Wilko's Own Brand Cerveza.

[terrym]

My understanding is that anything added to the wort that contains preservatives is to be avoided since it inhibits yeast activity, although I suppose small amounts could be tolerated.
If you want to enhance your kit why not add some extra hops either as a dry hop or a hop tea. In my view that is by far the best way to improve a kit.

 

[Session]

I am planning on brewing this kit again in the coming days and I want to step it up a little from my last brew. As well as using mineral water (only £1 for 5 litres from Iceland) I want to add some Volvic Lemon and Lime Sugar Free mineral water. My slight concern is that reading the ingredients, it states Volvic mineral water 99.6%, Acid (Citric Acid), Natural Lemon and Lime Flavouring with other natural flavourings. Preservative (Potassium Benzoate), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose).
As these additional additives only equate to 4% of the total, will I be able to just add this to the normal mineral water, or will I have to boil it first to remove these. If its the second option, will I then lose the lemon and lime flavouring? If yes, then of course there is no point.
Has anyone else tried this? Just trying to enhance the flavour of the finished product a little.
Any tips or ideas very welcome..... ;-)

Barley.

I’m not sure what you are aiming for with the addition... do you want it to have a lemon/lime flavour? If so you could steep lemon and lime zest in vodka and add that to your brew, or boil the zests in a small amount of water for ten minutes and add the decoction to your FV once cooled to room temperature.

I personally wouldn’t start adding artificially sweetened drinks to a beer as I don’t know how they would affect the fermentation. It may be fine - I just haven’t done it before.

 

[Barley Rubble]

I’m not sure what you are aiming for with the addition... do you want it to have a lemon/lime flavour? If so you could steep lemon and lime zest in vodka and add that to your brew, or boil the zests in a small amount of water for ten minutes and add the decoction to your FV once cooled to room temperature

Yes I wanted to give it a lemony/lime hint of flavour. I like the idea of boiling up some lemon and lime zests and using the water from that. Sounds like a plan.

 

[Barley Rubble]

My understanding is that anything added to the wort that contains preservatives is to be avoided since it inhibits yeast activity, although I suppose small amounts could be tolerated.
If you want to enhance your kit why not add some extra hops either as a dry hop or a hop tea. In my view that is by far the best way to improve a kit.

I thought that as it was such a small amount, 4% or so, that it wouldn't necessarily affect the beer, but perhaps an addition of hops might be a better course of action.

 

[Bigcharlie]

I'm a newbie. I did this wilko cerveza recently and added some lime cordial undiluted. Seen it on YouTube. Turned out great. Will do it again.

 

[terrym]

I'm a newbie. I did this wilko cerveza recently and added some lime cordial undiluted. Seen it on YouTube. Turned out great. Will do it again.

Bloody hell.
Lager and lime.
Trendy drink of the 1970s.
Only outdone by lager and blackcurrant

 

[Derren]

I'm a newbie. I did this wilko cerveza recently and added some lime cordial undiluted. Seen it on YouTube. Turned out great. Will do it again.

Quite like this idea.... how much did you add?

 

[Bigcharlie]

Quite like this idea.... how much did you add?

I think about 200ml.

 

[alice-edmund]

As an update on my brew; it has cleared (though it's not crystal bright) - and certainly tastes OK to me. Sediment in bottle is quite loose. I'd give it another go sometime but have picked up a Coopers Euro lager to try first

 

[Bootleg Bob]

Took a punt on this to test my new Fermzilla All Rounder with the pressure kit. Bit of an experiment
- Put it together with Aldi bottled water, 500g of Muntons hopped spray malt light, 500g of Muntons spray malt light and 200g of brewing sugar. Mixed up to around 22 litres.
- Added 180ml of gelatine solution in an open vacuum pack pouch just above the liquid level, held there by vacuum sealed magnets and a hop sock with 100g of mosaic hop pellets also suspended at the top of the All Rounder with vacuum packed magnets.
(The idea being that I can ferment under pressure and not have to expose the brew to oxygen when I want to dry hop and cold crash)
- Set the spunding valve to 15psi and left in the keggerator which is currently switched off and the temp is sitting somewhere between 19 and 22C depending on day or night.
- SG was 1.039
Fermentation took off well and if I’m to believe what I read it should be fully fermented in 4 days... yes 4 days as it’s under pressure. I’ll dry hop and cold crash for a further 2 days. Hopefully it’ll be relatively clear by then and then I plan on transferring this under pressure into my C keg. I’ll leave it a further 2 days and I’ll post again once that’s done and I’ve tasted it...

