Wilko Golden Ale Kit

[Piemaster]

Hi there

I am completely new to home brewing. It was something I had always fancied trying and my wife knew this, so I got a Wilkinson Home Brewing kit for Christmas complete with a 40 pint 'Golden Ale' to brew. After doing a bit of reading on this and other forums, I realise this might not be the best kit on the market, but I figure it would suffice in order to give it a try.

However, the kit is a bit confusing. All it contains is two tins and a sachet of yeast, but the instructions are very vague and seem to indicate that you only use one tin. Is this an error in that they just copied the instructions from another product with only one tin? Or does the kit effectively give you two 'goes' which each uses one tin and half the yeast? If so does each tin make 20 or 40 pints?

Confused. Any help much appreciated.

 

[Pearlfisher]

Use both tins.

 

[Duncs]

Use both tins and all the yeast.

Give it 2 weeks in the fermenter rather than the 7 days the instructions state, the timings can be rather generous
Follow the advice here

Welcome to the forum :

 

[Piemaster]

Thanks for the clarification. And the link :)

The only slight issue I have noticed with my kit, as opposed to what is in the instructions in the link, is that there is no airlock on my fermenting tub. The instructions just say to 'put this lid on loosely'. I trust this will be okay.

 

[fbsf]

It'll be fine. As it brews, it will generate CO2, which is heavier than air and forms a layer above the wort. Provided it isn't disturbed, it'll stay there, so a loose fitting lid will do the job fine to stop airborne nasties like dust and flies getting in.

Of course you could drill a hole, fit a grommit and airlock if you wanted to. I did, but only because I find the glumping sound as comforting as a blanket... :)

 

[rpt]

The Wilko Golden Ale Kit is made by Muntons who make many excellent branded products so I'd expect it to be really good. Let us know how you get on.

 

[Piemaster]

I got the brew going this afternoon. Had a bunch of 'newbie problems' like the fact that my kettle only holds 2.5 pints and it seems I needed about 8 pints of hot water at various time, and how the hell do you pour 27 litres of water from a tap into a container that size without using un-sterile equipment? Hopefully I've sorted everything though and it's now fermenting away in the corner of the spare bedroom.

I'll let you know how it goes :)

 

[Capone]

Firstly Welcome to the forum :thumb:

Secondly you will find this forum and its members like an encyclopedia of brewing knowledge if you want to know something you will find it on here, if not just ask :thumb:

For my first ever batch i found getting the water from the tap into the FV easiest by using a sterilized 4 pint jug, its also easy to count the exact volume you need to make your batch.

I dont like drinking tap water as I like my IQ where it is feel free to read the following link

http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... rmful.html

I use 20p 2 litre bottles of supermarket table water, the added bonus is you get 10-12 2 litre bottles that can be used to when bottling your beer. I do use glass bottles for my top batches but for the average one its ideal and under £ 3 plus I drink the water anyway.

Good luck with your batch let us know how it tastes after 8 weeks :

 

[Piemaster]

I dont like drinking tap water as I like my IQ where it is feel free to read the following link

(apparently-I-can't-include-links-in-my-post-because-I'm-new)

I'll happily lap up any advice you have on brewing, but just as a warning when it comes to stuff like the dangers of flouridated water I have a tendency to tut, mumble to my wife and start ranting about the complete lack of any scientific studies in the link against the stack of studies that suggest that not only is flouridated water not harmful, but only 10% of the UK population receive flouridated water anyway. Sorry, bad science is a pet peeve of mine.

Good tip about the bottles though :)

Good luck with your batch let us know how it tastes after 8 weeks :

My birthday is in seven weeks and I have a bunch of friends coming over, but I'll try and make sure a bottle survives :)

 

[Capone]

Buddy there is enough info about that shows that fluoride is harmful to the body and it accumulates but each to there own
opinion. :thumb: keep drinking it what you feel is safe. :grin:

My pet peeve is people quoting me on forums as i know what i posted and i dont need reminding, I also can follow posts
relating to the subject in question. If anyone else is reading a topic im sure they can do the same.

good luck with the brewing.

