St Peters Ruby Red Ale review

[terrym]

Tbh I never did many kits but this was certainly the better of teh ones I did..

I have tried many many kits, my dad does one can ones but IMO they just aren't as good, He don't have time for AG so I have got him some better kits.

Its interesting that your observations are different to mine. Not sure why. My Ruby Red cleared quickly for example, perhaps that's down to the different yeast.
Anyway I followed this beer with a boosted Coopers Au PA with Cascade, from one of my PBs. Its just under four weeks from packaging. Over the last few days (and unusually for me) I've tried quite a few commercial beers of a similar style and for me mine is at least as good as most of them, and in one or two cases better. Hope the Ruby Red Ale manages to achieve the same with its comparable beers but at present I sadly doubt it. :-?

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

I made this and I must say, this is the best kit I've made by far. I've brewed just about 10 different batches, mostly one can kits but with additives like extra hops and using DME instead of sugar.
With this kit all that is pointless. I made this as per instruction. It was super easy and it was made in a blink.OG 1044 left in the fermenter for 2 weeks, siphoned into a second fermenter with 100 grams of priming sugar and bottled. FG was 1011. I opened one after just 9 days ( I know, I will be punished by the beer gods :) ) and wow! While still very young it had a beautiful fizz when opened and tasted just gorgeous!

I will definitely make this again, very soon.

Can't wait until it's been conditioned a month or two.

 

[steve097]

I shorted this to 21 litres and added 400g. dextrose. 1.048 to 1.006. I have just tested one after a week conditioning (200g. dextrose) and it's feckin lovely. My first three attempts at a red ale were failures.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

I shorted this to 21 litres and added 400g. dextrose. 1.048 to 1.006. I have just tested one after a week conditioning (200g. dextrose) and it's feckin lovely. My first three attempts at a red ale were failures.

Hi. What temperatures were you fermenting at? I've done this kit 3 times ( awesome by the way) and could never get it down to more than 1011. I've used 300 gr of table sugar to get the alc. Up a little. You're other three attempts , why were they failures? I'm thinking about different recipes and maybe youre failures can teach me a thing or two. Thanks

 

[steve097]

Using the recommended levels of priming sugar did not produce sufficient carbonation. The problem was worse using mini kegs and a king keg. Big head and no fizz.
I use 30 litre buckets fitted with a 100w. aquarium heater at 22 deg. Don't use a 50w. as it will float and not work.

 

[terrym]

I am now down to the last few of this beer brewed in October last year . Whilst over three months conditioning has mellowed it, as might be expected, its still overly bitter, and for me there is something not quite right about it. Whether its because I delayed adding the hop oil until five days in rather than adding it at the beginning I dont know. Anyway whatever the reason I won't be doing another one

 

[steve097]

I added 20g. Northern Brewer and 20g. Citra one week in. It tastes smooth to me.
The carbonation is a bit high compared to what I got with 200g. in Evil Dog, just right.

 

[steve097]

Terry, can you recommend a red kit that you thought was good?

 

[terrym]

Terry, can you recommend a red kit that you thought was good?

This was a one off (and in my experience, as you can see, I was not impressed although others seem to have had better outcomes).
If I'm honest I have slowly moved away from doing kits for darker type beers, stouts excepted. And the reason is, I think they all seem to turn out with a 'homebrew' taste, not really the dreaded twang, but definitely something you can taste, although admittedly more evident in some that others.

 

[sdt7618]

Had one of these last night, nice pint but there is something niggling me. it tastes very much like the honey porter kit, not as string a honey taste but its there. anyone else notice this?