Wilkinsons Golden Ale

[Lesinge]

I have found that after a good time in the bottle this beer does well if once opened you leave it in the glass for 5 minutes or so. This seems to allow the initial "plastic" taste to develop into a great hoppy flavour. Don't know if it is me but this works for all more highly hopped beers I do. Having a back ground in wine drinking it is similar to letting it breath. No idea if this has any backing in science etc..

 

[neddy]

After good reports on this kit. Ive just transferred into 2nd fv for clearing. Left fermenting for 2 and a half weeks at 18c and its just finally got down to 1012 from 1032. After working it out, it will only be 3.2% so not brilliant as I was hoping it would be abit stronger. Gonna leave it a week then ill put in cornie and in afew bottles. I do have another one of these so I may do to 20l next time or add some spray malt to achieve a slightly higher abv. Which do you think would be best?

 

[Monte Cristo]

After good reports on this kit. Ive just transferred into 2nd fv for clearing. Left fermenting for 2 and a half weeks at 18c and its just finally got down to 1012 from 1032. After working it out, it will only be 3.2% so not brilliant as I was hoping it would be abit stronger. Gonna leave it a week then ill put in cornie and in afew bottles. I do have another one of these so I may do to 20l next time or add some spray malt to achieve a slightly higher abv. Which do you think would be best?

Personally i think this comes out better if you do it to the 23L and add beer enhancer (500g) got mine to 4.5% that way and it was nicer than the one i brewed short to 21L, although they were both very drinkable! :hat:

 

[neddy]

Thanks for the advice. I think ill add the beer enhancer then on the next batch

 

[Brewbob]

Well its had 3wks in the keg now, and is tasting very good, although I've never tried it before so I have no comparison, I really like the taste of the hops coming through, maybe I'll try it without next time to compare. Its still not quite clear yet though, but thats OK, I need to get a few more bottles so then I'll have capacity for two kegs, and two kits worth in bottles, maybe then I'll get a second fermenter...

 

[goldenone]

Hi guys,

New on here & new to home brewing

This kit is my second brew (after the customary Wherry) and after a couple of gravity readings I think I'm a day or two away from being ready to bottle.

After taking advice from my local home brew shop for the Wherry I simply added a half teaspoon of brewing sugar directly to each bottle and siphoned directly from the fermenter but now I've invested in a bottling bucket and plan on batch priming as it seems a much better process (I think :pray: )

My question to you guys is....How much brewing sugar should I use for batch priming 23l of this particular kit? I've seen various forums and calculators all of which suggest different results; ranging from 60g to as much ad 105g so I'm a little confused to say the least.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

 

[Brewbob]

I'd narrow it down to 90ish. It all depends how lively you want it, but if you put about that much in you should have a fine beer

 

[Monte Cristo]

Hi guys,

New on here & new to home brewing

This kit is my second brew (after the customary Wherry) and after a couple of gravity readings I think I'm a day or two away from being ready to bottle.

After taking advice from my local home brew shop for the Wherry I simply added a half teaspoon of brewing sugar directly to each bottle and siphoned directly from the fermenter but now I've invested in a bottling bucket and plan on batch priming as it seems a much better process (I think :pray: )

My question to you guys is....How much brewing sugar should I use for batch priming 23l of this particular kit? I've seen various forums and calculators all of which suggest different results; ranging from 60g to as much ad 105g so I'm a little confused to say the least.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I used 19tsp of LME in my last 23L batch dissolved in about 150ml of cool boiled water. :hat:

 

[goldenone]

Cheers guys.

I'm using brewing sugar so about 90-95g sounds grand :thumb:

 

[JKaranka]

Started this one with some Nelson Sauvin and Citra in the boiled water, I'll add 50g of Amarillo to dry hop.

