St. Peters, India Pale Ale

[MikeK117]

Other people have mentioned this but I can vouch that this beer gets better with time.

12 days in the FV
2-4 weeks in the pressure barrel and it was really funny tasting.
6 weeks and its lovely, good head, cleared well and has a smooth taste.

My carbonation isnt great because it's not been anywhere cold, just in my kitchen from day 1. Consequently, the beer flies out of the barrel as the CO2 hasnt made its way into the beer (I think). I'm almost down to the tap and havent had to top up the CO2 and I still cant open the tap the whole way!

 

[Orval62]

Just tasted this my first brew on my return to home brewing, I am so surprised how it's turned out. It is clear, very good head, flies out of the barrel where its been for 4 weeks, no co2 used. Its tastes fantastic no homebrew tastes like I use to get, a smooth hoppy drink. Even gave the wife and daughter some and both said it was very good. :drink:

 

[LeeH]

Just tasted this my first brew on my return to home brewing, I am so surprised how it's turned out. It is clear, very good head, flies out of the barrel where its been for 4 weeks, no co2 used. Its tastes fantastic no homebrew tastes like I use to get, a smooth hoppy drink. Even gave the wife and daughter some and both said it was very good. :drink:

If you think that's good, you'll be VERY happy with the Razorback kit.

 

[Dsaunders70]

Just enjoying my second bottle of the IPA, must admit this is probably one of the best beers I've brewed so far. Absolutelt love it.

 

[jphil123]

Just in case you are considering this kit, but are put-off a little by the comments that this kit needs a long time to mature; I'm really enjoying this after 3 weeks in the bottle.

However, perhaps I gave the beer a longer time in the FV (24 days) than most did, and I dry-hopped it with 60g Willamette and 40g Wakatu after 10 days. Right now, I'm really not sure if I will want to mature this for 2-4 months, because:
- the aroma of the dry-hops is so attractive right now which will decline going forward,
- with age, it will get more dry, making the bitterness more profound,
- to my taste, this is nicely balanced right now, malty-smoothness is balanced by the bitter notes and has great length.

Just my opinion/taste, but I encourage you (do I really need to???) to also sample this beer when fresh! Especially if you have dry-hopped.

In case you wonder, this is what I did:
- Brewed to 19 litres, added nothing, SG 1.050
- 10 days, added dry hops (see above), SG 1.020
- 24 days, dissolved 95g of dextrose in water, FG 1.010 and bottled
- Left out at room temperature for about a week, then transferred to cold.

Lastly, transferring into secondary will probably increase the clarity a lot (mine is only just starting to get clear), but I get the impression that leaving the beer on the yeast a bit longer allows the yeast to 'clean up after themselves' and produce a nice beer faster. I may be wrong (and would welcome your views), but the last few brews that I kept in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks have all turned out great.

 

[serum]

Just in case you are considering this kit, but are put-off a little by the comments that this kit needs a long time to mature; I'm really enjoying this after 3 weeks in the bottle.

However, perhaps I gave the beer a longer time in the FV (24 days) than most did, and I dry-hopped it with 60g Willamette and 40g Wakatu after 10 days. Right now, I'm really not sure if I will want to mature this for 2-4 months, because:
- the aroma of the dry-hops is so attractive right now which will decline going forward,
- with age, it will get more dry, making the bitterness more profound,
- to my taste, this is nicely balanced right now, malty-smoothness is balanced by the bitter notes and has great length.

Just my opinion/taste, but I encourage you (do I really need to???) to also sample this beer when fresh! Especially if you have dry-hopped.

In case you wonder, this is what I did:
- Brewed to 19 litres, added nothing, SG 1.050
- 10 days, added dry hops (see above), SG 1.020
- 24 days, dissolved 95g of dextrose in water, FG 1.010 and bottled
- Left out at room temperature for about a week, then transferred to cold.

Lastly, transferring into secondary will probably increase the clarity a lot (mine is only just starting to get clear), but I get the impression that leaving the beer on the yeast a bit longer allows the yeast to 'clean up after themselves' and produce a nice beer faster. I may be wrong (and would welcome your views), but the last few brews that I kept in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks have all turned out great.

I'd agree with this. It tastes good early but it does improve if you leave it and only use the hop sachet you get with it.

I think your dry hopping will have meant that it tastes better early on as the kit on its own is bitter but with a nice maltiness rather than having tons of aroma like some do. I find once the bitterness has died down it's a bit nicer.

