Wilkinsons Golden Ale

[Kinleycat]

this has got so much better with time. my 2nd ever kit and iv fallen in love with it. bought 2 with it being on special at wilkos, and gonna always have one on the go as the stock beer, and then brew something along side it to have a bit of fun with.

need to find an airlock from somewhere though as all 6 are on my wines and wow's so i cant get a 2nd beer on for another week or so. Could just pop to wilko's and buy another couple i guess. I like living 500 yards from a Wilko's :-)

I Don't use an airlock for anything, I see it as a waste of money.
Brewed many kits, wow and TC and not needed one once.

 

this has got so much better with time. my 2nd ever kit and iv fallen in love with it. bought 2 with it being on special at wilkos, and gonna always have one on the go as the stock beer, and then brew something along side it to have a bit of fun with.

need to find an airlock from somewhere though as all 6 are on my wines and wow's so i cant get a 2nd beer on for another week or so. Could just pop to wilko's and buy another couple i guess. I like living 500 yards from a Wilko's :-)

I Don't use an airlock for anything, I see it as a waste of money.
Brewed many kits, wow and TC and not needed one once.

how does the co2 get out or dont it need to ...
i thought it had to breathe???..or it would go bang... :?

regards mick... :hat: .

 

[chrispools]

I like living 500 yards from a Wilko's :-)

 

[Kinleycat]

this has got so much better with time. my 2nd ever kit and iv fallen in love with it. bought 2 with it being on special at wilkos, and gonna always have one on the go as the stock beer, and then brew something along side it to have a bit of fun with.

need to find an airlock from somewhere though as all 6 are on my wines and wow's so i cant get a 2nd beer on for another week or so. Could just pop to wilko's and buy another couple i guess. I like living 500 yards from a Wilko's :-)

I Don't use an airlock for anything, I see it as a waste of money.
Brewed many kits, wow and TC and not needed one once.

how does the co2 get out or dont it need to ...
i thought it had to breathe???..or it would go bang... :?

regards mick... :hat: .

The seals on plastic FVs are rarely air tight.
I've got four on the go and never neaded an airlock on any even when new.

 

[Mickeywheelspin]

First post here so firstly, Hi!

I'm pretty new to this brewing malarkey having only made one batch before - the obligatory Woodfordes Wherry. It was a cracking pint, made just following the instructions with brewing sugar and a pressure barrel. IMHO it needs more hops so will have a go at dry hopping if I do that one again.

I've been looking for a "summer" beer to make next and after seeing some of the reviews here decided to try this one - at £17 it's got to be worth a go.

I'm hoping to get it in the primary tonight so it's a little way off, but I'm planning on having a go at bottling this one. Simple questions really - I'm planning to batch prime in my pressure barrel and use this to pour into the bottles, but am I best off priming with brewing sugar or light spraymalt? If spraymalt do I have to use more or less? Is batch priming the easiest way to go?

Thanks for any advice, hoping this one works out well! Already trying to work out what to do next

 

[Monte Cristo]

I batch primed mine with light spray malt i used 18 teaspoons and i'm sure it would be the same amount if using sugar, it came out with a cracking head ( see my pic posted further back ).
I brewed mine short to 21L so you may have to adjust that figure if you went for the 23L :hat:

 

[Mickeywheelspin]

Thanks Monte Cristo,

I've seen mixed reports about priming with DME but note from reading the box (novel approach I know) it suggests using DME anyway. Got to be worth a go.

Yours did look like a very nice pint. Reckon I'll brew it a little short too to see if I can get it a little higher than 4%.

 

[Monte Cristo]

Well all I can say Mickey is that mine has turned out Fab, it has a really creamy head possibly a little too much but i don't mind that, i've got another 2 golden ale kits waiting in the wings so there is proof it hit the mark.
I think mine is definitely above 4% had 2x 500ml bottles tonight and can feel it, but there again that could be me just being a lightweight!!! :hat:

 

[Kinleycat]

Without exception, this is my favourite kit so far.
I brewed it to 23 litres and it came in at 3.8% which I feel is fine for this beer.
Put two tspns of yeast nutrient in current batch as the last one scraped in at 1010 and I'd like to get this down to 1008 if pos this time around.