 

[Wasabi]

I've only been making wines and ginger beer up to now but I decided to try this kit as I remembered that I had an old 25L plastic bucket and lid knocking about in the loft which I believe was intended for brewing since it has pint & litre scales embossed inside. However when I came to get it down I found it smelt horribly plasticky and also had a crack in it!

The next biggest container I have is a 6L pressure cooker so I decided to take advantage of the two-can packaging and do it in two 11.5L batches (I'm assuming both cans contain the same ingredients!). Even so I realised I'd have to split the beer between the cooker and my two DJs if I was going to leave room for the head.

I didn't want to split the yeast sachet into 3 so I initially chucked everything into the pressure cooker, starting off the fermentation with a concentrated 5L of wort. I left it overnight until about 1cm head of yeast had formed then split the brew between the three vessels and topped them up to the required volumes with cold water. This caused the fermentation to grind to a halt but after 3-4 hours it finally got going again and two days on it looks to be close to finishing.

The weather has been warm again and so the brew has been over the recommended 18–20°C: 21–22°C was all I could manage, but hopefully it'll be ok. It smells nice anyhow!

 

[Wasabi]

Just sampled it after 4 days, gravity down to 1014 but still bubbling occasionally, it has a taste like honey! Slightly sweet still, I'll give it another couple of days.

I'm puzzled that Wilko say you can bottle when the gravity is 1014 or under, whereas the instructions that come with their hydrometer have dire warnings that the bottles will burst if you bottle at over 1006!

 

[Cheshire muzz]

I batch primed this kit with around 70g of plain sugar. Its a bit fizzy for my liking so will reduce it slightly for my next kit.

I like this beer. First drank it when it was 3 weeks in the bottle and it was a bit bland compared to my previous kit. 3 weeks on from that and it's very nice. I agree with a previous comment that it does seem to improve if you leave it for 5 mins once opened before drinking.

 

[Dusty]

I've just finished drinking my GA and think I will do another one with some hops and maybe honey any thoughts?

 

[Brewbob]

Honey sounds interesting, might give that a go.

I just finished one that I had hopped with a Cascade teabag after about 5 days. That went down very well

 

[TheGrumble]

Just sampled it after 4 days, gravity down to 1014 but still bubbling occasionally, it has a taste like honey! Slightly sweet still, I'll give it another couple of days.

I'm sat sampling my first bottle of this after 12 days conditioning (early, I know, but it's for science!) and I'm definitely getting honey too! I was reading this thread and joined up just to say! It does seem very sweet, almost cloying. I think I'll give it another week or so before trying another. I notice that the sediment still has yet to settle properly - more got into my glass than I would have liked.

This was my second brew after a very successful Coopers IPA so I'm really hoping to see improvement soon - the Coopers is nearly all gone already!

 

[goldenone]

This was my second brew and the first using the batch priming method. Had my first taster yesterday and although it was too bitter at this stage it was absolutely crystal clear with no floating yeast or cloudiness like the Wherry I first brewed.

Given a few more weeks I gave high hopes for this kit :thumb:

 

[TheGrumble]

How old is your brew, goldenone? Mine was in the FV for around 8 days and has been in the bottle for 12 now and I still have a LOT of cloudiness, and there's debris rising from the bottom of each bottle with the slightest movement. Hoping I haven't messed up somewhere.

 

[goldenone]

Mine had 2 weeks in the FV, bottled using the bottling bucket/batch priming method; Stored in the under stairs cupboard for around 2 1/2 weeks then transferred to the shed for a week so far.

As I said its crystal clear but at the minute it's drinkable but not tasting as well as it will after a few more weeks. Yours sounds very similar to the Wherry which was my first brew as that is still very cloudy and doesn't look too good despite being pretty tasty and that's had around 8 weeks so far.

Good luck with yours :

 

[JKaranka]

After two weeks from beginning of fermentation it was quite sweet. Racked into cask with 50g Amarillo and a mix of bits and bobs of Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, etc. Around 80g total dry-hop, and earmarked to be drunk end of the month.