 

[foxy]

Took a punt on this to test my new Fermzilla All Rounder with the pressure kit. Bit of an experiment
- Put it together with Aldi bottled water, 500g of Muntons hopped spray malt light, 500g of Muntons spray malt light and 200g of brewing sugar. Mixed up to around 22 litres.
- Added 180ml of gelatine solution in an open vacuum pack pouch just above the liquid level, held there by vacuum sealed magnets and a hop sock with 100g of mosaic hop pellets also suspended at the top of the All Rounder with vacuum packed magnets.
(The idea being that I can ferment under pressure and not have to expose the brew to oxygen when I want to dry hop and cold crash)
- Set the spunding valve to 15psi and left in the keggerator which is currently switched off and the temp is sitting somewhere between 19 and 22C depending on day or night.
- SG was 1.039
Fermentation took off well and if I’m to believe what I read it should be fully fermented in 4 days... yes 4 days as it’s under pressure. I’ll dry hop and cold crash for a further 2 days. Hopefully it’ll be relatively clear by then and then I plan on transferring this under pressure into my C keg. I’ll leave it a further 2 days and I’ll post again once that’s done and I’ve tasted it...


View attachment 29672

It isn't the pressure which speeds up fermentation its temperature. That's why the MO of pressure fermenting is higher temperature, Tron Nguyen (inventor of the Spundit) ferments at 15 PSI and 30 C

 

[Bootleg Bob]

It isn't the pressure which speeds up fermentation its temperature. That's why the MO of pressure fermenting is higher temperature, Tron Nguyen (inventor of the Spundit) ferments at 15 PSI and 30 C

Thanks Foxy... all comments welcome. Can you send links to the above?

 

[foxy]

Thanks Foxy... all comments welcome. Can you send links to the above?

He has brewing classes in Sacramento I am not sure he has literature on the web, he goes under the name of Trongo. I watched him grain to glass a beer in 5 days here in Australia. Would never win a prize but it was beer.

 

[Bootleg Bob]

He has brewing classes in Sacramento I am not sure he has literature on the web, he goes under the name of Trongo. I watched him grain to glass a beer in 5 days here in Australia. Would never win a prize but it was beer.

Perhaps there is a balance to be found?

 

[foxy]

Perhaps there is a balance to be found?

The first pressure ferment I have read about (Wiley online library) took place in the 1890's in the UK, the pressure was applied using mercury the CO2 had to bubble through 7lb of mercury.
It isn't anything new but it never took off, fermenter space is a thorn in the sides of breweries, it's the fermentation process which slows down beer production. If pressure fermenting was a way of increasing production the breweries would be all over it like a rash.
Its alright for home brewers to play around with, making pseudo lagers and hoppy IPA's, and for carbonating towards the end of carbonation but that's about it.

 

[terrym]

Took a punt on this to test my new Fermzilla All Rounder with the pressure kit. Bit of an experiment
- Put it together with Aldi bottled water, 500g of Muntons hopped spray malt light, 500g of Muntons spray malt light and 200g of brewing sugar. Mixed up to around 22 litres.

Interested to know why you used bottled water. Is your tap water undrinkable? If its not and you are kit brewing all you might consider is pretreating your brewing tap water with half a campden tab to get rid of the chlorine, and that's all that's really necessary.
And using pre hopped DME introduces a big unknown into your beer since you usually have no idea what the hops are, and no idea of how much bitterness is being added . Normally the bitterness in kits is balanced to the style in the factory, and all you need to do is enhance the hop flavours and aroma using hop tea or by dry hopping

 

[Bootleg Bob]

Interested to know why you used bottled water. Is your tap water undrinkable? If its not and you are kit brewing all you might consider is pretreating your brewing tap water with half a campden tab to get rid of the chlorine, and that's all that's really necessary.
And using pre hopped DME introduces a big unknown into your beer since you usually have no idea what the hops are, and no idea of how much bitterness is being added . Normally the bitterness in kits is balanced to the style in the factory, and all you need to do is enhance the hop flavours and aroma using hop tea or by dry hopping

Had no intention of putting this on and then finished work early. Picked up the water on the way home.. 17p for 2 litres and I reuse the bottles for other things
And... clue is in the second sentence... bit of an experiment

 

[Nidger]

I'm going to get one of these wilko cerveza kits to try.
I've noticed the out of date golden lager kit I just brewed has been discontinued.
I'll probably pick up a Yorkshire bitter kit and possibly a Geordie lager kit.
Not sure what the £16 wilko lager kit is and whether worth the extra £4 ???


I did say I wouldn't bother with beer but I'm buoyed by the success of the golden lager

 

[ClownPrince]

I'm going to get one of these wilko cerveza kits to try.
I've noticed the out of date golden lager kit I just brewed has been discontinued.
I'll probably pick up a Yorkshire bitter kit and possibly a Geordie lager kit.
Not sure what the £16 wilko lager kit is and whether worth the extra £4 ???


I did say I wouldn't bother with beer but I'm buoyed by the success of the golden lager

That Geordie Lager kit is pretty good actually.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I put one on yesterday added 1kg of light dme and 500gr suger and i will dry hop with 50gr of cascade, i only do a few kits over the winter when its to cold to brew outside