It's a fantastic kit though, I've never had a beer like it.

 

[MikeK117]

4 months in the bottle, loads better.

 

[sausagefingers]

Tried this last night and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to it, looked a lot darker than I was expecting - far darker than the picture on the box. I prefer lighter coloured beers and thought it would taste too 'strong' for me.
Happy to say I was totally wrong, it tasted fantastic. Really,really nice.
It's been bottled for about 6 weeks and is crystal clear but a lot darker than I thought it would be.I'll definitely be doing this one again - highly recomended :thumb:

 

[sausagefingers]

Just finished the last few bottles of this and I would have to put this right at the top of my favourites, extra few weeks and it tasted amazing. Perfect for me, just hoping that the Razorback will come close to it. Didn't think I was much of an IPA fan but I'm now waiting for the Youngs American IPA as well as the Razorback and I'll be going down to Burnley homebrew in the morning for another St Peters IPA. Highly recomended from a reformed lager moron

Cheers :drink:

 

[JRTurner1234]

I've just bottled this.

I fermented at 19.5 degrees for three weeks but could only get the FG down to .22. It has definitely stopped fermenting.

My OG was .49 so it's not given me the ABV i was expecting.

Any ideas on what has gone wrong?

 

[terrym]

JRTurner1234
You probably had a stuck fermentation i.e. the yeast had decided 'have a nap' before it had properly finished. You could have gently stirred the contents of the FV to try to encourage the yeast to restart the fermentation (without getting air into the liquid), or put it in a warmer place, or both, or repitched with fresh yeast.
I have just started a Woodfords Wherry and it seems to be a common occurrence with this kit for stuck fermentation at about 1020 (look at the posts to see what people have said).
Anyway now you have bottled you need to be extremely careful that the fermentation doesn't restart in the bottles (exploding bottles comes to mind :-o), and even if it doesn't, your finished product will be quite sweet due to the unfermented sugars.
You might consider carefully emptying out the bottles back into your (clean sterilised FV) and try to get the fermentation going again down to where it should have finished, but if you do try to avoid getting air into your brew.

 

[MyQul]

You might consider carefully emptying out the bottles back into your (clean sterilised FV) and try to get the fermentation going again down to where it should have finished, but if you do try to avoid getting air into your brew.

I think this would be extremely difficult to do without getting oxygen into the beer

 

[terrym]

MyQul
Agreed, but I would prefer to risk a bit of oxygen in the beer rather than have the potential for blown bottles.

 

[brisboy]

Alternatively he could crack and recap them in a week to let out the CO2 that's developed in that time. No O2 risk really (I think) but might end up under carbed, I guess.

 

[JRTurner1234]

I've actually bottled one bottle of beer in a plastic bottle so I should be able to monitor the pressure from this. If it gets too hard I'll recap em.

JRT

 

[BeerisGOD]

Hi guys

Was this a hop powder you had to add? or actual hops.

Cheers

 

[BeerCat]

Their Pale Beers do need time to mature imho. At least 5 or 6 weeks apart from the Stout and Porter which i can drink 2 weeks after bottling.

 

[Covrich]

Hi guys

Was this a hop powder you had to add? or actual hops.

Cheers

St Peters come with sachets of hop powder, Dunno exactly what it is, probably just pellet powder or something.. IIRC they say to add at the start of fermentation as opposed to what you'd do with a dry hop.

 

[Javalian]

Hi, Have put this one on at the weekend, Thinking I will do as instructions , i.e. no dry hopping. Only added 2/3rds of hop powder. Been on 3 days and all looks well.

 

[deanobrfc]

Bottled this at the weekend - my first ever brew!

Agree with people that this is slightly darker than I expected in colour, particularly given the image on the front and other IPA's I have had. However, when you hold it to a light, you can see that when it clears, it should come through as more of an amber colour.

Have had a few bottles already (and a sample whilst bottling) and really pleased with it. It is fairly sharp as others have said and I can definitely see it maturing well and becoming a more rounded flavour, but very pleased with it for my first ever brew!

Left this in the FV for 21 days and came out at 6.04% - glad I was patient on this after advice from other members on here!

I will most definitely be getting back round to this beer and brew again but, as I have only just started out in the homebrew world, I have so many kits I want to try.

Brilliant beer from current experience though - can't wait to taste it again a few weeks down the line!

Sam.