Experimental Wilkos Real Ale

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pms67

pms67

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Brewed my first ever Wilkos kit - the Real Ale for £12.50 seems a good price for 2 cans of liquid malt.
Added 400g of dextrose and half a tin of golden syrup.
Chucked straight into FV - 30g Cascade pellets
20g Amarillo leaf hops
20g East Kent Golding's leaf hops
5g pellets from Festival Elderflower Ale
Brewed to 21 litres and threw in the tiny 6g yeast,it's got a lot of work to do !
OG was 1054.
Will transfer to secondary after 10 days and possibly dry hop for a few days.
Haven't got a clue if this will work but after a few brews last night it seemed a great idea :thumb:
 
Hi - did you boil any of the hops at all, or add them dry at yeast pitching?

Sounds very interesting aroma-wise. Only slight downside is that a fair amount may get driven off during fermemtation and that might make you unpopular with any women in the house. :nono:
 
Slid said:
Hi - did you boil any of the hops at all, or add them dry at yeast pitching?

Sounds very interesting aroma-wise. Only slight downside is that a fair amount may get driven off during fermemtation and that might make you unpopular with any women in the house. :nono:
Click to expand...

Didn't boil any hops Slid,I've only ever done that once to a Coopers lager and it didn't turn out great to be honest,may have been the wrong hops though ?
My beers in the shed fermenting away:rofl: I tried the kitchen once and the smell was the main subject of discussion for a few days until it got kicked out.
I use a 25 watt £7.50 fish tank heater and wrap my fv in insulation,seems to work fine.
Cheers guys
 
Sorry,to answer your question properly I just chucked all the hops in then sprinkled in yeast and gave the lot a good stir.
Probably broke every rule there is as the premium kits tell you not to stir but hey ho it's done now and is bubbling away like mad since Sunday.
:pray:
 
Might be best to drink as early as it gets clear-ish, then.

I have a 15L stock pot from Wilko (£15) for experiments - like doing a hop tea for maybe 5-10mins boil with DME, to pander to the self delusion of actually brewing.

As you say, there is an element of not upsetting the birds in the house and choosing your moments for experiments.:-o

I was, though, so impressed by how good the Real Ale kit looks after not quite 4 weeks, that I picked up another today in the sale.
 
Slid said:
Might be best to drink as early as it gets clear-ish, then.

I have a 15L stock pot from Wilko (£15) for experiments - like doing a hop tea for maybe 5-10mins boil with DME, to pander to the self delusion of actually brewing.

As you say, there is an element of not upsetting the birds in the house and choosing your moments for experiments.:-o

I was, though, so impressed by how good the Real Ale kit looks after not quite 4 weeks, that I picked up another today in the sale.
Click to expand...

I have quite high hopes for this kit too,I tell a lie about only adding hops to hot water once, I once added 50g of East Kent Goldings to some grains I had steeping,I let grains steep for half hour and hops for about 10-15 mins then strained through a muslin bag,I added this to a Coopers International Draught and swapped the yeast (I have only done this twice),this kit turned out very good indeed,very clean and fresh taste ? Makes me wonder why I haven't done it again.
Cheers
 
Ok,for anyone interested,this went down to 1014 and was bottled 1 week ago,
A lot of sediment in bottles,more than usual and no signs of clearing yet.
It proves to me a 6g packet of yeast can munch through a lot of fermentables.
Will try a bottle as soon as cleared (I'm not one for conditioning for 1 month )
First ever Wilko kit so not sure what to expect.
Cheers
 
Sounds promising. Let us know how it turns out - I've been thinking about getting one of these kits and perhaps dry hopping with East Kent Golding.
 
Just bought one of these for the future seeing they still great value @ £12.75, plan to do it short to 20ltr with 500g of light spray malt and 250-500gr of brewing sugar, 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled with DME for 20 mins then 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled for last 10 minutes.
Cost to brew £17.38 cost per pint apx £0.51 per pint, any thoughts?
 
Smileyr8 said:
Just bought one of these for the future seeing they still great value @ £12.75, plan to do it short to 20ltr with 500g of light spray malt and 250-500gr of brewing sugar, 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled with DME for 20 mins then 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled for last 10 minutes.
Cost to brew £17.38 cost per pint apx £0.51 per pint, any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sounds good mate
Not used Columbus hops before,I'm halfway through my bottles and it's good although I think Slid mentioned the yeast isn't the most compact so care is neede when transporting/pouring.
51p per pint is as good a selling point as you will get :hat:
 
Smileyr8 said:
Just bought one of these for the future seeing they still great value @ £12.75, plan to do it short to 20ltr with 500g of light spray malt and 250-500gr of brewing sugar, 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled with DME for 20 mins then 7.5gr Columbus Hops Pellets + 7.5gr Cascade Hop Pellets boiled for last 10 minutes.
Cost to brew £17.38 cost per pint apx £0.51 per pint, any thoughts?
Click to expand...

It is also going to come our around 6.5%, depending on where abouts you ended up in the 250g - 500g sugar. Sounds a good option.
 
Slid said:
It is also going to come out around 6.5%, depending on where abouts you ended up in the 250g - 500g sugar. Sounds a good option.
Click to expand...

Slid am sure you know me well enough now to say yeh, that's him Barry Big Cahuna's, on the calculations via the fermentables spreadsheet, I get it at a session worthy 5.65% to 6.1% depending on the sugar.
 
Smileyr8 said:
Slid am sure you know me well enough now to say yeh, that's him Barry Big Cahuna's, on the calculations via the fermentables spreadsheet, I get it at a session worthy 5.65% to 6.1% depending on the sugar.
Click to expand...

Absolutely - and I do like the approach to homebrewing that:

Every brew should mean something.
Each and every one should be special.
Think carefully over each one.
What can be done slightly better.
None should be ordinary.
Ordinary beer is what you cook with.
 
Slid said:
Absolutely - and I do like the approach to homebrewing that:

Every brew should mean something.
Each and every one should be special.
Think carefully over each one.
What can be done slightly better.
None should be ordinary.
Ordinary beer is what you cook with.
Click to expand...

Thats the reason I keep records (no room in my head for all this any more) the way that I do in order to perfect things and achieve my goals, that way I can recreate at any stage or make minor tweaks if required, before moving on to perfect a different style.
 

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