The Home Brew Shop, Di and Danny's Golden Ale Review

This was my third kit attempted, and confidence had taken a knock from the previous kit, so a few nerves had set in.

Absolutely no need for them at all, the kit was incredibly well behaved!

It's a two can all malt kit, with the usual pack of unnamed freeze dried yeast. The thing that got me interested in this, apart from the name of golden ale was that you got a small pack of vac packed hops in it. Until the day when I can convince the boss that I should get the equipment (and space) needed for AG, kits are the only option according to my good lady and this one enabled me to at least begin to experiment.

Not sure if this was a deliberate act or whether it was just a variation in the production of the concentrated wort in the cans, but one was lighter than the other. Further purchases of said kit (or validation by any of you good people on here) will confirm or deny this.

Production process was as standard, soften the wort, mix it in with the necessary water, so I won't go into detail here. The hops however, this was the new bit for me. For this kit, the producers recommend putting the hop bag into the FV as is with no rehydration. I have since got a different kit with a separate hop bag (Brupacks Colne Valley), and they offer some other options involving boiling approx 5 litres of diluted wort or adding the hops in the dispensing vessel. I'll be trying this approach with this kit in subsequent attempts and will report back accordingly.

With kit no 2, the trub was very, very loose and so when transferring to the dispensing barrel, it mixed up with the final gallon or so of beer and is still refusing to clear some 4 weeks later. So with this brew, I thought lets leave this as long as I can before transferring in case I transferred too early. This time it was in the FV for 10 days instead of a week like I left the last one. Due to a broken hydrometer when I made the initial brew (I now have a backup one!), I don't know the starting gravity, however the final was a steady 1012.

Shaking like a newborn babies rattle, I decided that it was time to transfer the beer, nerves jangling I started the transfer (with 85g of ordinary granulated sugar in the bottom of the barrel)... success, this time the trub stayed on the bottom of the FV and near enough 4.5 gallons of beer came syphoning off. The smell from the beer was amazing, definite hoppy aroma and not too heavy (two things that get big ticks from me), the colour of the beer was heading towards golden from a standard bitter, but not as much as I'd hoped

Not nearly as cloudy as others either (this was taken from the tap in the dispensing barrel rather than the clear top layer in the FV

She is now in the dispensing barrel, conditioning for at least 2 more weeks (been in for one so far). Further picture will be posted once I start drinking.

Just got this kit delivered today and will aim to sterilise my equipment this weekend! Looks a good kit and comes with done great reviews. I too was drawn to the idea of adding additional dried hops to the brew in what I believe is called dry hopping. My brother and brother in law have brewed very nice beers from the st peters range of kits but I'd thought I'd be a bit braver and experiment with additional hops as I love a good tongue tingling hoppy ale :) Good luck with the end result and future brews

Matt

And here is the beer after two weeks out in the garage, still tastes a bit young, so restricting myself to the odd sample, let her mature a wee bit longer


There's been absolutely no problems with this one at all, secondary fermentation has pressurised the keg up nicely and given some life to the beer. Incredibly happy with the brew so far, can tell the finished article is going to be well worth the wait!

looks ok, let me know what the final taste is as may order some when i get my next batch in.

It was fabulous, to be honest it didn't last long at all... after a further couple of weeks, those samples got more and more frequent so after 4 weeks in the garage it came inside to be drunk. My notes from the time say that it was a nice subtle hop aroma to the beer and it cleared with no problems at all (this was after 4 weeks in the garage). I've done another one since and that was equally good. Have got an Aldershot ale on the go at the moment.

cheers for the follow up.

sounds nice. may buy some after my sundew is done.

my coopers real ale has kegged and tasted lovely when it went in, finished around 5.3% vol which is good. waiting a further 3 wks before sampling.

my cervexa is also now bottled, finished around 5% also and tasted really good when i bottled it, fairly citrussy like corona. can;t wait to see how it finishes after 5-6 wks settling.

Started this brew last night, but while stirring the hop bag broke and now i have loose hops in the FV, Hopefully this wont harm the brew!

I have this in my fv as I type this looking forward to sampling this one :

Just finished bottling this after 10 days in FV. Interestingly I think they may have changed the instructions with the kit now as mine said to rehydrate the hops in boiling water (hop tea, I presume?) which filled the kitchen the that wonderful aroma (much to the disgust of she who must be obeyed!)

Anywho, tasted a sample while bottling and it is clear this is going to be a cracking pint, lots of hop aroma and was already getting clearer. Just trying to hold out for another 10 days now before cracking a bottle.

Wow! just wow, this is as good as any shop bought bottle I have ever tasted, cleared beautifully, lots of hoppy aroma, a nice amount but not too much in flavour, just balances out the malt perfectly. I would recommend anyone trying this one, for those who don't live close to the Aldershot Homebrew Shop, they will deliver.

I am going to struggle not to buy this kit every time I go in now!

Will upload a pic when I have permissions.