 

[Pinchy]

I've got one of these on the go with beer kit enhancer. I think I might have turned it into rocket fuel haha. Even still I have very high hopes for this one it smells amazing! I plan on racking it to another FV once fermentation has stopped (hopefully this week) to let it dump a but more sediment

 

[Pinchy]

Took a hydrometer reading and its now sat at exactly 5% which I'm very happy with. It appeared to have stopped fermenting so I racked it into a secondary to allow to clear a little more hopefully I will be bottling this weekend :thumb: .

I also had a sneaky taste and it already tastes great! How much priming sugar would you guys recommend for this pint? I don't want it overly fizzy, just enough to keep a bit of a head really. I think il prime with beer kit enhancer.

 

[Monte Cristo]

Took a hydrometer reading and its now sat at exactly 5% which I'm very happy with. It appeared to have stopped fermenting so I racked it into a secondary to allow to clear a little more hopefully I will be bottling this weekend :thumb: .

I also had a sneaky taste and it already tastes great! How much priming sugar would you guys recommend for this pint? I don't want it overly fizzy, just enough to keep a bit of a head really. I think il prime with beer kit enhancer.

I primed mine with 18 teaspoons of lme but I brewed it short to 21L. The head is really creamy and if i'm honest there is a little too much so next time i will reduced it a little.

in fact there is a pic of my brew further back in this post. :hat:

 

[clibit]

First post here so firstly, Hi!

I'm hoping to get it in the primary tonight so it's a little way off, but I'm planning on having a go at bottling this one. Simple questions really - I'm planning to batch prime in my pressure barrel and use this to pour into the bottles, but am I best off priming with brewing sugar or light spraymalt? If spraymalt do I have to use more or less? Is batch priming the easiest way to go?

I use an online priming calculator which tells you how much sugar or DME to use depending on beer style and brew length. I have only used sugar up to now. You use so little it really makes no difference, I suspect. The general consensus is that batch priming is the way to go. Some people use Coopers carbonation drops in bottles, but it's easy enough to rack the beer off the trub into a bottling vessel and add the sugar for the whole batch. You can be precise with the amount of sugar you use. There are loads of calculators, like this one...

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Pinchy]

That calculator is great! Think i'll go for 80g of beerkit enhancer (50% dme, 50% sugar) to have myself a traditional british ale :).

 

[Maffa]

Started this on Sunday, right after bottling my festival Razorback. Picked it up in the Wilko's 50% sale, so the 2 can kit and 1kg of beer enhancer I got for £11. :clap:

Anyway, mixed it all up together with 23litres of sainsbury's finest water and got a og of 1050. All in all, I'm looking forward to this!

 

[DamageCase]

I'm going to beef this next one up with 500 grams of Beer enhancer a Challenger and EKG hop tea and a further EKG dry hopping. I hoping for more of an IPA as an outcome.

 

[redhousebrewing]

Started a Golden Ale with 500g Brew Enhancer in mid May, barreled 31/5 (primed with 100g granulated sugar), at 22 litres came out at 4.9% ABV, started drinking it 22/6 and its a lovely pint with a good creamy head and lots of flavour.
Definately will do another of these and kicking myself for not picking one up in the wilko sale (although I did get plenty of other stuff).

Stuart

 

[Pinchy]

Does anyone reccomend trying one while its "young"? It will have been in the bottle for a week on friday and i'm not sure if i will be able to resist!

..... just as an experiment ofcourse, so i can learn how the beer matures :whistle: ..................

 

[DamageCase]

Does anyone reccomend trying one while its "young"? It will have been in the bottle for a week on friday and i'm not sure if i will be able to resist!

..... just as an experiment ofcourse, so i can learn how the beer matures :whistle: ..................

Mine was a little disappointing after a week. The the malt base was there but the home-brew tang drowned the hop flavour. 3 weeks and it was gorgeous.

 

[gbox82]

Does anyone reccomend trying one while its "young"? It will have been in the bottle for a week on friday and i'm not sure if i will be able to resist!

..... just as an experiment ofcourse, so i can learn how the beer matures :whistle: ..................

Mine was a little disappointing after a week. The the malt base was there but the home-brew tang drowned the hop flavour. 3 weeks and it was gorgeous.

Hehe, so its not just me that likes to "sample" a brew. My justification is that its important to see how the flavour profile develops over time...

I kegged mine on 22/6 and had my first sample earlier this week (so approx 10 days). I was a little disappointed at this stage, it was VERY bitter and almost too hoppy. I'm probably being a bit unfair as its so early but it wasn't what I was expecting. So i'm going to leave mine for a good couple of weeks before having another go i think.

Still, no harm in trying :