 

[Piemaster]

Quoting is frowned upon here? Sorry, didn't know that. On most forums I frequent it is considered good practice to quote what you are responding to, especially when you are replying to separate parts of the post with separate comments. But different cultures everywhere and all that, I will learn and adapt.

 

[Capone]

I dont know if its frowned apon here i just frown apon it, its personal pet peeve.

Improvise, adapt and overcome for the win

I hope your brew turns out ok :thumb:

 

[eggman]

I dont know if its frowned apon here i just frown apon it, its personal pet peeve.

No it's not frowned upon here :lol:

 

[rpt]

Quoting what you are replying to is good practice. Quoting the whole of a long post is annoying.

Whatever you use to get water into your FV should be sanitised.

 

[Piemaster]

Update:

I started the kit last Friday. It quickly went a bit mad frothing like crazy for a day or two, before settling back into more of a bubbly head. Now the head itself is also disappearing. Is this a sign that fermentation is coming to an end? I was going to leave it going for two weeks at least, just to be on the safe side.

 

[fbsf]

Yup, that sounds about right - I normally go for a two-week regardless of how soon it seems to have stopped.

Of course, that's a minimum. If it's still going mad after two weeks, then I have a nose again after a third. But that's rare.

Do you have a hydrometer? If not, I would advise to get one - they aren't all that expensive (about £6 if you include a trial jar) and takes the guesswork out. If it's the same reading two days apart, you can assume that it's finished. Although I would still leave it another week for the yeast to clear up after itself before kegging/bottling.

 

[Piemaster]

No I don't have a hydrometer yet, although it's already on my shopping list for next time.

Assuming I don't get a sudden surge of activity, I will leave it until next Friday. People talk about then putting it in the cold to let the 'yeast drop out' before kegging. Is this the next step? If so is there such thing as too cold? I have a conservatory that get's into low single-digit temperatures quite regularly. I assume I don't want to actually kill the yeast or I won't get any secondary fermentation in the keg.

 

[winelight]

I have a hydrometer but don't use it, you can tell when it's finished, if in doubt leave it at least 2 weeks then as has been said if it's still going strong leave it a third.

The only use I know of for an airlock is so you suddenly realise it's a very long time between bubbles (it's quite noisy), then you know it's finished fermenting.

As for the kettle, just re-fill it and boil it again :) there's nothing to say the boiling water has to all go in inside of a split second.

I use a plastic measuring jug which I put in the FV when I'm sanitising it, so that gets done too, and usually use tap water, I did try Asda water last time but I'm sure I won't be able to tell the difference. The alcohol has a far greater deleterious effect on your body then the fluoride. I do have a water filter tap which is designed to take out some of the hardness, I might try water from that, maybe it takes out some of the chlorine too. It's the taste of the chlorine that concerns me more than fluoride!

 

[Piemaster]

Just to complete the tale, we drunk this brew at my birthday party on Saturday.

For a first attempt it was actually extremely good. It certainly tasted as good or better than most generic bitter I have ever drunk in pubs. I did have a couple of teething problems:

1. For a 'Golden Ale' it really wasn't very golden. It was more the colour of bitter.

2. I had trouble with the fizz. I kegged the brew for conditioning and put in whatever amount of sugar (just regular granulated) it recommended. After a few weeks I tried pouring myself a glass and it came out very quickly and very fizzy. Basically it was just a pint of head. Looked and tasted fine once it has settled, but annoying when you have loads of people over. In the end I opened the top and let all the excess gas out, which seemed to help, but without the pressure it now took ages to pour a pint. Have I missed a trick here?

 

[warnie]

My pet peeve is people quoting me on forums as i know what i posted and i dont need reminding, I also can follow posts
relating to the subject in question. If anyone else is reading a topic im sure they can do the same.

good luck with the brewing.

Doh!

Sorry, move on nothing to see here... ....... :grin: