby red i have brewed this was Truly exceptional and if anyone would like to see the pictures feel free to PM me i will gladly send them the pictures and just for the Record The st peters ruby red lasted 2 days i am now brewing 2 kits so i have a 9 gallon cask as it is very poplar :

 

[Pawlo7671]

I brewed this to the instructions, left in the FV for two weeks then bottled, I batch primed with 100g dextrose and it's been in bottles 5 weeks now.
It's spot on, can't fault it and to think I have about 30 odd more bottles of this makes me happy.
I'm deffinatly gonna try the ruby red next as I'm so pleased with this kit.

 

[muddy90]

Put one of these on last night. Straight forward to do. It's now in the FV in the water bath and has a nice big white crust developing. I had a hop sachet too - that all went in. I do like a hoppy beer.

Will keep you posted.

hi as a newbie what do you mean water bath?
cheers mike

Think he means he has put his FV into another container of water to help keep the temperature down.

Looking at the post date, I'd imagine it was the opposite! A water bath with fish tank heater to warm it up.