St Peter's Honey Porter

[DarkHorse]

Ok, not quite a reveiw yet but I picked this up from Colchester home brew yesterday and am planning on brewing it Friday evening. I'm a relative novice so watch this space...

 

[Slid]

Ok, not quite a reveiw yet but I picked this up from Colchester home brew yesterday and am planning on brewing it Friday evening. I'm a relative novice so watch this space...

Well, a Honey Porter sounds interesting, at the very least.

I've always had a fondness for Guinness and Cider and did eventually hit on the idea of brewing a Stout and mixing it with cheap supermarket cider.

This kit sounds to be broadly similar sort of a plan, so i am interested in how this turns out.

The best advice to any novice kit brewer is very simple.

Ignore all the the timings mentioned in your kit instuctions:

Leave the brewing wort for 2 weeks before bottling (or kegging)
Leave it a further 2 weeks in relative warmth to carbonate
Leave it it at least 2 weeks in relative cool before drinking

And in between:

If in Doubt:
Leave it alone. Don't look inside, don't even peek inside, don't mess with it.
Leave it to sort itself out.

A kit like this will make very good and drinkable beer and brewing at this time of year will be fine.

 

[DarkHorse]

Thanks for the advice. With my previous kits, I have just left them alone to get on with it for at least 10 days and then have a look to see whats happening, seems to have worked ok so far. The more I do the happier I feel and reading how other people go about things and picking up ideas as well as increasing my equipment is all improving my brewing.

 

[MyQul]

The greg hughes book as an AG receipe for a honey porter. He states it has a "unique character thanks to the addition of honey"

 

[DarkHorse]

Managed to get this on the go this afternoon. Followed the basic instructions on the box and all seems to have gone ok so far. The kit itself was nicely presented, two cans with a satchet of hop powder (goldings) and yeast.

Very nice smell on opening the cans, definate honey scent and a really dark colour to the wort. OG came in at 1046 so just got to play the waiting game now. I'll leave it be in the fv for a while and update soon. Cheers.

 

[DarkHorse]

Quick update, plenty of activity in the fv looks like a nice foam head developing (krausan?)

 

[BeerCat]

Sounds like i might have to buy one of these. Love the St. Peters kits, drinking some of their stout now. Keep us updated Dark Horse :)

 

[DarkHorse]

Will do, I have a feeling it might be one to bottle and forget for a few months to get the best from it.

 

[DarkHorse]

Fv felt a little cool to the touch when i got home from work so I've put a heat belt on it, didn't want to open it up to check the temp.

 

[BeerCat]

Just ordered one of these. Should be on the go by the weekend. Did it come with a sachet of hop powder?

 

[DarkHorse]

It did indeed, Goldings hop powder. I found it strange that the instructions suggest to add all the powder prior to adding the yeast. I don't normally prefer too much hop flavour but thought I'd stick to the instructions and can always modify a subsequent brew. Mines on day 8 in the fv, unfortunately I've had to move them about because of building work so hoping no damage has been done.

 

[BeerCat]

Cool. I bought a few packets of them before and added them to my AG's. Smells really nice. Am sure your beer will be fine, i move mine if the kitchen gets too full. St Peters kits are great.

 

[BeerCat]

Must say this kit smells amazing. Very strong scent of honey. Hows yours going ?
Pitched last night but its cold in my kitchen this morning and nothings happening yet. Impatient as always. Was gonna make a starter but too knackered Will save the yeast from this and try and brew one myself.

 

[LarryF]

The greg hughes book as an AG receipe for a honey porter. He states it has a "unique character thanks to the addition of honey"

I use honey to bump up my ABV, when using 1kg of BE with a 23L kit, 120g of honey will bring the ABV to about 6% or just over.

 

[DarkHorse]

Must say this kit smells amazing. Very strong scent of honey. Hows yours going ?
Pitched last night but its cold in my kitchen this morning and nothings happening yet. Impatient as always. Was gonna make a starter but too knackered Will save the yeast from this and try and brew one myself.

Well, it'll be two weeks tomorrow in the fv, so I'll check the gravity and go from there. I've had to move it in to the shed because of building works where i normally brew. Activity looks to have stopped so maybe I'll get it bottled tomorrow.

 

[DarkHorse]

Righto, hydrometer reading came in at 1010 (which should make it about 5.3%) i was happy with that so decided to bottle it today, couldn't see any benefit it leaving it longer. Primed 40 pet bottles with a half teaspoon of brewing sugar. Had a little taster of the batch and am pretty pleased with it, it's a lovely deep dark red colour with a definate honey smell and taste, something else going on too but can't put my finger on it, planning on leaving alone for a couple of months as i think it needs to age. Probably not a session beer but as a pint on its own, i reckon it's going to be very nice. When this building work is done, i can crack on with the next one. Cheers.

 

[BeerCat]

Brewed short to 21l and it got down to the same as you FG 1010. Mine works out at 4.6%. Lovely honey smell and taste, drank the sample. I really cant see this hanging around for long. Cheers again Horse, wouldn't of known about this if i hadn't read your thread. :

 

[DarkHorse]

No worries, glad yours came out ok. I've got an interesting Christmas kit lined up for next weekend, so watch out for another review.

 

[Bramble]

The St peter's Stout I started yesterday has overnight formed a dome in the lid of my FV.:thumb:
How much did you pay for the Kit, the one I bought was just over £28?

 

[DarkHorse]

I think it was £26 off the top of my head, bought a load of other bits at the same time. Hows your stout going?